A Judicious Choice?

A judge, of all people, was once pressed to head the Administration's Intelligence Evaluation Committee. That was the shadowy group that some investigators believe carried out parts of the 1970 White House intelligence-gathering plan, which President Nixon insists was scrapped because of J. Edgar Hoover's objections. John Ehrlichman made the pitch to an old friend, Morell E. Sharp, then a Washington Supreme Court justice and now a federal judge appointed by Nixon. According to Sharp, Ehrlichman told him that Nixon wanted the committee. So he took two "redeye" flights from Seattle to the capital to discuss the formation of the I.E.C. Once he realized that the committee was to operate in secret, however, he refused the job. He did not want to have to evade questions "from my friends or the press about my activities," Sharp said last week. "I was not about to participate in any activity as indefinite as to goals and responsibility as this seemed to be." He added: "In retrospect, I made a wise choice."

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