Seymour Acting Vindictively, Deaver Says

Former White House aide Michael K. Deaver, fighting his indictment on five counts of perjury and false statements, Monday accused independent counsel Whitney North Seymour Jr. of bringing an additional charge against him because Deaver had challenged the propriety of Seymour’s investigation.

In a highly unusual move, Deaver charged that Seymour is acting out of “prosecutorial vindictiveness” and questioned whether he is also motivated by a personal grudge against President Reagan’s political action committee, on which Deaver served. The committee opposed Seymour’s unsuccessful 1982 run for the Senate.

Deaver, former deputy White House chief of staff, asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to order Seymour to identify the count allegedly added to the indictment and dismiss it. His lawyers added that if the judge believes the facts warrant it, he could dismiss the entire indictment.

The motion citing the grudge allegation was one of several filed by Deaver’s attorneys Monday in challenging the prosecution of his case. Seymour could not be reached for comment on the charge. Deaver’s trial on the five counts relating to his post-White House lobbying activities is scheduled for June 8.

In alleging the addition of a fifth charge, Deaver said that the independent counsel had initially told Deaver’s lawyers that he would be indicted on four counts.

“Seymour thus ‘upped the ante’ against Mr. Deaver after Mr. Deaver exercised his legal rights to challenge the propriety of Mr. Seymour’s investigation . . . “ Herbert J. Miller Jr. and Randall J. Turk, Deaver’s lawyers, said in the motion. They referred to Deaver’s challenge in March, which maintained that the Ethics in Government Act, under which Seymour was appointed an independent counsel, was unconstitutional.

That challenge was dismissed after the court said such action had to wait until after the indictment. In their motions Monday, Deaver’s lawyers renewed that constitutional challenge.

The motion alleging the 1982 election grudge involved Seymour’s loss in the hotly contested New York Republican Senate primary to Florence M. Sullivan. In an 11th-hour mailing to GOP voters that supported Sullivan, she was portrayed as a “Reagan Republican” while Seymour was opposed as one of two liberals in the race.

Seymour subsequently contended that the mailing was paid for by Citizens for the Republic, Reagan’s political action committee. Deaver served as an original steering committee member of the Reagan PAC and as a paid consultant for the organization before joining the White House, his lawyers said.

The lawyers noted that Seymour has sworn that he did not know of Deaver’s links with Citizens for the Republic until they called it to his attention, but added: “He has nowhere denied that the factual allegations themselves represent matters about which he feels extremely emotional and embittered.”

In other motions, Deaver’s lawyers urged that three of the five counts be dropped on grounds that Seymour acted beyond his jurisdiction in bringing them.

The two counts of the indictment that charge Deaver perjured himself in testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee last year “are beyond the scope of Mr. Seymour’s jurisdiction,” the lawyers contended. These allegations had not been investigated by the Justice Department and presented to the court that appointed Seymour, they said.

Similarly, another count that alleges that Deaver made a false statement to the grand jury about one of his lobbying accounts is not related to the wrongdoing allegations originally referred to Seymour, Deaver’s lawyers said. That count alleges he misrepresented his work for TWA in connection with a bid from financier Carl C. Icahn to take over the airline.

The House panel and the grand jury were investigating allegations that Deaver, though legally prohibited from lobbying officials at his former agency for 12 months after leaving government service, made a number of contacts on behalf of his new public relations firm. All five counts allege misrepresentations of his lobbying activities for various clients.