(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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Elliott Abrams Admits His Guilt On 2 Counts in Contra Cover-Up [1]
['David Johnston']
Date: 1991-10-08
In large part, the timing of the charges appeared to be driven by the five-year statute of limitations, which expires this month for improprieties related to misleading Congress in the fall of 1986.
One of Mr. Abrams's Congressional appearances was on Oct. 10, 1986, which meant that the accusations against him were filed just four days before the statute of limitations would have lapsed. The other appearance was on Oct. 14, 1986.
After the hearing, Craig A. Gillen, the associate prosecutor in charge of the case, said the pleas by Mr. Abrams were an important advance in the investigation.
Like last month's indictment of Clair E. George, who formerly headed covert operations at the C.I.A. during the affair, the legal action against Mr. Abrams appeared to arise in part from the testimony of Mr. Fiers , who pleaded guilty earlier this year to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress and has been cooperating with Mr. Walsh and his staff.
These prosecutions have come as the conviction against Mr. North collapsed because of adverse appellate court rulings. The rulings forced prosecutors to return to the trial judge to show that witnesses against Mr. North were unaffected by his testimony to the Iran-contra Congressional investigating committees under a grant of immunity from prosecution. Last month, Mr. Walsh abandoned the North case after a hearing in which one prosecution witness, Robert C. McFarlane, the former national security adviser, said he was deeply influenced by watching Mr. North's immunized testimony.
Prosecutors have centered their recent efforts on what Mr. Walsh has described as a cover-up of the affair by senior officials at Government entities outside the White House, like the C.I.A. and the State Department. In recent months, the investigation has mainly focused on the intelligence agency.
Prosecutors said in legal papers today that Mr. Abrams frequently discussed highly sensitive issues with Mr. North and Mr. Fiers, the two other principal members of the Restricted Interagency Group, and it was in this role that prosecutors suggested that Mr. Abrams became familiar with with efforts to aid the rebels despite the Congressional ban.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/08/us/elliott-abrams-admits-his-guilt-on-2-counts-in-contra-cover-up.html
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