Noriega Transcripts Cite Campaign Ties : Trial: Judge and lawyers secretly discussed CIA, Medellin cartel funding in the 1984 Panamanian presidential race.

The CIA and the Medellin cocaine cartel helped finance the successful 1984 campaign of a former Panamanian president, according to transcripts released in Manuel A. Noriega’s drug trafficking trial.

The judge and attorneys discussed the issue earlier in the trial during closed-door conferences. Transcripts of those sessions are censored by the U.S. Justice Department security office before becoming public.

CIA spokesman Peter Earnest said Friday that he had no comment on the agency’s involvement in the Panamanian election.

The issue of CIA support for President Nicholas Ardito Barletta’s campaign arose when prosecutors questioned Medellin cartel-connected businessmen about a $100,000 contribution to the candidate. Prosecutors sought to show that cartel traffickers made the contribution because Noriega had decided to back Barletta.

Barletta was a World Bank vice president before he was elected president of Panama in 1984. He was deposed by Noriega in 1985.

Noriega’s attorney Frank A. Rubino said if prosecutor Myles Malman attempted to tie the cartel to Barletta’s campaign, then the defense should have the right to show U.S. and CIA involvement.

“Be careful, Myles. Barletta was supported by the CIA, and you know it. He was a United States government candidate and backed financially by CIA funds or money to his election,” Rubino said.

“They are not charged in this indictment,” Malman replied.

Rubino also said that documents released under the Classified Information Procedures Act showed that Noriega’s switch from another candidate to Barletta “occurred at the request of the United States.”

“There were campaign contributions--strike ‘contributions’--campaign funding, if you will, that flowed from the United States via the CIA,” Rubino said.

Prosecutors said the CIA contributions were not public and therefore are irrelevant because witnesses had no knowledge of them. U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler agreed, and the U.S. and CIA support was not raised before the jury.

The closed-door conferences occurred earlier in the trial during the testimony of Panamanian businessmen Ricardo Tribaldos and Jaime Castillo. They said they were working for the cartel in Panama to ship cocaine refining chemicals to Colombian drug labs. Tribaldos said a briefcase containing $100,000 in cash was given to Barletta at a fund-raiser in late 1983. Barletta has denied any involvement with the cartel.

Noriega’s trial is expected to go to the jury as early as next week. The ousted Panamanian leader faces up to 160 years in prison if convicted of all 10 drug and racketeering counts.