FBI Told Justice Dept. of Presser Role, Sources Say

The FBI, accused by some Justice Department officials of misleading them about Teamster Union President Jackie Presser’s role as a government informant, notified high department officials of the arrangement at least three times in 1983, sources familiar with the aborted Presser prosecution told The Times on Monday.

FBI Director William H. Webster made the first disclosure to then-Atty. Gen. William French Smith in May, 1983, a month after Presser was named to head the 1.5-million-member union, said the sources, who declined to be identified. A written record of that meeting exists, they added.

And on at least two other occasions that year, while Presser already was under grand jury investigation in a payroll-padding scheme, the men who eventually decided not to prosecute the labor leader--Deputy Atty. Gen. D. Lowell Jensen and Assistant Atty. Gen. Stephen S. Trott--also were told that Presser was an FBI “source,” according to officials.

What the Justice Department officials knew about Presser’s relationship with the FBI--and when they learned it--are crucial, because an 11th-hour meeting last month between Presser’s lawyer, John R. Climaco, and officials of the department’s criminal division led to the decision to drop the Presser investigation, contrary to a federal strike force’s recommendation to indict Presser.

At the June session, Climaco insisted that Presser may have acted without criminal intent in the payroll fraud scheme, contending that the FBI had authorized his participation to help gain information on alleged mob figures, according to sources familiar with the session. Climaco has denied their version but has declined to discuss the meeting.

Officials in the Justice Department’s organized crime and racketeering section have contended that they did not know until after the meeting of Presser’s claim that he had FBI permission to commit fraud. The FBI had played no direct role in the probe, which was handled by Labor Department investigators assigned to the strike force.

Although Smith, Jensen and Trott apparently were advised of Presser’s informant status, it is not clear whether they took any steps to ascertain whether the Teamster chief’s role might interfere with his eventual prosecution.

‘Can’t Talk’ About It

Smith, who has returned to practicing law with the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles, refused to confirm or deny that he met with Webster on the Presser case in 1983. “It’s something I just can’t talk about,” he said.

Similarly, Trott, who sources said was informed in the case by an unidentified FBI official in October, 1983, said it would be “unethical” to discuss any such information. Jensen, who did not return a reporter’s call, reportedly had been told in September, 1983, by Assistant FBI Director Oliver B. Revell.

In a related development, it was learned Monday that an internal FBI inquiry into the handling of the case is focusing on several agents who worked with Presser or played a supervisory role. The agents include Roy McKinnon, a retired assistant director, and Patrick J. Foran, now assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office.

Led Cleveland Office

McKinnon, who now heads a child support agency in Chattanooga, Tenn., was in charge of the FBI’s Cleveland field office from 1976 to 1978, a period when the contact with Presser was said to have been developed. Presser built his power in the Teamsters through his hometown Local 507 in Cleveland, which figured in the payroll padding and which he still serves as secretary-treasurer.

In an interview Monday, McKinnon said he had not been contacted by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal watchdog unit that is conducting the agency’s own inquiry. But he declined to discuss any knowledge or role he had of Presser’s FBI ties.

Foran, a special agent in the Cleveland office from 1971 to 1979, referred all questions to the FBI’s public affairs office in Washington, which has refused to discuss the case.

Other FBI agents who served in the Cleveland office during the 1970s also are being questioned in the internal inquiry, and their names already have been obtained by the Senate Government Operations permanent investigations subcommittee, which has begun an inquiry into the Presser matter.

Cautioned by Meese

Although Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III removed himself from the Presser case soon after joining the Justice Department in February, he cautioned department officials at a staff meeting Friday not to discuss the sensitive matter with reporters, according to persons familiar with that meeting.

Meese, who had several contacts with Presser when he was counselor to President Reagan and who defended the Teamsters leader in conversation, removed himself from the case to avoid any appearance that the White House had influenced decisions in the matter, according to a senior department official.

But he told the staff meeting Friday, according to the sources, that there had been inaccuracies in news accounts of the case that were difficult to correct because of the secrecy rules governing grand jury proceedings.

Meese, vacationing in Casablanca with his family, could not be reached Monday. But his spokesman, Terry Eastland, said he did not recall Meese discussing the Presser case or cautioning his staff not to discuss it.