Whereas Nixon had Watergate,
Ronald Reagan had Iran-Contra -- a catch-all term for a
wide assortment of crimes against the state, involving violation of federal law (the
so-called Boland Amendment), perjury, and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.
Total number of officials convicted, indicted, subject to criminal investigations:
138 In terms of the numbers of top officials indicted, the worst record in American history.
Six of the most high-profile Iran-Contra indictments and convictions were aborted when
outgoing George H.W. Bush issued his sweeping Christmas Eve pardons in 1992.
Among the more celebrated Iran-Contra cases:
National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane guilty of withholding information to Congress,
fined, two years' probation, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by George H.W. Bush.
Lt. Col. Oliver North convicted on three criminal counts, fined, suspended sentence, set
aside on technicality.
National Security Adviser John Poindexter convicted on five criminal counts, sentenced
to six months imprisonment, set aside on technicality.
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, indicted on five counts for lying to Congress,
pardoned on Christmas Eve, 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
C.I.A.'s Clair E. George indicted for perjury, mistrial, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by
outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state, guilty of withholding information, pardoned
on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Duane R. Clarridge, C.I.A., indicted for misleading Congress, pardoned on Christmas Eve
1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Alan D. Fiers, C.I.A., plead guilty to charge of withholding information from Congress,
pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
But Iran-Contra, like Watergate, was only a symptom of the criminality rampant in the
Reagan White House.
In addition, there were the cases of:
-- Lyn Nofziger, top White House advisor, convicted on charges of illegal lobbying.
-- Michael Deaver, top White House advisor, convicted on charges of illegal lobbying,
lying to Congress, fined one hundred thousand dollars and given three years probation.
Then there were these additional major scandals:
-- The Pentagon Procurement Scandal
-- The H.U.D. Scandals, involving massive fraud and losses of billions of dollars to
taxpayers, unearthed only when Reagan left office.
-- The E.P.A. Scandals. E.P.A. Director Anne Gorscuh Burford resigned amid accusations
she politically manipulated the Superfund money. Her appointee, Rita Lavelle, fired
after accusing a senior EPA official of "systematically alienating the business
community." Lavelle later indicted, tried and convicted of lying to Congress and served
three months of a six-month prison sentence.
Quite a collection of convicts, jailbirds, and grateful pardonees, isn't it?
All part of the ignoble chronicle we commemorate on G.O.P. History Day.
Oh, and what about the Clinton-Gore Administration? The administration that one
right-wing madman and liar, David Horowitz, once called "the most criminal, most
corrupt, most cynical administration" of them all?
Well, in the Clinton-Gore years exactly no -- as in zero, zilch, nada -- top federal
officials were convicted of any wrongdoing connected to their White House duties.
Webster Hubbell, assistant Attorney-General, was convicted of embezzling funds from
the Little Rock Rose Law Firm, a crime that predated his coming to government and that
involved the defrauding of the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was brought up on charges of corruption, but found
innocent on all counts, after which the presiding judge admonished the prosecutors for
bringing forward such a frivolous case.
(Espy's chief of staff was convicted of not telling the truth about details in the case
where Espy was acquitted. And Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry
Cisneros was convicted for giving false information to the F.B.I. about the size of
payments given to a former mistress. Less than Nixonian or Reaganesque offenses, by
any accounting.)
Resulting from illegalities around a campaign event in 1996, two mid-level Democratic
campaign officials were found guilty of violations of federal election laws.
Oh yes -- and President Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in a
hard-line partisan proceeding following a perjury trap set up by the Office of the
Independent Counsel -- but acquitted by a large margin in the Senate.
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