REWALD WON'T TESTIFY AFTER ALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00494R001100710171-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 171
• Publication Date: October 9, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710171-9
The donolulu Advertiser
Aloha!
Today is Wednesday,
Oct. 9, 1985
Rewald won't testify,
after all
I Changes mind after rebuff
on bid to reveal CIA secrets
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Write?
Ronald Rewald will not testi-
fy in his own defense, court
records filed yesterday indicate.
U.S. District Court Judge
Harold Fong yesterday rejected
Rewald's last-minute request to
reveal CIA secrets the court
has ruled irrelevant.
Rewald had said that if Fong
wouldn't let him use the se-
crets, he would not testify..
Rewald might change his
mind, but it's 99 percent certain
he won't take the stand now,
defense attorney Brian
Tamanaha said last night.
Rewald said he didn't intend
to disclose CIA agents' actual
names, or other information
that would endanger national
security.
But Judge Fong said he was
"unpersuaded by defendant's
extortionate reasoning."
"For the defendant to claim
that he needs to disclose all of See Rewald on
testify as to whatever matters
he wishes, regardless of their
relevance to the issues in this
case. The court does not read
the classified information to
which he has become privy
indicates his desire to defend
by graymail," Judge Fong said
in a five-page order.
"Graymail" is the attempt to
raise a defense that uses classi-
fied information, hoping the
government will drop the case
rather than reveal national se-
crets.
"It is well settled that a
criminal defendant's right to
testify on his own behalf is not
without limits," said Fong, who
has admitted hundreds of
classified documents into the
trial record so far.
Rewald, the court said, "be-
lieves that because he is on
trial, the Constitution guaran-
tees him an unfettered right to
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from page one
the Sixth Amendment so broad-
ly."
Rewald's dramatic move, and
the judge's resounding re-
sponse, points up the fact that
a major part of the Rewald case
was handled by the judge be-
hind closed doors long before
the jury was selected. under
the Classified Information
Procedures Act.
For months before trial.
Judge Fong held closed-door
hearings on supposedly classi-
fied or classifiable information,
allowing both Rewald and the
prosecution to argue for the
admission or exclusion of parts
of it as evidence in the case.
The purpose of those hear-
ings, the judge said, was to.
allow the prosecutors to deter,
mine If the harm resulting from
disclosure of evidence ruled to
be relevant, even though, it is
classified, would be so great
that the government 'would
drop its case rather than let the
information out.
Judge Fong held that CIA
information was relevant to the
case if it tended to show CIA
authorization or control of the
expenditure of funds through
Rewald's company, Bishop
Baldwin Rewald Dillingham &
Wong.
Rewald admits receiving
investor money through the
company under false pretenses.
but claims he did so only under
CIA authorization to maintain
.his cover as a wealthy busi-
nessman.
The CIA admits it did use
Bishop Baldwin and three ficti-
tious companies within its walls
as cover for some operatives.
mainly to provide a "backstop"
to handle inquiries about CIA
operatives traveling under busi-
ness cover.
The CIA reimbursed Bishop
Baldwin about $2,900 for telex,
telephone and stationery ex-
penses, but denies knowledge,
approval or involvement in the
alleged defrauding of about 400
investors of more than $20 mil-
lion.
Rewald asked specifically to
be allowed to testify about the
entirety of his 53-page "confi-
dential affidavit" in which he
sets out his version of his con-
nection to the CIA.
The judge had allowed only
those parts of the affidavit for
which Rewald is charged with
perjury - basically his claims
that the CIA set up and ran
Bishop Baldwin.
Rewald also asked the court
to reconsider hundreds of pages
of other court orders barring
introduction of or reference to
many of the events, names and
documents set forth in the
confidential affidavit.
To try Rewald without let-
ting him tell his whole story.
federal public defender Michael
Levine argued, would be
"inherently unfair."
It is, the lawyer said. "as if
you asked someone to recite
the alphabet to prove that he
knows it.'And he says, 'Sure, I
know it A, Q, T and Z.' You'd
laugh at hiin. Rewald has to be
kble to recite The entire alpha-
bet. He can't be told that he
can only refer,.to certain let-
ters."
Otherwise, Levine said, Re-
wald is "compelled to give the
jury misleading, incomplete,
inadequate and unsubstantiated
testimony."
Rewald's decision not to testi-
fy overshadowed one of the de-
fense's best days in the 10-
week-old trial, as Tamanaha
drew extensive documentation
on Rewald's CIA connection
from Jack Rardin, former chief
of the CIA's domestic collection
division office here.
When Rewald warned 'in
November 1982 that an IRS
investigation of him might ex-
pose the CIA cover companies.
Rardin said, the CIA sent Re-
wald three alternative "cover
stories" that Rewald could give
his accountant.
One cover story was that Re-
wald did not file tax returns for
the companies because he did-
n't know what transactions
they had and assumed that for-
eign clients who really owned
the companies took care of tax
filings. In fact, the CIA memo
added. "no such filings have
been made" for the cover
companies.
The cover stories were the
kind of tale "used to protect an
ongoing operation from pene-
tration by a hostile group such
'as the KGB," Rardin said..-- --
The CIA was reacting in part
to Rewald's own claims t0 Rar-
din that the CIA money he was
handling was not all coming
through Rardin's Honolulu of-
fices to pay for telex and tele-
phone bills in the light cover
companies.
Rardin said Rewaid ciaimitd
that CIA funds "also-came
through Foreign, Resources
Division officers and other per-
sonnel introduced to him."
And Rewald told Rardin he
was sent some Money "for
passing funds to individuals in
the Middle East, Argentina,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia.
California and Hawaii," a cable
written by Rardin says. Ir
Rardin, now retired from the
CIA, said he had no knowledge.,
of such funding but reported at
the time he had "no reason to
doubt subject's veracity. Sub-
ject. who is a shared source
with Foreign Resources Divi-
sion, is a conscientious patriotic
individual who tends to quickly
follow CIA instructions to the
letter."
Rardin said the CIA sent
cover and funding specialists to
Hawaii early in 1983, and that
Rewald told them the only CIA
monies he got were for telex.
telephone and stationery.
Rardin said he asked Rewald
to turn intelligence documents
over to him, lest they "connect
you just absolutely colder than
a mackerel" to the CIA.
In February 1983, he said, he
was instructed to cease contact
with Rewald pending the out-
come of the tax investigation.
He later was reprimanded
and told to withdraw his own.
$1,500 deposit from the compa-
ny because of an apparent con-
flict of interest, he said.
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Rardin said security name
checks were run on Bishop
Baldwin secretary Sue Wilson.
who paid the cover companies'
telephone bill . and on consult.
ants Sunny Wong. Russell Kim.
Jerry Signori and Ned Avarv
because they might travel. The
information he got from them
included a report from Avarv
on West Germany relayed by
Rewald. and a letter on a trip
t,r Rewald and Wong to the
Far East, some information
from the Far East from Kim.
and some information from
Wong on some foreign real es-
tate investments. Rardin said.
Rewald never had a CIA
"mission," but he was-briefed
before some of his foreign busi-
ness trips on information the
CIA was interested in, Rardin
said.
"I always stressed that
'you're going there primarily
for your business and not for
me.' " Rardin said.
Rewald's letter on a Far East
trip contained "no reportable
information's because his con-
tacts there "were of no intelli-
gence interest," Rardin said.
Judge Harold Fong
-Hes "unpersueded"
Advertiser photo by lion Jett
Former Honolulu CIA office chief Jack Rardin (right) leaves
courthouse behind Tim Miller. FBI agent in charge of case.
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