THE HELMS FILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030054-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: October 10, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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v~ P~IGt_' Approved For Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030054-3
10 'Jctu'~c~r 197?
INVESTIGATIONS:
The Helms ~6te
For the past eighteen months, the Jus-
tice Department has been pursuing the
investigation of Richard M. Helms, for-
mer director of the Central Intelligence
Agency, on charges of perjury and ob-
struction of justice. No one-not even
Helms-denies that he misled a Senate
committee about the extent of CIA oper-
ations against Chile's Marxist President
Salvador Allende. But last week, Presi-
dentCarter suggested at his news confer-
ence that he would soon weigh the possi-
ble damage to national security if Helms
were put on trial. And NE~v$~VEEK
learnedthat Justice Departmentprosecu-
tors are seekingWhite House permission
to declassify pertinent documents.
Friends of Helms, who ran the agency
from 1966 to 1973, indicate that he is
prepared to name names and reveal
secrets to defend his actions. "You've
got [Henry] Kissinger involved, lots of
high officials," said one long time asso-
ciate of the former CIA director. "It
would be pretty messy." Helms's law-
yer, Edward Bennett Williams, has said
privately that if Helms is brought to
trial, he will seek to obtain CIA papers
to show that every previous CIA direc-
torhas lied to Congress, and that legisla-
tors frequently winked at the lies.
Coup: The basis +, for any indictment
would be Helms's testimony before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee in
February 1973. Asked whether he had
the CIA pass any money to AllendP's
opponents, Helms answered, "No sir."
But a second Senate committee reported)
that the agency funneled $8 million to
Allende's opponents in the three years
between Allende's election and the mili-,
tary coup in which he was killed.:,
Helms s friends say he is angry at what
_ be considers the Justice Deparrrr-ent's
" _"persecution." And he could hardly have
._ been cheered when Carter tripped twice
at his press conference, referring to "the
offense with which he wiI1 be charged"
- and later noting: "It's a very serious
~~ thing fur anyone to commit perjury."
Aidea quickly .explained _that? Carter
meant to say "may be chazged" and "al-
leged perjury:' But there was specula-
tion that he may have inadvertently
tipped the Justice Departrnent's hand-
' and that a Helms indictment may be
.,handed up soon. The elegant, Establish-
- ment Heims was also said to be furious at
-a television show, the fictional "Wash-
"_ington: '3ehind Closed Doors," which
cast Cliff Robertson as a Helmslike CIA
director in a Nixon-style Administration
as cold-hooded, given to blackmail
and-worse yeti--adultery. .
Approved For Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030054-3