William French Smith

William French Smth was the U.S. Attorney General under Ronald Reagan who signed the secret 1982 Memorandum of Understanding with Central Intelligence Agency director William J. Casey that exempted CIA assets from drug crimes reporting. The agreement, hammered out between the CIA and Justice Department, fundamentally altered the relationship between intelligence operations and law enforcement.¹

The Secret 1982 Agreement

In early 1982, Smith and Casey signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding that removed drug offenses from the list of crimes the CIA was required to report to the Justice Department. Crimes committed by people "acting for" an intelligence agency no longer needed to be reported either. For thirteen years, the CIA and Justice maintained what Inspector General Fred Hitz called "a gentleman's agreement to look the other way." The agreement was signed just as the CIA was launching both the Contra project and operations in Afghanistan, timing that Robert Parry argued proved premeditation: "That could only have been done for one purpose. They were anticipating what eventually happened. They knew drugs were going to be sold." Civil rights lawyers later filed suit charging the agreement was illegal and led to policies protecting rather than stopping drug trafficking.²