Postal Chief’s Meese Case Fees Charged to U.S.

John R. McKean, chairman of the Postal Service’s board of governors, has charged the Postal Service $97,793 for legal fees he incurred during investigations into loans that he arranged for Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, it was learned Tuesday.

The board has agreed to pay for the legal work, which was provided by its outside counsel, former Jimmy Carter Administration official Joseph A. Califano Jr., and his law firm.

Rep. Glenn English (D-Okla.), chairman of a House Government Operations subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, said that the bill “seems out of line.”

Private Business Dealings

“The real question is why the Postal Service . . . should pay the legal bills resulting from an investigation of McKean’s private business dealings--particularly when those business dealings predate his appointment to the board,” English said.

Califano said that he represented McKean, who had been Meese’s accountant, in connection with an independent counsel’s investigation of allegations involving Meese and later helped McKean prepare to testify at Meese’s confirmation hearings.

McKean, a San Francisco accountant, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The investigation by independent counsel Jacob A. Stein last year found no evidence of a connection between McKean’s arranging $60,000 in loans for Meese in 1981 and Meese’s recommendation about the same time that McKean be named to the postal board.