REWALD WON'T TESTIFY AFTER ALL

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00494R001100710171-9
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RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
3
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 26, 2010
Sequence Number: 
171
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
October 9, 1985
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00494R001100710171-9.pdf206.97 KB
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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 Page A-4 Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710171-9 Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710171-9 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. Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710171-9 Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710171-9 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. Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00494RO01100710171-9