Reagan Now Says He May Issue Pardons

WASHINGTON — President Reagan, whose intentions have long been the subject of speculation, today muddied the waters on whether pardons eventually may be in store for two ex-aides at the center of the Iran-Contra scandal.

During a ceremony honoring Lord Peter Carrington, the outgoing secretary general of NATO, Reagan replied with a firm “no” when asked by a reporter whether he ruled out pardons in comments he made Monday to columnist Carl Rowan.

That terse answer contrasted to his statement Monday to Rowan that pardons for former aides John M. Poindexter and Oliver L. North cannot be considered at least “until this case has been closed, whichever way it’s going to go.”

White House officials refused to deal with the contradiction.

“You’ve got a yes and a no,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters, “which means no definitive decision has been made.”

During a lunchtime interview Monday with Rowan, Reagan tipped his hand for the first time on the issue, in saying, “To pardon somebody before trial leaves a sense of guilt around them, a cloud of guilt, for the rest of time.”

Transcript Released

A transcript released today by the White House shows Reagan went on to tell Rowan that the pardons issue “is something that I don’t have to face,” reflecting his expectation the Poindexter and North trials will not conclude until after he leaves office next Jan. 20.

White House officials were caught off-guard by the statement by Reagan and at first insisted that the issue remained an open one. Today, however, Fitzwater said that although “there has not been a definitive decision made on pardons,” Reagan’s words appeared to speak for themselves.

Reagan and his aides for months had carefully sidestepped questions about any pardons for Poindexter, the retired Navy rear admiral and former national security adviser, and North, the retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former National Security Council staffer.

Conservatives have urged the President to pardon the two. The Rev. Jerry Falwell claims to have about 600,000 signatures on petitions urging a reprieve for North on grounds he was acting in pursuit of Reagan’s policies. North was the commencement speaker recently at Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., school run by Falwell.

The President predicted on March 25 that Poindexter and North “are going to be found innocent, because I don’t think they are guilty of any law-breaking or any crime” and said of the worst crisis of his presidency: “I find it hard to think of scandal in connection with it.”