Word: plea
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After Helms agreed to cop the plea and all details were worked out, the Justice Department whisked him into the federal courtroom of Judge Barrington D. Parker in Washington without notice. Assistant Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti presented a three-page "statement of facts" to which Helms had agreed...
Civiletti told the judge the misdemeanor no-contest plea was "fair and just...
...lawyer's advice, Helms made a personal plea to Judge Parker. During his Senate testimony, he said, "I found myself in a position of conflict. I had sworn my oath to preserve certain secrets . I didn't want to lie. I didn't want to mislead the committee. I was simply trying to find my way through a very difficult situation in which I found myself." Helms said he nonetheless agreed with the charges against him, although he understood "there is to be no jail sentence and I will be able to continue to get my pension...
...noted columnist in The New York Times applauded the backroom resolution of the Helms case, trumpeting the Carter administration line that the no contest plea at once placed on the record the former CIA chief's criminality and also protected national security secrets from disclosure in an open federal courtroom. This rationale neglects some of the larger questions attending the Helms case that clearly justified a fullfledged indictment and trial of the one-time Nixon enforcer. An unprecedented trial of Helms would have gone a long way towards completely fleshing out the fragmented story of CIA intervention in Chile during...
INSTEAD OF THIS AFFIRMATION of the principle that no man stands above the law, the nation witnessed a defiant Richard Helms asserting his belief that the no contest plea represented a "badge of honor" that he would proudly wear in the twilight of his career. The reasons for this personal view seem incomprehensible, outside of a well-honed arrogance for judicial process. Richard Helms committed perjury, and he did so knowing that his oath to protect the nation's intelligence secrets in no way excused this crime. Anything less than a full accounting of such unconscionable behavior by a high...