Panel Staff to Urge Deaver Perjury Probe

A House subcommittee staff report has concluded that former presidential aide Michael K. Deaver may have perjured himself in congressional testimony on his lobbying activities and will urge that a current independent counsel investigation be expanded to include those allegations, Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) said Thursday.

Staff findings by the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee, which Dingell heads, are “still being polished and refined” and will be presented to the panel in closed session Tuesday, said a subcommittee source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Randall Turk, a lawyer for Deaver, said he had not been contacted by the subcommittee and had been denied a transcript of Deaver’s testimony in May and thus was “not in a position to comment.”

Any perjury allegations represent a significant development in the investigation of the former deputy White House chief of staff. The probe, recommended by the Justice Department, is being conducted by Whitney North Seymour Jr., a court-appointed independent counsel.

One-Year Lobbying Ban

Seymour’s investigation, which began in late May, has focused so far on conflict-of-interest laws that Deaver may have violated in lobbying for various clients, including Canada and Puerto Rico and corporate interests. Deaver, who left the White House in May, 1985, was barred by federal law from lobbying his former government agency on any matter for one year.

The House committee’s staff found what it regards as conflicts between Deaver’s testimony and that of other former and present Reagan Administration officials in at least four areas, the subcommittee source said. These included:

--Whether a year ago--less than 12 months after he resigned his White House post--he had lobbied Robert C. McFarlane, then Reagan’s national security adviser, in seeking to preserve a tax break for the government of Puerto Rico.

--Details of his dealings with Office of Management and Budget Director James C. Miller III on Air Force purchase of B-1 bombers, made by Deaver’s client, Rockwell International.

--What steps he took, possibly with the help of U.S. Ambassador to West Germany Richard R. Burt, to land a contract for helping the city of Berlin publicize the 750th anniversary of its founding.

--Lobbying efforts that Deaver allegedly undertook in support of a plan for Japan to grant tax relief to Japanese companies investing in Puerto Rico. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield had sought State Department guidance on Deaver’s efforts and the House subcommittee received testimony from Mansfield.

The primary investigation into Deaver’s activities initially had centered on steps he allegedly took on behalf of Canada--before and after leaving the White House--in helping to persuade the Reagan Administration to undertake a five-year program to reduce acid rain pollution. Acid rain is produced primarily by heavy U.S. industry but affects wide areas of Canada as well as the United States.

Canada subsequently became a $105,000-a-year lobbying client of Deaver’s firm, but Deaver severed the relationship in June, saying that he wanted to spare the Canadians further embarrassment over the controversy.

Closed Hearings

In appearing in closed hearings before Dingell’s subcommittee May 16, Deaver said that charges against him are “obviously politically motivated and calculated to damage me and my former colleagues and friends still in government service.

“I have never traded on my relationship with the President for any client--and I never will,” Deaver said in his opening statement, which he provided to reporters waiting outside the hearing.

Reagan has termed allegations against Deaver “ridiculous.”

When asked how strong the evidence of perjury is, a committee source said: “We wouldn’t be making recommendations if we didn’t feel the evidence was there.”

This source and others, however, cautioned that the staff report could be revised before it is presented to the subcommittee Tuesday.

Dingell said Thursday that his subcommittee has uncovered information that was not available when the General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, completed its investigation of Deaver earlier this year. He said the information, presumably gathered during committee questioning of Mansfield and Burt in Tokyo and Bonn, will be given to Seymour.

The GAO concluded in May that Deaver “appears” to have broken conflict-of-interest laws in his lobbying activities after leaving the White House.

Dingell, who had indicated that he planned to ask Deaver to reappear before the subcommittee, said Thursday that he has decided not to seek further testimony from Deaver.