In His Own Writ

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Just when it was widely expected that the Iran-contra independent prosecutor was about to shut down, Lawrence Walsh unveiled a five-count felony indictment of former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, the highest official yet charged in the scandal. In a hastily called Washington press conference, Walsh aide Craig Gillen charged that Weinberger obstructed justice by concealing more than 1,700 pages of personal notes and committed perjury by denying knowledge of the 1985 arms sales to Iran. Weinberger, the prosecutor charged, knew of the sales, was aware they were illegal and later denied this in sworn testimony. Each felony count carries a possible prison term of five years.

Weinberger, who opposed the arms-for-hostages deal from the first, called the charges "a grotesque distortion of the prosecutorial power." He suggested that Walsh had acted out of spite over Weinberger's refusal to cop a plea in exchange for evidence against Ronald Reagan.