Bush Aide Denies Weinberger Pardon Is Under Consideration
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WASHINGTON — President Bush has not been pondering a possible pardon for former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger in the Iran-Contra affair, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Monday in denying published reports.
Weinberger is charged with perjury on grounds that he misled congressional investigators.
Fitzwater brushed aside newspaper reports that pressure was mounting among some Republicans for Bush to pardon Weinberger. “There haven’t been any meetings or discussions with the President about it,” Fitzwater said.
He also said he did not expect Bush to participate in any effort to have a special prosecutor investigate the timing on the announcement of Weinberger’s indictment, which came days before the presidential election.
During the Iran-Contra scandal, Bush was vice president and insisted that he was “out of the loop” on the details of the covert sale of arms to Iran and the illegal diversion of those funds to help U.S.-backed rebels in Nicaragua.
The newest charges against Weinberger included disclosure of notes of a meeting in which he wrote that Bush favored the arms-for-hostages deal.
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