Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 20, 1990                   TAG: 9003202314
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

POINDEXTER MISTRIAL BID DENIED

The information in the reference was "not new at all," said the judge in Poindexter's Iran-Contra trial.

With Rep. Lee Hamilton on the witness stand, prosecutor Dan Webb asked about a document, signed by then-President Reagan, indicating missiles had been sent to Iran in 1985 to try to win the release of Americans held in Lebanon.

Had Poindexter ever reported destroying the document? Webb asked.

"He did," Hamilton said in front of the jury.

The congressman, co-chairman of a special congressional committee that investigated the Iran-Contra affair, was referring to Poindexter's July 1987 testimony to the committee, during which he said he tore up the document.

No part of the case against Reagan's national security adviser may be derived from his testimony to Congress.

As soon as Hamilton answered the question on Monday, another prosecutor, Howard Pearl, stood up and Webb quickly said "I see the problem."

Webb rephrased the question, but Poindexter lawyer Richard Beckler later asked for a mistrial, saying that Hamilton had specifically been instructed not to refer to Poindexter's immunized testimony.

U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene denied the motion, saying that Oliver North testified last week that he watched Poindexter tear up the finding.

Greene said Hamilton's testimony was "cumulative rather than harmful."

Beckler suggested the jury might not find North's testimony credible. But Greene also noted that "both the government and the defense referred to tearing up of the finding" in their opening statements to the jury.

"And you have great credibility," Greene told Beckler.

The information about tearing up the finding "is not new at all," Greene concluded.

In November 1986, Hamilton had been chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that met with Poindexter to discuss U.S. arms sales to Iran.

The congressman said the national security adviser made no mention of a U.S. role in the November 1985 shipment of Hawk missiles to Iran. The CIA-assisted delivery was authorized by the Reagan "finding" that Poindexter destroyed hours after testifying before the committees.

Webb asked Hamilton, "Do you recall whether Admiral Poindexter said he could reveal all the facts?"

"Admiral Poindexter said . . . President Reagan wanted to tell the full story," replied Hamilton.

Poindexter told the Intelligence Committee members that the U.S. government didn't learn until January 1986 of the missile shipment.