Wisest Path in the Scandal Is Immunity, Not Pardons

Whatever his motives, President Reagan was dead right last week when he implored Congress to give limited immunity now to John M. Poindexter and Oliver L. North. In fact, the sooner that immunity is granted in this case and that Poindexter and North testify before Congress and on national television, the better.

Only Poindexter and North can definitively answer the question that has transformed the flap over the sales of arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan contras into a Watergate-sized scandal. The question: Did the President know about the transfer of money to the contras? If they testify that he knew, Reagan may be guilty of illegal conduct and may be forced to resign from office.

But Reagan insists that he knew nothing about the diversion, and there is no evidence he did. Buttressing the President, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III told the House Intelligence Committee that North assured him last month that Reagan had not been informed. Still, the word of Reagan and Meese is insufficient. The public remains unconvinced, prompting Reagan to complain that he is beloved but not believed.

This is a funny quip about a critical situation. Reagan talks about a fresh domestic agenda and foreign-policy break-throughs, but the truth is that his presidency is paralyzed. New policy initiatives (budget reform, a revised arms-control proposal, etc.) are withering for lack of attention. So long as a question about Reagan’s possible involvement in illegal activity goes unanswered, so long as its truthfulness is in doubt, he simply cannot function effectively as the President. Public trust of national leaders is crucial in a democracy. In Reagan’s case it is all the more important, because the gift of persuading the public is his greatest political asset.

That gift was the scandal’s first casualty. Worse yet, Reagan has become personally obsessed with the controversy. Talk to anyone in the Administration who has dealt recently with him, and you hear tales of a dejected President, aging rapidly, who can’t figure out how to shake the scandal.

But there is a way, or at least there is a way to separate the President from the scandal and to allow him to get back to the task of developing an agenda for his final two years in office.

That way is limited immunity for Poindexter and North, who have refused on Fifth Amendment grounds to testify without it. Were it granted today, the two former officials of the National Security Council would be able to testify, under oath, before a congressional committee a month from now. My assumption is that Poindexter and North would testify that Reagan knew nothing about the diversion. Thus in January, at the latest, Reagan could resume his normal presidential duties while the probe of possible wrongdoing by others continues. But if Poindexter and North aren’t given immunity until the Senate and House select committees are ready for public hearings, their testimony will be needlessly delayed for months.

Rather than immunity, House Speaker-elect Jim Wright (D-Tex.) says that Poindexter and North should be given presidential pardons. For now, the White House has ruled out a pardon.

But it would not work anyway, for two reasons. First, it would touch off a political explosion much as President Gerald R. Ford’s pardon of former President Richard M. Nixon did in 1974. Second, no one would believe Poindexter and North if they vindicated the President in such circumstances. The public would conclude that Reagan did them a favor and that they were doing him one in return. Nor would it do any good for Reagan to call Poindexter and North to the Oval Office for private interrogation, as Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) has suggested. The public wants their testimony, not an account by Reagan of what they told him. Besides, Reagan would look awfully foolish if he emerged from a session with them to announce that they had assured him that he didn’t know a thing.

True, there is a potential problem with limited immunity. It wouldn’t bar the new independent counsel, Lawrence Walsh, from mounting an investigation of Poindexter and North and prosecuting them. But it would prevent him from using against them anything that they said in congressional testimony. The jeopardy that this poses for criminal cases against Poindexter and North is tiny. They have been under investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI for more than a month now. And if immunity were given immediately, Walsh would still have 30 days to amass more evidence on Poindexter and North before they actually testified. That’s enough time.

The worst that could happen is that the prosecution of the two men would have to be abandoned. But, compared to the certainty of months and months of a crippled presidency, losing the cases against Poindexter and North because they got limited immunity now would be a small price to pay.