Photo by Richard Ellis / Alamy Stock Photo

Jimmy Carter lost the November 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan after failing to spring an “October surprise” by securing the release of US hostages in Iran. Seven years later, Christopher Hitchens wondered if new revelations about Reagan’s dealings with Iran might shed light on the strange events of 1980.

Last time I wrote about the doings of the Reaganites, I suggested that in order to understand them you needed the nasty sort of mind that is possessed by a District Attorney in a Mafia case. Only thus can the nexus of deniable orders, hush money and dummy companies be made to make sense. On 25 June, Judge Abraham Sofaer decided to illustrate my point. The judge is a legal advisor to the State Department, and has been highly prized in the past by Reagan and George Shultz [US Secretary of State] for his ability to make things legal after the fact. But he has had enough.…