The Nation : Meese’s Wife Asked Leniency for Convict

The wife of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III wrote a letter to a federal judge seeking “very favorable consideration” for a Tennessee congressman’s son who had been convicted of tax fraud, a Justice Department spokesman confirmed. The convict, Joe S. Duncan, was a friend of Ursula Meese’s niece and the attorney general had met him “a few times,” said spokesman Terry Eastland. Meese “did not have any part in the letter” to Judge R. Allan Edgar of Chattanooga, Tenn., and “did not know about it” until after it was sent, Eastland said. Duncan, the son of Rep. John J. Duncan (R-Tenn.), was convicted last May of filing a false tax return. He was sentenced by Edgar in August to three years in prison, all but six months of it suspended. The Justice Department had recommended a prison sentence of three years. Edgar told the New York Times, which reported on the letter today, that he would not discuss the case.