---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
  - Person
  - IranContra
  - Israel
summary: "Chief counsel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who in 1992 sought leniency for the arms dealer Dirk Stoffberg, and whom Ari Ben-Menashe described as calling the Iran-Contra hearings a cover-up."
relations:
  - type: employed_by
    with: "[[Democratic National Committee]]"
    start: 1966
    end: 1976
    role: "senior positions; Executive Director of the State Chairmens Association in 1972"
    fn: 4
  - type: employed_by
    with: "[[United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs]]"
    end: 1993
    role: "chief counsel"
    fn: 4
  - type: head_of
    with: "[[OSCE Parliamentary Assembly]]"
    start: 1992
    end: 2015
    role: "Secretary General"
    fn: 4
---

[[Spencer Oliver]] was the chief counsel for the [[United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs|House Foreign Affairs Committee]]. He was involved in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] hearings. In 1991, he discussed the events of 1987 with [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], admitting that the Democrats knew the witnesses were lying and that the hearings were a cover-up to avoid impeaching the president.[^1]

### The 1972 telephone tap

The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities names R. Spencer Oliver Jr. as the Democratic National Committee official, the son of Robert Oliver, the Mullen and Company lobbyist for Hughes Tool, whose telephone [[James McCord]] bugged in the first Watergate entry of May 27, 1972.[^2] A 1976 memorandum by [[Bruce Solie]], chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Security Analysis Group, identifies the "Spencer Oliver" named in a Freedom of Information request from McCord as, according to a 1972 newspaper article, the Executive Director of the State Chairmens Association of the Democratic National Committee, in whose office telephone "an alleged listening device was found."[^3] The Wilson Center's biography of Oliver lists senior positions at the Democratic National Committee from 1966 to 1976, followed by service as Chief of Staff of the Helsinki Commission (1976 to 1985) and as chief counsel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee until 1993; the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's biography lists him as its Secretary General from 1992 to 2015.[^4]

### Stoffberg letter (1992)

On January 10, 1992, Oliver, chief counsel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York requesting leniency for [[Dirk Stoffberg]], a convicted arms dealer, on the ground that Stoffberg had provided the committee with information about the 1980 hostage events. Judge [[Jack Weinstein]] cited the request in an amended sentencing memorandum and reduced the sentence.[^5] On February 4, 1992, Representative McEwen of Ohio announced that he would offer a privileged resolution on the letter before the House debated House Resolution 258, which created the October Surprise task force.[^5] A reprinted newspaper account quotes Representative Henry Hyde: "By what authority did Spencer Oliver intervene in this case, and why wasn't the minority notified?"[^6]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), section "Robert Bennett and the Mullen and Company", pp. 1122-1123 (Robert Oliver and R. Spencer Oliver Jr.); the first entry of May 27, 1972 and the placement of the telephone devices, Part I. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities
[^3]: Solie, Bruce L., Chief, Security Analysis Group, memorandum for the file, "McCord, James Walter, Jr.," June 23, 1976, JFK record 104-10123-10362.
[^4]: Wilson Center, "Spencer Oliver," expert biography. https://wilsoncenter.org/person/spencer-oliver ; OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, "R. Spencer Oliver," former Secretary General. https://www.oscepa.org/en/about-osce-pa/international-secretariat/former-secretary-general/former-secretary-general
[^5]: U.S. House of Representatives, *Congressional Record*, February 4, 1992, pp. H253 and following (announcement by Representative McEwen; reprinted letter of January 10, 1992; amended memorandum and order of the Eastern District of New York). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_cr/h920204-october.htm
[^6]: Reprinted article quoted in the same Congressional Record volume (Stoffberg defense account), above.