Mr. NIELDS: Now, from your notes, I take it, that Mr. Regan had inquired who authorized the shipment, who knew, was RR told.

Did anyone ask the President or did the President respond in any way to that question?

Attorney General MEESE: Not that I can recall, and I have made no notations that he did. This was not necessarily a verbatim account of what was going on. It was notes that I took to refresh my recollection, but I have no notation here as to anything the President might have said at that stage.

Mr. NIELDS: Following the NSPG meeting, did you arrange an interview with Admiral Poindexter?

Attorney General MEESE: Yes. For some reason I wasn't able to reach him in the morning and so I did go up to his office immediately following the NSPG meeting and had a conversation with him at that time.

Mr. NIELDS: How long?

Attorney General MEESE: I would say it was a very short conversation, probably about 5 or 10 minutes, because I was due in the President's office as soon as I could after that meeting, but I did want to see Admiral Poindexter before I saw the President.

Mr. NIELDS: Would you describe your conversation with Admiral Poindexter?

Attorney General MEESE: Yes. I described to Admiral Poindexter what we had found, that we had found a memorandum that indicated a diversion of funds. I indicated that we had talked with Colonel North, that Colonel North had verified that there was such a scheme and that a quantity of money had been taken from the so-called profits of the arms transactions and had been transferred through a series of bank accounts to the Freedom Fighters, and that, told him, in essence, what we had found.

And I asked him whether he knew about this, and he said that, and I believe his exact words or close to his exact words, "Ollie has given me enough hints about this so that I generally knew, but I did nothing to follow up or stop it" or words to that effect.

And then I asked him, I said, have you told anyone else or does anyone else in the White House know? And he said, no.

Mr. NIELDS: Was that the sum and substance of your conversation?

Attorney General MEESE: I think those were the salient parts of the conversation.

Mr. NIELDS: Did you ask him whether he had ever received a final version of the document that you had talked to Colonel North about?

Attorney General MEESE: No, I did not. I didn't go into any more detail than that. Those were the key elements that I wanted to know before I talked to the President and then since I was already late for the President's office, I went there almost directly.

I may have stopped by to pick up Don Regan or he may have already been in the President's office, but Admiral Poindexter did not go with me at that time.

Mr. NIELDS: Did you ask him whether there had been any other documents referring to the diversion which had been sent up the line by Colonel North?

Attorney General MEESE: No. I asked him only whether he had told anyone else or anyone else in the White House knew and he said no.

Mr. NIELDS: Did you ask him whether he had told the President?

Attorney General MEESE: Implicitly, yes, when I asked who else in the White House knew or whether he told anyone else in the White House, and he said no.

Mr. NIELDS: Now, Admiral Poindexter testified before this committee that he did not recall your asking him whether he had told the President. Did you make any notes of that interview?

Attorney General MEESE: No, I did not.

Mr. NIELDS: Was there anyone else there?

Attorney General MEESE: No, I was the only one with him, and I did not actually ask him in the exact words "did you tell the President?" I said, "did you tell anyone else in the White House or does anyone else in the White House know?"

I think I may have related to him what Colonel North said about who knew.

Mr. NIELDS: Did you ask him whether he had approved of the diversion?

Attorney General MEESE: I didn't ask him separately, he had already indicated what his participation was in the words that I mentioned to you, that he knew enough about it, that he knew what was going on, had a general knowledge, but that he did nothing to either follow up on that or stop it.