Chronology: How Problems Began, Multiplied for 7 1/2 Years
For most of his 7 1/2 years in the Reagan Administration, first as counselor to the President and then as attorney general, Edwin Meese III has been the focus of controversy, ranging from his acceptance of interest-free loans to his alleged influence on the Army’s selection of Wedtech Corp. for an engine contract.
Following is a chronology of his problems:
July 25, 1983--White House counsel Fred F. Fielding begins reviewing allegations that Meese, then White House counselor, and Michael K. Deaver, at the time White House deputy chief of staff, received $118,000 in loans arranged by their California tax accountant, John R. McKean, at a time they were getting McKean a $10,000-a-year presidential appointment to the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors.
Sept. 27, 1983--The Army’s inspector general finds irregularities in Meese’s promotion to colonel in the Army Reserve, but says that there is no evidence of undue influence. The investigator recommends against revoking Meese’s promotion, which had been approved by Maj. Gen. William R. Berkman, an old friend of Meese.
March 27, 1984--Atty. Gen. William French Smith asks a three-judge federal panel to name an independent counsel to investigate broad allegations against Meese, who recently had been nominated to be Smith’s successor. The inquiry is prompted by reports that Meese failed to list on his financial disclosure form an interest-free $15,000 loan his wife received from Edwin Thomas. Thomas, his wife and son had been appointed to federal jobs.
Sept. 20, 1984--Independent counsel Jacob A. Stein says that his five-month investigation of 11 allegations against Meese showed “no basis” for recommending any prosecution.
Jan. 28, 1985--Two Office of Government Ethics staff lawyers conclude that Meese, then attorney general-designate, twice violated federal conflict-of-interest rules, but the staff report is overruled by the agency director. The report alleges that Meese should have disqualified himself when two men who had helped him financially were considered for federal jobs.
Feb. 23, 1985--After fierce debate, the Senate votes, 63 to 31, largely along party lines, to confirm Meese as attorney general.
Dec. 17, 1986--The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigates Meese’s decision to delay for 10 days an FBI investigation of an airline involved in Iranian arms deals and weapons shipments to Nicaragua’s Contras. The Justice Department says that the central figure in the Iran arms sale operation, then-National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, had asked Meese in October to delay the inquiry into Southern Air Transport, formerly owned by the CIA.
Jan. 7, 1987--The Justice Department requests an independent counsel to investigate allegations that former White House aide Lyn Nofziger may have violated federal ethics laws by lobbying Meese and other former colleagues on behalf of the Wedtech Corp. shortly after leaving office in 1983.
April 6, 1987--Meese acknowledges that he intervened on behalf of Wedtech to ensure that it got a fair hearing from the Army in its effort to win the $32-million engine contract. Meese also says that his friend and former lawyer, E. Robert Wallach, sent him a series of memorandums in 1981 and 1982 promoting Wedtech.
May 11, 1987--Meese asks the special prosecutor investigating Nofziger’s ties to Wedtech to include him in the investigation. Meese also announces that he has terminated his financial partnership with W. Franklyn Chinn. In February, Chinn had been forced to resign from the Wedtech board because of allegedly questionable financial transactions.
June 30, 1987--The Office of Government Ethics says that Meese violated financial disclosure requirements after investing $60,000 with Chinn. The agency’s director says that Meese voluntarily invested the money in 1985 under an arrangement that fails to qualify as a blind trust under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act.
Jan. 7, 1988--Independent counsel James C. McKay’s investigation of Meese is extended to include charges that he may have had a conflict of interest when he met with the heads of regional telephone companies to discuss legal restrictions on their firms at a time when he and his wife still owned telephone stock.
Jan. 29, 1988--Sources say that the independent counsel is focusing on a 1985 memo from Wallach to Meese that allegedly cited a plan to pay off a high-ranking official in Jerusalem to help head off Israeli interference in a $1-billion Iraqi pipeline project. Meese later says that he did not recall noticing the mention of the payoff plan in the memo.
March 23, 1988--McKay widens his investigation of Meese, looking into the Justice Department’s renewal of a 10-year, $50-million office lease that was signed after the building’s owner had provided a $40,000 annual salary for Meese’s wife for her work at a public service organization.
March 29, 1988--Dep. Atty. Gen. Arnold Burns, the No. 2 official in the department, and Asst. Atty. Gen. William Weld, who oversaw all federal criminal investigations, quit along with four of their aides, telling associates that Meese’s legal problems hampered the operation of the department.
July 5, 1988--Meese announces plans to resign soon after McKay files a sealed report that does not recommend criminal prosecution.
