She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in high school.

[3][4] Hall was detailed from the Navy to work at the National Security Council on February 26, 1983, as Oliver North's secretary.

[7] 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.

[13] After her congressional testimony in June 1987, she left government service and signed with the William Morris Agency[14] 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.

[20] Hall dated the actor Rob Lowe who tracked her down after seeing her at the Oliver North trial,[21] and the couple attended Jack Lemmon's AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 1988.