BELL IS UNDER PRESSURE TO 'GO EASY' ON HELMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030098-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 98
• Publication Date: October 18, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030098-5
Bell Is Under Pressure ''
to `Co Easy' on Helms ~~~~~
By Jack Nelson
Los Angeles Times
When another VIP tugs at Attorney
General Griffin ~ B. Bell's sleeve at a
Washington cocktail party these days,
chances are it is more than just a
friendly greeting.
frequently it is an appeal to "go
easy" on Richard Helms, the former
Central Intelligence Agency director
who faces possible indictment ?on a
perjury charge for lying to a Senate
subcommittee.
The appeals come from journalists
as well as politicians, .from Democrats
as well as Republicans, and from such
political heavyweights as Averell Har-
riman, former New York governor
and top federal official in Democratic
administrations, and former Vice
President Nelson A. Rockefeller, an-
other former New York governor and
a leading Republican for decades.
But Bell, in a .lengthy interview,
said the almost constant pressure ap-
plied by members of the Washington
establishment in behalf of Helms will
not deter him from "doing my best to
vindicate the rule of law."
He said the Helms case is compli-
cated because of the foreign affairs
and national security implications,
however, and has been difficult to re-
solve.
Bell hopes to resolve the question
of prosecution in that matter and in
two other sensitive cases-FBI Bur-
glaries and South Korean government
influence-peddling among members of
Congress-before U.S. District Court ,
Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. becomes
FBI director early next year.
As establishment types are pressing
Bell on the Helms matter, ordinary
citizens are flooding him with mail in
an attempt to persuade him to lay off
the FBI.
"You wouldn't believe the reservoir
of goodwill among the American pub-
lic for the FBI," said Bell. "I get let-
ters from all over, and they don't
want FBI agents prosecuted."
Bell receives many letters from
friends who are contemporaries and
who served with the FBI during
.World War II, when some FBI break-
ins were justified officially on
grounds of national security. "But it
was a lot different then," said Bell.
"People just don't want to take that
into account. Most of them just want
to leave the FBI alone now."
As for the. Korean scandal, Bell
saki, there has been little pressure.
"Everyone just wants us to get that
one over with," he said. "Even the
President. They say, `For God's sakes,
finish it.' "
Bell pointed out that he inherited
all three of the sensitive cases from
the Ford administration and said the
investigations did not seem to be go-
ing anywhere fast when he took over
the Justice Department.
As he accelerated the investiga-
tions, the pressure in the Helms and
FBI cases increased.
Veteran senators and other political
figures who support Helms. began to
tell Bell that he did not "understand
the system."
"They would say, `You can't indict a
man who has had 35 years of public
service, ' "Bell said.
At a recent party, CBS commenta-
tor Eric Sevareid told him, "It would
be a shame if Helms is indicted." Bell
replied: "I can't talk about that."
Some prominent Washington
figures have been more public in
their support of Helms. Hugh Sidey,
Washington bureau chief of Time
Magazine, has passionately defended
Helms on television and in speeches.
William E. Simon, who served as
Treasury Secretary in the Nixon and
Ford administrations, recently stated
that a legal defe}~se f d,, ~tabliSl}ed
rot ~` ~-t~ ~~-ho -inir .>~r l ? .
aLo old provide tomq for HNasi`
legal defense if he were indicted.
RICHARD HELMS
...numerous VIP supporters
Bell, speaking at a Griffin Bell Day
ceremony in his hometown of Ameri-
cus, Ga., the other day, said the pre-
dicament he finds himself in concern-
ing the sensitive cases he inherited re-
minded him of a story he had told
President Carter, a story the Presi-
dent later related during a televised
press conference.
"It involved a man who was charged
with being drunk and setting a bed on
fire," Bell said. "When the judge
asked him to enter his plea, he said,
`I plead guilty to being drunk, but
the bed was on fire when I got into
it ~ ,>
Bell also joked about the many sto-
ries 'involving the cases that have
been leaked to the news media. He
told of a recent Cabinet meeting at
which he jokingly edmmented to Car-
ter that he had i16?~ingcto report be-
cause most of what he knew was se-
cret. The Attorney General quoted the
President as retorting:
"~iteah4_)e~~ead about your secrets ev-,
I~G4;A, the. -Helms case and the FBF
cases." '
Approved For Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030098-5