$5 Million Spent by Prosecutors on Iran-Contra, Other Scandals

Special prosecutors have so far spent $5 million investigating the Iran- contra scandal, the Wedtech Corp. scandal, former Reagan Administration official Michael K. Deaver and former Justice Department official Theodore Olson, the government said today.

The office of Iran-contra prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh had spent nearly $3 million as of Aug. 31 probing secret U.S. arms sales to Iran and the diversion of money to the contras, the Justice Department said in submitting financial data requested by Congress.

Among the expenditures by Walsh’s office, which started operating last December, are $70,000 on car rentals, $69,000 to buy telephone equipment and $242,000 for word processing equipment.

About $707,000 had been spent as of Aug. 31 by prosecutor Alexia Morrison, who launched a probe in April, 1986, of possible perjury involving Olson’s congressional testimony in a controversy involving the Environmental Protection Agency. Olson testified to Congress about a White House decision to withhold documents relating to EPA’s Superfund toxic waste cleanup program. The request for documents stemmed from allegations that there had been political manipulation of the Superfund.

Counsel Whitney North Seymour spent $664,000 probing Deaver, whose trial started this week on perjury charges for allegedly lying about his lobbying activities after leaving his post as deputy White House chief of staff.

Prosecutor James McKay has spent more than $566,000 investigating the involvement of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III and former White House political director Lyn Nofziger with scandal-plagued Wedtech, a South Bronx defense contractor.