A Senate report finds no evidence of a hostage deal, but questions remain

It was an exoneration without much conviction. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's investigation of allegations that the Reagan campaign connived with Iranian authorities to delay the release of 52 American hostages during the 1980 election concluded that "the great weight of evidence is that there was no such deal." But the committee report did charge that the conduct of Reagan campaign chairman and later CIA Director William Casey verged "on the outer limits of propriety" when he secretly gathered intelligence on the delicate U.S.-Iranian hostage negotiations in 1980. The investigation, run on a shoestring budget, never did find such critical evidence as Casey's passport or hundreds of hours of vital FBI surveillance tapes. Perhaps a parallel House investigation expected next year will be more enlightening.