Convicted Felon Oliver North Named NRA President

The Daily Beast reports:

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is poised to become the new president of the National Rifle Association, according to a press release. North, a Fox News host and key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, will become president “within a few weeks, a process the NRA Board of Directors initiated” Monday morning, the release says.

North is retiring from Fox News immediately. “I am honored to have been selected by the NRA Board to soon serve as this great organization’s President,” North said. “I appreciate the board initiating a process that affords me a few weeks to set my affairs in order, and I am eager to hit the ground running as the new NRA President.”

From North’s Wikipedia entry:

North was tried in 1988. He was indicted on 16 felony counts, and on May 4, 1989, he was initially convicted of three: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and ordering the destruction of documents through his secretary, Fawn Hall.

He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell on July 5, 1989 to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines, and 1,200 hours of community service. North performed some of his community service within Potomac Gardens, a public housing project in southeast Washington, D.C.

Four years after his sentencing, North’s convictions were vacated upon appeal on a technicality about his having been granted immunity for portions of his testimony.