Meese Considers Jobs at Heritage Foundation, Stanford

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III is seriously considering agreements under which he would work full time at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and hold a part-time post at the Hoover Institution when he leaves office in the next few weeks, officials at the two conservative think tanks said Thursday.

The arrangement under discussion would provide for Meese to be paid by both organizations, with an annual salary of $10,000 to $20,000 from the Stanford University-based Hoover Institution, according to Hoover Director W. Glen Campbell. The salary offered by the Heritage Foundation could not be determined. Meese earns $99,500 as attorney general.

“I can confirm that we have had very serious discussions with Mr. Meese,” said Herb Berkowitz, vice president of the Heritage Foundation. “Whether or not a specific offer has been made, and if so the nature of that offer, I couldn’t tell you even if I knew all the details.”

New Offers Still Coming

Meese, saying new opportunities are still being presented to him, insisted Thursday that he has not reached a decision on what to do. But he indicated he will remain in the East to be close to his two children who will be attending school in the area.

The disclosure of Meese’s job possibilities came as an independent counsel’s 830-page report on his 14-month investigation of the attorney general was forwarded to Solicitor General Charles Fried, who passed it on almost immediately to the Justice Department’s chief ethics investigator.

The referral of the lengthy report to Michael E. Shaheen Jr., counsel for professional responsibility, signaled the start of an official review of the ethics of Meese’s actions on which independent counsel James C. McKay decided not to seek criminal charges. Meese maintained Tuesday that McKay’s decision not to seek an indictment had “completely vindicated” him of wrongdoing. He said McKay’s sole responsibility was to decide whether to seek criminal prosecution.

‘Ethical Considerations’

Donald Ayer, deputy solicitor general and counselor to Fried, said Fried “is handling (the McKay report) in the same way a matter of ethical considerations would ordinarily be handled.”

Shaheen’s power over present and former Justice Department officials varies from censure to reopening criminal investigations.

The three-judge court that oversees independent counsel operations ordered that any person, corporation or foundation named in the report must submit by next Thursday any comments or information they want included in the document. This indicated that the report will not be issued before late next week.

Campbell of the Hoover Institution, who has been fighting with Stanford professors over his practice of naming conservatives as fellows to the institution, said he and Meese have been discussing Meese’s employment “off and on for weeks.”

Task at Heritage

At the Heritage Foundation, Meese would be “examining a wide range of issues not excluding, but certainly not limited to, legal issues,” Berkowitz said.

The Hoover offer to Meese brought immediate reaction from critics of the institution. Although it is part of Stanford, it has virtual independence in its selection of fellows.

“Part-time or full-time, from Stanford’s point of view, it (a Meese appointment) is more of the same,” said John Manley, a Stanford professor of political science.

Manley urged Stanford University President Donald Kennedy and the university’s board of trustees to “stop playing Reagan roulette with the reputation of this university” and bring the institution under the school’s active control.

However, Stanford spokesman Robert Beyers said that if Hoover officials “want to invite someone like Meese to visit and lecture, that’s Hoover’s business.”

Scoffs at Critics

Campbell scoffed at critics of his offer to Meese. “Why should I care about what a small group of undistinguished left-wing professors think?” Campbell said.

Meese, continuing what his aides have described as a “media blitz” launched Tuesday when he announced his intention to leave by early August, met with several reporters who regularly cover the Justice Department and insisted he would not have done anything differently in his affairs based on the information he had at hand at the time.

Meese said he would seek reimbursement of his sizable legal fees incurred during McKay’s investigation. From May to December of last year, those expenses ran between $100,000 and $250,000, according to Meese’s financial disclosure form that was released this week.

The Ethics in Government Act provides that public officials who are not indicted in investigations by independent counsels can be reimbursed for their legal outlays.

Dan Morain reported from San Francisco and Ronald J. Ostrow from Washington.