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Meese Issues Apology for Indictment

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Associated Press

More than a year after a key deputy refused to do so, outgoing Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III has issued a “profound apology” to former NASA administrator James M. Beggs for the Justice Department’s attempt to prosecute him on fraud charges.

Meese, in a letter that was hand-delivered to Beggs, wrote that he had had an opportunity to review “the circumstances surrounding the wrongful indictment against you” and that “there is no way to undo the pain that you have suffered.”

Meese offered “a profound apology on behalf of the federal government and the Department of Justice” in the letter, dated June 29.

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“Department officials, including some who have now departed, proceeded in this case on the basis of what proved to be an inaccurate understanding and assessment of the underlying facts,” Meese wrote.

Beggs, who was executive vice president of General Dynamics Corp. before he took the top post at NASA, was indicted with the company and three of its officials in December, 1985, on charges that they had defrauded the government in a weapons contract.

Resigned After Explosion

Beggs took a leave that extended through the Challenger explosion that killed seven astronauts. He then resigned, because the accident made it imperative that NASA have a hands-on administrator.

The government conceded in June, 1987, that it had insufficient evidence and withdrew its charges against all the defendants. Beggs told a news conference at the time that it would be nice if he received an apology from Meese, who was out of the country.

Assistant Atty. Gen. William F. Weld said he had the deepest respect for Beggs but declined “the invitation to embrace the language of apology.” He said he would trust public opinion to recognize that “in a criminal case if no conviction is obtained, no blemish should attach.”

Weld has since resigned from the Justice Department in protest over Meese’s heading the agency while Meese was the target of serious misconduct allegations.

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Meese himself resigned Tuesday, after a special prosecutor submitted a report on a 14-month investigation of him. Sources said the report concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge Meese with a crime. (Story on Page 4.)

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