Walsh’s Chutzpah
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Los Angeles Times called the former independent counsel in the Iran Contra probe of the Reagan administration to ask him about the decision of the special prosecutor who has put Judith Miller of the New York Times in prison. Judge Lawrence Walsh, now 93, claimed he never considered taking action against reporters. “I felt it was up to me and my associates to conduct our own investigation and not force a reporter to do it for us,” Walsh, a former federal judge, said. He said he learned this from Thomas Dewey.
Well, Judge Walsh holding himself up as some sort of paragon of prosecutorial discretion is astounding. He did as much as anyone to tarnish the very idea of an independent or special prosecutor. The Supreme Court tossed out Judge Walsh’s most famous convictions, those of Admiral John Poindexter and Colonel Oliver North. Another of our checks and balances – the presidential pardon — voided two of Judge Walsh’s other blunders, his case against Elliott Abrams and Secretary of Defense Weinberger.
