‘Free to Express Her Feeling’ : Reagan Aides Defend Letter by Mrs. Meese

The Reagan Administration on Friday defended the propriety of a letter sent to a federal judge by Ursula Meese, the wife of the attorney general, invoking her husband’s name and seeking leniency for a Republican congressman’s son awaiting sentencing for tax fraud.

Officials said Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III had no advance knowledge of the letter, which Mrs. Meese sent to a Tennessee judge last June 17, and they insisted that she was not trying to use the influence of Meese’s office, even though she mentioned her husband three times in the personal appeal.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Mrs. Meese “is a citizen, and she’s free to express her feeling in any case that she wants to, to use any name she wants to.” Mrs. Meese had signed the letter “Ursula Meese” and typed beneath the signature “Mrs. Edwin Meese III.”

Justice Department Role

Ethics experts questioned the propriety of Mrs. Meese’s appeal because the defendant, Joe S. Duncan, 35, had been prosecuted by the Justice Department and because the judge, R. Allan Edgar of Chattanooga, had been appointed by President Reagan last year upon recommendation of the department. At the time the letter was written, Justice Department attorneys were urging a stiff sentence for Duncan.

“It was an exercise in bad judgment,” said David H. Martin, a former Reagan appointee who directed the federal Office of Government Ethics until August. “Mrs. Meese has got to recognize that she is the wife of the attorney general, and it was not in his best interests.”

But Martin said the attorney general violated no ethics rules because he apparently did not know about his wife’s letter beforehand. The incident was reported in Friday’s editions of the New York Times.

Meese ‘Had No Part’

Justice Department spokesman Terry Eastland told reporters that Meese “had no part in the letter at all” but declined to say if Meese believed that it was proper.

Eastland said Meese, when he first learned of the letter, “recused himself from taking part in anything further that might arise in the case,” although the case already was in a post-conviction phase.

In addition, Eastland said, Meese told Associate Atty. Gen. Stephen S. Trott “to instruct prosecutors to disregard the letter.” But, when asked if Meese also sent word to the judge to disregard the letter, Eastland replied: “I don’t know that.”

Guilty of Tax Evasion

Joe Duncan was found guilty of evading taxes on $115,000 as an associate of Tennessee financier C. H. Butcher Jr. He was also convicted for attempting to deduct $8,800 in bogus interest payments on his 1982 tax return.

Duncan was sentenced in August to three years imprisonment, all but six months of it suspended. He was fined $3,000 and required to perform 400 hours of community service.

In her letter, which expressed her admiration for Duncan and recommended leniency, Mrs. Meese wrote that “my husband, Ed, and I consider Mr. Duncan to be an outstanding, conscientious and sensitive young man” and asked that the judge give him “very favorable consideration.”

“My husband and I have both worked in the criminal justice system,” she said, referring to her early work as a probation officer in Alameda County, California, where Meese once was deputy district attorney.

‘Moderate’ Sentence

Some legal authorities called Duncan’s sentence “moderate” because he was required to serve at least six months in prison, unlike some tax evaders who escape jail altogether. The Justice Department had recommended a straight three-year prison sentence and a “substantial” fine up to $100,000.

Duncan’s attorneys have appealed his conviction.

Judge Edgar declined to discuss the letter or state whether it had affected his sentencing. “I do not think it would be appropriate for me to comment on a case which, while now on appeal, may still come back before my court,” he said.

Rep. John J. Duncan (R-Tenn.), Joe Duncan’s father, said he never asked Mrs. Meese for such a letter, one of 200 appeals made on behalf of the younger Duncan. But Duncan added: “I know of no one outside the family who would know Joe better than Mrs. Meese,” who he said had become acquainted with his son through her niece.

Mrs. Meese could not be reached for comment Friday at her office or home. The New York Times quoted her as saying: “I wasn’t writing as the wife of the attorney general. . . . I thought what I did was natural and didn’t give it a second thought.”