1986 to 1992 · Government accountability
Avirgan v. Hull and the Iran-Contra affair
In May 1986, months before the Iran-Contra affair became public, the Christic Institute filed a federal racketeering suit alleging that a covert network of former intelligence officials, arms dealers and Contra supporters was behind a 1984 bombing in Central America. Danny Sheehan was its chief counsel.
The La Penca bombing
On May 30, 1984 a bomb exploded at a press conference held by Contra leader Edén Pastora at La Penca, on the Nicaraguan side of the border with Costa Rica, killing several people and wounding many more. Among the injured was American journalist Tony Avirgan. He and his wife, journalist Martha Honey, investigated the bombing and came to believe it was connected to the covert U.S. effort to supply the Contras.
The lawsuit
In 1986 the Christic Institute filed Avirgan v. Hull in federal court in Miami on their behalf under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The suit named about 30 defendants, including American rancher John Hull, retired Air Force general Richard Secord and businessman Albert Hakim, both of whom later became central figures in the congressional Iran-Contra investigations. Danny, as chief counsel, initiated the suit, oversaw the investigation and guided its legal strategy, and his sworn affidavit described what he called the “secret team” behind decades of covert operations.
That November the Iran-Contra affair broke, revealing secret arms sales to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to the Contras. Congress held televised hearings in 1987, and Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh spent years investigating. Danny has long argued that the Christic Institute’s suit and public campaign helped bring the covert network into the open.
The court dismissed the case in 1988, and in 1992 the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.
Watch Danny’s lectures on this case
- Iran-Contra: the pre-filing investigation (May 24, 2012)
- Iran-Contra: discovery and the post-filing investigation (May 29, 2012)
- Iran-Contra: the appellate process and the special prosecutor (May 31, 2012)
- The CIA, Iran-Contra and the Rulers of the Realm (2019)
From his UCSC lecture series. All lectures.