North Won’t Plead Guilty to Anything

WASHINGTON —  Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, in his first public comment since invoking the Fifth Amendment at a hearing on the contra aid fund-raising scheme, said Saturday: “This Marine is never going to plead guilty to anything, ever.”

The remarks by the dismissed White House aide, broadcast on the CBS Evening News, were made as he walked the grounds of the Virginia Gold Cup Races in The Plains, Va.

North was named a co-conspirator last week by fund-raiser Carl R. (Spitz) Channell, who became the first person convicted in the Iran-contra scandal.

Channell pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to defraud the government by soliciting contributions for military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels under cover of a tax-exempt charitable foundation.

Channell said he conspired with North and “others known and unknown” in a scheme to give the contras “non-humanitarian aid” with tax-deductible donations.

In his first public statement since Channell pleaded guilty, North defended his actions and said: “I have no way of imagining what kind of pressures there might have been that were brought to bear on Mr. Channell that made that kind of a plea advisable.

“But I can tell you this. Everything that I did was done in the best interests of the United States of America and this Marine is never going to plead guilty to anything, ever.”