North Asked Meese to Put Off Initial Inquiry: Aide

WASHINGTON — Robert Earl, a former aide to Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, told congressional investigators that he helped North destroy documents crucial to the Iran- contra affair and that North told him as the affair unraveled that he had asked Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to delay his investigation, according to testimony released today.

Four days before the affair became public last Nov. 25, Earl said, he helped North sort through documents in their office next door to the White House. Earl said he himself ripped up or shredded papers.

He said it was “a little unclear to me what exactly to look for, so I erred on the side of destruction.”

Two Officers Quizzed

The testimony of Earl, a Marine lieutenant colonel, and of Coast Guard Cmdr. Craig Coy, who also worked in the same office, was released today by investigators, with portions blacked out for security reasons. He testified in private last May.

The two were interviewed on several occasions by committee investigators, and were asked in particular about what went on in North’s office as the affair unraveled last November.

Earl testified that North told him on Friday, Nov. 21, that North had learned Justice Department officials wanted to come to their office to inquire about what was going on.

“He mentioned that he had asked . . . the attorney general ‘Can I have’ or ‘Will I have 24 or 48 hours,’ ” Earl said.

“And he told me the attorney general had said something like he didn’t know whether he could have that much time.”

Confronted on Diversion

In other testimony, Earl:

--Described discussing with North on Monday, Nov. 24, North’s interview with Meese the day before in which the national security aide was confronted with a memo revealing the diversion of Iran arms sale profits to the contras.

He said North, after answering Meese’s questions, noted that he had not been read his Miranda rights against self-incrimination. “Since you didn’t mention my rights or warn me of my rights, does this count?” he quoted North as saying to Meese.

--Said North told him before leaving on a trip to Tehran in April, 1986, or on some other trip, “if he didn’t come back from one of those trips that I was to destroy the contents of the bottom drawer” in North’s safe.

--Said that in April or May of 1986, when North first brought him into the Iran arms deal plans, he told Earl that some of the money was being diverted to aid the contra rebels in Nicaragua. He testified he helped North mark up the prices for one arms shipment to 3.7 times their actual cost.

--Said that North’s secretary Fawn Hall came to Earl after North’s firing and urged him to remove documents from their office. But she later came back to retrieve them, saying “she couldn’t have me do that,” and concealed them in her own clothing instead for removal from the office.

“She asked if I could see anything. I think she did a turn, and I couldn’t see anything,” he said.

Coy, in his testimony, said North appeared startled and upset after learning the President had fired him on Nov. 25.

“Ollie said he was sorry it had to end this way and didn’t mean for it to end this way, didn’t think it would end this way,” Coy said in his sworn deposition taken last June 1.

“I remember him kind of banging his head on the banister and thinking it was too bad all this had to happen,” Coy said.