Larry Pressler, a South Dakota Republican, came to the house in Washington on 7 November 1979 believing he was meeting potential campaign donors. The name had come from middleman Joseph Silvestri in an unrecorded phone call, and the FBI approved the meeting within about an hour. When the talk turned to money for immigration help, Pressler said, in substance, that what they were suggesting might be illegal, and left. [1][3]
The FBI later told the committee he was the first Republican legislator to come forward, and that turning him away could have made the operation look political. The committee found there was no reason to suspect him at all. It called him clearly innocent and found that the 1980 leaks, which put his name in the news alongside the defendants, injured him. [1]
The trial judge praised him by name. [2] The committee recommended that innocent people hurt by undercover operations get written notice clearing them. [1]
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