Fawn Hall

Fawn Hall (born Template:Circa 1959) is a former secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who gained fame for her role in the Iran–Contra affair by helping North shred confidential documents. On August 27, 2025, Hall and North were married.<ref name=cnn>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Born in Annandale, Virginia, Hall graduated from Annandale High School in 1977. She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in high school.<ref name="INQ"/> After graduating, she began working full-time for the Navy at the Pentagon.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1987, Hall lived in Annandale, with her mother and stepfather.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Career

1983–1986: Secretary to Oliver North

Involvement in Iran–Contra

Hall was detailed from the Navy to work at the National Security Council on February 26, 1983, as Oliver North's secretary. She worked for North until she was fired on November 25, 1986, at the height of the scandal.<ref name="INQ">Meet Iran Affair's 'Mystery Woman', The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 1987.</ref> Hall's mother, Wilma Hall, was secretary to Robert McFarlane,<ref>Reeves, Richard. President Reagan: Triumph of Imagination. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2005, p. 367.</ref> Reagan's national security advisor, North's superior, and a major player in the Iran–Contra affair. In one mishap, Hall transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being credited to a Swiss businessman's bank account instead of the intended account.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In June 1987, Hall, herself, began two days of testimony in front of the United States Congress.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She confessed to altering, shredding a large number of documents (so much was destroyed, she said, that the office shredder jammed), and smuggling others in her boots and inside her clothing and giving them to North on November 25, 1986, who was fired after his role in orchestrating potentially illegal aid to the Nicaraguan Contras became public.<ref>Hall Details Effort To Hide North's Role Destroyed Documents On Contra Aid, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9, 1987</ref><ref name="WP87">Template:Cite news</ref> Among her other testimony was an assertion that, "Sometimes you have to go above the law."<ref name="WP87"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Journalist Bob Woodward recorded that her legal defense justification was summarized in her words: "We shred everything".<ref>Bob Woodward: Veil: the Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, p. 501</ref> In 1989, in exchange for her testimony against North for the Iran–Contra affair, she was granted immunity from prosecution.<ref>Hall, North Trial Testimony, 3/22/89, pp. 5311–16, and 3/23/89, pp. 5373–80, 5385–87; Chapter 5 Fawn Hall 147</ref>

1987–1995: Life after the Iran–Contra affair

After the Iran–Contra affair broke, Hall briefly went back to work for the Navy in 1987 for less than 6 months. She was invited to the 1987 White House Correspondents' Dinner by journalist Michael Kelly.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After her congressional testimony in June 1987, she left government service and signed with the William Morris Agency<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and unsuccessfully pursued a media career in the Washington, D.C., area.

Playboy and Penthouse offered six-figure payments for nude photoshoots to Hall, as well as two other women involved in high-profile 1987 scandals, Donna Rice and Jessica Hahn. Hall and Rice declined all offers, whereas Hahn agreed to appear in Playboy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 1990, Hall was a freelance TV reporter in Pittsburgh.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1992, Hall worked for a law firm in Los Angeles, California,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and she pursued a modeling career for several years.<ref name="LA">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

Relationships

Hall dated the actor Rob Lowe, who tracked her down after seeing her at the Oliver North trial,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the couple attended Jack Lemmon's AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 1988.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In April 1993, Hall married Danny Sugerman, former manager of The Doors.<ref name="LA"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Sugermans lived in the Hollywood Hills.<ref name="LA"/> She reportedly admitted to the use of cocaine while she held jobs on the National Security Council staff and at the Pentagon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

It was reported that Sugerman had introduced Hall to crack cocaine shortly after their marriage. She became addicted and suffered a non-lethal overdose in 1994, following which she went into rehab.<ref name="LA"/> Sugerman died in 2005 of lung cancer, and, in 2007, Hall listed the house for sale for almost $2.5 million.<ref name="LA"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014, it was acquired for $1.96 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On August 27, 2025, Hall married her former boss Oliver North in a private ceremony in Virginia,<ref name=cnn></ref> after the two reunited following the funeral of North's wife. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

General and cited references

• Hall, North Trial Testimony, 3/22/89, pp. 5311–16, and 3/23/89, pp. 5373–80, 5385–87; Chapter 5 Fawn Hall 147
• Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters Volume I - Investigations and Prosecutions: Lawrence E. Walsh, Independent Counsel, August 4, 1993; Washington, D.C.

External links

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