Deaver Succeeds in 11th-Hr. Appeal to Block Indictment : Ruling Puts Inquiry on 10-Day Hold

A federal judge today temporarily barred the indictment of ex-White House aide Michael K. Deaver, ruling that Deaver’s lawyers had raised “substantial questions” in an 11th-hour lawsuit on the constitutionality of the 1978 special prosecutors law.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Jackson not only throws into limbo a 9-month-old investigation of Deaver’s private lobbying practice but also undoubtedly poses ramifications for the pending inquiry into the Iran arms- contra aid affair.

Acting on a suit by Deaver, Jackson issued a 10-day temporary restraining order blocking special prosecutor Whitney North Seymour Jr. from issuing a four-count perjury indictment against Deaver.

The judge ruled that there would be no harm to the pending case against Deaver to delay it while he considers the constitutionality of the 1978 Ethics in Government Act. He set March 11 for a further hearing on Deaver’s challenge.

Similar to North’s Action

Seymour and Deaver’s chief counsel, Herbert Miller, declined comment after the ruling.

Should Deaver be indicted, it would mark the first criminal charges brought by a Watergate-style prosecutor since the inception of the ethics law, a post-Watergate reform law.

Deaver’s suit was similar to a complaint lodged Tuesday by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North challenging the constitutionality of the law on the ground that it violates the constitutional separation of powers. (Story, Page 13.)

North, who recently was fired from his post as a National Security Council aide, is facing a separate inquiry by an independent counsel in the Iran arms-contra aid scandal.

Miller, Deaver’s chief counsel and the former lawyer for Richard M. Nixon, argued to the court that Seymour exceeded his authority and has no more standing to offer an indictment than any other private citizen.

Challenge Inevitable

Legal sources said it was almost inevitable that the first target of prosecution under the act would challenge its constitutionality on the ground that it violates the separation of powers among the various branches of government.

Seymour was appointed last year by a special three-judge court to investigate allegations that Deaver violated the Ethics in Government Act by lobbying former colleagues in the Reagan Administration within a year of leaving office as deputy White House chief of staff in 1985.

Seymour acknowledged at a court session a few hours before the judge’s action that he intended to ask a grand jury for the indictment today.

“The grand jury is going to allege that he (Deaver) lied the very first time he came to them,” Seymour predicted to Jackson.

Four-Count Indictment

Seymour had said he would seek a four-count indictment charging Deaver with making false statements to a grand jury and to the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee.

In arguments before Jackson, Miller contended that “the Constitution forbids him (Seymour) from doing what he is doing now. He is trying to usurp the prosecutorial powers and to take the step to seek to indict Mr. Deaver.”

Seymour, in turn, told the court that Deaver had originally asked for the appointment of an independent counsel.

Deaver “has been using our office so long as it had the effect of dampening any public questioning of his conduct,” Seymour said angrily.