Conspiracies to commit high crimes always involve layers of law-breaking and secrecy; what we never know is what will come out and when.
If you aren’t planning to watch the January 6th Select Committee’s hearings, which start tonight at 8:00pm EST, because you think all the news they may generate has already been leaked, digested and regurgitated, let me share a little story about how politics can surprise you.
In the fall of 1986, I was a young editorial staffer at The Nation magazine, an outpost of left-wing dissent at the height of the Reagan years in America. Reagan’s 1980 election defeat of President Jimmy Carter heralded the ascension of what was then called The New Right, and his landslide re-election victory over Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 had cemented his popularity. But by the midterms of 1986, the wheels were starting to come off his presidency, culminating in a huge scandal now known as “Iran-contra.”
Back then we didn’t know much about the inner machinations of the Reagan White House, other than the fact that the Administration was fiercely committed to helping the counter-revolutionary militias fighting to overthrow the left-wing Sandinista regime in Nicaragua despite laws passed by Democrats in Congress prevent the CIA from arming them for that purpose.
Then came two surprises. The first happened in October, when a private cargo plane carrying tons of weapons for the contras was shot down over Nicaragua and its sole survivor, a man named Eugene Hasenfus, admitted that he had CIA connections. Documents found on the other men killed when the plane crashed connected them to White House aide Oliver North. The cat was out of the bag.
Then, a few weeks later, an obscure Lebanese magazine reported that the United States was selling weapons to Iran in order to obtain the release of American hostages. Not only was this a violation of an American weapons embargo of the Khoumeni regime, it also obliterated the White House’s claim that it wouldn’t negotiate with terrorists. Congress erupted. Ten days later, President Reagan went on national TV to admit that indeed, he had authorized the weapons-for-hostages deal, claiming that he was seeking a fresh start to US-Iran relations.
Then came the second surprise, which still boggles the mind today. As Congress demanded more information on the Iran weapons deal, Oliver North was busy destroying key documents and getting his secretary, Fawn Hall, to secrete others in her blouse to take them out of the White House. Reagan asked Attorney General Ed Meese to investigate (or, as many observers have later speculated, to staunch the bleeding and insure that the real scandal — that top government leaders had broken several laws). Which led to a stunning disclosure by Meese: not only had we sold weapons to Iran, with the help of our ally Israel, millions of dollars from those sales were illegally diverted to the contras.
I remember sitting in The Nation magazine’s conference room, where most of the staff was jammed together watching the one office TV, as Meese gave his report. As he slowly explained how “certain monies which were received in the transaction between representatives of Israel and Iran were then taken and made available to the …” I blurted out to the room, “to the contras.” Seconds later, he confirmed my absurd hunch. The room exploded with disbelieving laughter. And yet it was true. Reagan and his colleagues were so ideologically committed to the contras (who he once called the “equivalent of the Founding Fathers”) that they willfully ignored multiple laws.
The Iran-contra scandal knocked Reagan off his pedestal in public opinion, with his approval rating dropping 67% to 46% that month. Several top White House officials faced conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice charges, but despite losing their jobs avoided prison, mostly thanks to pardons from George H.W. Bush when he became president after Reagan. Neither Bush nor Reagan’s role in the scandal was ever fully revealed, but questions dogged Bush throughout his tenure.
The point of the story is that when high officials conspire to commit high crimes, there’s always more to the story than we know. And sometimes big truths come out. There are many unanswered questions about the conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election to keep President Trump in power. Why did it take the National Guard so long to be deployed to protect Congress? Why did Vice President Mike Pence refuse his Secret Service details efforts to whisk him away from the building while it was under assualt? Why did his chief of staff reportedly tell the Secret Service that he feared threats to Pence once it became clear he was refusing Trump’s demand that he overturn the Electoral College result? What will Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows who has given more than 20 hours of testimony to the commission, say about his role in the conspiracy?
You could wait for the highlight reel. Or you could do your part as a self-respecting citizen of what is still, for now, a democratic republic, and pay attention.