Business Brisk for Deaver’s Rummage Sale

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Hundreds of people pawed through former White House aide Michael K. Deaver’s empty trappings of power Friday at an office sale held to defray more than $1 million in legal costs from a court fight that resulted in his perjury conviction.

“Not your typical garage sale, huh?” said a smiling saleswoman as $100,000 worth of Deaver’s office furnishings were put on the block at the abandoned headquarters of his lobbying firm in this Washington suburb.

In the first hour of the three-day sale, business executives and curiosity-seekers snapped up about $25,000 worth of items, from a $15 set of highball glasses to a hand-painted Chinese screen with a $3,500 price tag.

Unsold during the early hours was the biggest-ticket item at the sale--a handmade 19th-Century English partner’s desk that Deaver bought on one of his overseas business trips. The asking price was $20,000. Other antiques included two framed original Audubon prints selling for $2,750 each.

Office Odds and Ends

There were several file drawers full of pencils, paper clips, scissors, erasers and memo pads, going for $15 apiece, a couple of $6 plastic trash baskets and an $85 automatic check-writing machine with a counter indicating that Deaver had written 14,662 checks.

The only hint of Deaver’s once-powerful Washington lobbying contacts was a coffee mug embossed with a gold seal of the U.S. Senate. It rested unclaimed, waiting for a souvenir hunter willing to part with $4.

Deaver, a confidant and adviser to President Reagan, quit as White House deputy chief of staff in May, 1985, to form a lobbying firm. He was convicted last Dec. 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington on three counts of lying to a federal grand jury and a House Ene1919383840investigating allegations of possible ethics law violations.