The Nation - News from Jan. 9, 1989

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said the Reagan Administration’s decision not to release certain classified documents in Oliver L. North’s Iran-Contra case was not an attempt to thwart independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh. Before moving to drop two key charges against North, Walsh assured the attorney general that he had been dealt with “in good faith” and had gotten “full cooperation from the intelligence community,” Thornburgh said on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley.” Thornburgh acknowledged that Administration officials knew their refusal to release classified documents would have an “eroding effect” on prosecutions in the case. But Thornburgh described the decision by Walsh to seek dismissal of the charges as “a balancing process” that weighed the evidence against national security concerns. “It’s a question of judgment,” he said.