Iran-Contra Pardons Urged, Sources Report

Some senior Republicans and White House aides, including Vice President Dan Quayle, are advising President Bush to consider presidential pardons for Iran-Contra defendants, starting with former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, according to White House and GOP sources.

The sources said no formal recommendation has been made to Bush, but some of his aides have raised the possibility informally. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said he had heard no discussion of such a move.

Bush is said by close aides to believe that the announcement four days before Tuesday’s election of a revised indictment of Weinberger and the release of Weinberger’s notes from the Iran-Contra era eliminated any chance he might have had of catching Democrat Bill Clinton.

The President also is said to believe that Weinberger is “an innocent victim of (Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence E.) Walsh’s drive to get (Bush) and that it is a travesty overall,” according to one of Bush’s associates.

Aides to Quayle said Friday that his conversations with Bush are private and they did not know whether he directly suggested to the President that Weinberger and others be pardoned before Bush leaves office.

Weinberger’s trial on five counts of perjury before Congress and false statements to prosecutors is scheduled to begin Jan. 5.

Both Bush and Quayle publicly expressed anger and frustration over the re-indictment of Weinberger and the release of a 1986 note written by Weinberger that contradicted Bush’s account of his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

The note said that Bush, as vice president, supported the arms-for-hostages deal during a critical White House meeting in which several top aides, including Weinberger, opposed it. Bush has said he did not realize that a direct deal, in which arms were sold to Iran in exchange for Iranian help in freeing hostages held in Lebanon, was occurring until many months later, and that he did not realize the extent of the opposition to it.

Walsh has heard the pardon rumors but “can’t do anything about them,” according to sources close to the Iran-Contra prosecution. Robert S. Bennett, Weinberger’s attorney, said earlier this week that he was unaware of any such move being in the works.

A presidential pardon would not prevent Walsh from filing a report on the findings of his investigation.