Meese Vague in Nofziger Testimony : 29 Times He Asserts Not Recalling Acts in Lobbying Case

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said 29 times on the witness stand Tuesday that he had difficulty recalling key events in the illegal-lobbying case against Lyn Nofziger, his old friend and former White House aide.

Meese testified repeatedly that he had “no independent recollection,” “no distinct recollection,” “no specific recollection” or simply “no recollection” of being lobbied by Nofziger in 1982 on a no-bid, $32-million Army contract for scandal-torn Wedtech Corp.

In a dramatic, though businesslike, confrontation, Meese was questioned at Nofziger’s trial by independent counsel James C. McKay, who also has been investigating Meese.

The special prosecutor has tentatively cleared Meese on a Wedtech-related matter but is actively probing an Iraqi pipeline deal involving Meese and his friend E. Robert Wallach.

Questions About Wallach

McKay, wrapping up the prosecution’s case against Nofziger, asked Meese some questions about Wallach. But they were only to establish for the jury what had been previously publicized: that Wallach first brought the disputed Wedtech contract to Meese’s attention, in 1981, and that Meese ordered a review by his staff to give the firm “a fair hearing.”

Meese, who was counselor to President Reagan at the time, said he could not recollect being lobbied by Nofziger on the issue after Nofziger resigned as Reagan’s political director in January, 1982, to become a lobbyist.

Nofziger is charged with violating a federal ethics law that restricts lobbying by former government officials at their former agencies. His business partner, Mark A. Bragg, is being tried for helping Nofziger in the alleged violation.

Prosecutors have put into evidence an April 8, 1982, letter from Nofziger to Meese, recalling that they had just met on the contract issue and suggesting that Meese or the President pull strings to get a resistant Army to award it.

Repeats Not Recalling

Meese testified that he could not recall either the meeting or the letter. Moreover, he said, he could not specifically recollect giving his deputy, James E. Jenkins, permission to look into the contract. And he said he could not recall being aware of a May 19 White House meeting convened by Jenkins, which led to Wedtech’s obtaining the contract to build small engines for the Army.

However, Meese said: “I have a general recollection that Mr. Jenkins was working on the matter sometime during 1982. I don’t have a specific recollection that I asked him to do it. It is certainly consistent with my recollection that he indicated to me that he was working on it.”

Meese also testified on two other counts charging that Nofziger lobbied illegally on behalf of Fairchild Republic Corp. and the Marine Engineers Beneficial Assn., a labor union.

Nofziger sought continued federal funding for Fairchild’s A-10 warplane and he pressed for expanded use of civilian merchant seamen on U.S. ships.

Lobbying on A-10 Plane

In other testimony Tuesday, two former National Security Council aides told of being lobbied by Nofziger on the A-10 plane at a 1982 meeting in the White House Situation Room.

Nofziger, accompanied by another Fairchild lobbyist, argued that Reagan’s credibility with Congress would plummet if the Administration failed to keep A-10 production going at the firm’s New York plant, former NSC aide Richard B. Levine testified.

“I remember Mr. Nofziger saying that he was concerned not so much about the aircraft but about whether the President’s word would still be held in high value on Capitol Hill if certain acts weren’t taken to keep the A-10 alive,” Levine said.

Nofziger was referring to a deal Reagan had made a month earlier with several conservative Republican congressmen from New York to support funding of the plane in exchange for their votes on his embattled tax-increase bill.

A reluctant Pentagon eventually freed $50 million to keep production going for several months.