Frustrated Walsh Moves to Dismiss North’s Conspiracy, Theft Charges

WASHINGTON —  Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, citing “difficult classified information problems,” moved today to dismiss the two central charges against fired National Security Council aide Oliver L. North in the Iran-Contra case.

Walsh said he sought to dismiss the conspiracy and theft charges because of North’s insistence on disclosing large amounts of secret information and the Reagan Administration’s refusal to declassify many documents.

Dismissal of the criminal conspiracy charges would make it unlikely that the full story of the scandal, which is still not known, would come out at North’s trial, which is set to begin Jan. 31.

In resisting North’s disclosure request, intelligence officials have cited concerns over national security.

“Efforts to simplify the charges have not eliminated the risk that a quantity of classified national security information would be compromised by a public trial” on the conspiracy and theft charges, Walsh said in the brief motion.

Dozens of Charges Remain

If U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell approves Walsh’s motion, there still would be a dozen criminal charges remaining against North, including obstruction of Congress in 1985 and 1986, and concealing and destroying documents in connection with a 1986 inquiry into the affair by then-Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III. North also is charged with converting travelers’ checks to his own use and accepting a free security system installed at his home.

He faces up to 60 years in prison and a $3-million fine if convicted on those charges.

Walsh’s move came a day after he met with Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh to discuss the continuing problems posed by classified documents both sides want to use in the case.

It was at that meeting that Walsh told the attorney general he planned to seek dismissal of the two charges, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The White House, facing a new round of lobbying for a presidential pardon for North, had no immediate comment.

The conspiracy and theft of government property charges were the main counts against North in the case accusing him of selling missiles to Iran and diverting some of the profits from those sales to the Nicaraguan Contras.

In the initial indictment, former national security adviser John M. Poindexter and middlemen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim were named in these two counts. Their trials were severed from North’s and have not been scheduled yet and today’s motion will likely result in dismissal of the same charges against Poindexter, Hakim and Secord.