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Cover-Up as Evidence: Fawn Hall, the Shredder, and What Got Left Behind
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
When Fawn Hall's shredder jammed in November 1986, the fragments it left behind became the evidence that unravelled the Iran-Contra scandal. This episode traces the two illegal schemes Oliver North ran from the White House basement — and how the cover-up itself became the proof of guilt.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A shredder that jams isn't evidence of anything, on its own. Office equipment fails all the time.
To understand how a jammed shredder could bring down senior officials and nearly consume a presidency, you need to understand what was actually happening in the basement of the National Security Council. The Reagan administration was running two parallel illegal schemes simultaneously, and they were linked.
The man running all of this wasn't a cabinet secretary or an elected official. He was a Marine lieutenant colonel named Oliver North, working as an NSC staffer.
North's secretary was a twenty-seven-year-old named Fawn Hall. She was not a senior official.
Before the congressional hearings began, President Reagan moved to get ahead of the investigation. He established a special review board in November of nineteen eighty-six, what became known as the Tower Commission, named for its chairman, former Senator John Tower.
The congressional hearings on Iran-Contra ran through the summer of nineteen eighty-seven. They were televised.
Reagan's response to the investigation rested on two claims. First, that he hadn't known about the diversion of funds to the Contras.
Oliver North was convicted in nineteen eighty-nine on three felony counts: aiding and abetting obstruction of Congress, destroying documents, and accepting an illegal gratuity. That last one related to a security fence installed at his home.
Watergate is the standard to which Iran-Contra gets compared. Watergate brought down a president.
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