Reagan Rejects Critical Report on Meese : Scathing Study Called Work of ‘Political Enemies’

President Reagan today denounced as “unnecessary and unwarranted” a scathing report on former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III by the Justice Department’s internal inspector and said it was the work of “political enemies.”

Meese’s successor, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, who held up issuance of the report for 10 weeks and broke from past practice by giving Meese’s lawyers the opportunity to respond, gave Meese the benefit of the doubt on a central finding that he violated ethical standards in a financial transaction, saying it appeared Meese failed to obtain or act on adequate legal advice rather than intending to be unethical.

The report said that if Meese were still attorney general, “we would recommend that the (next) President take disciplinary action.”

Along with the report, the Justice Department issued a log of contacts between Meese and his longtime friend E. Robert Wallach, whose association with Meese drew the report’s sharpest criticism, which shows that Wallach advised Meese on Cabinet and judicial appointments and at one point even suggested himself to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Fitzwater Comments

At the White House, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that Reagan believes “this report was unnecessary, partly because Mr. Meese has not been in the office for some time and partly because it was unwarranted.”

Fitzwater said that Reagan still believes his longtime friend did nothing wrong. “That’s the way he feels. I talked to him and I know whereof I speak,” the spokesman said of the President.

The report concluded that Meese engaged in “conduct which should not be tolerated of any government employee, especially not the attorney general.”

The report by Office of Professional Responsibility counsel Michael Shaheen sought to debunk Meese’s contention that he was “completely vindicated” when a special prosecutor decided last July not to seek his indictment--although concluding Meese “probably violated” federal tax and conflict-of-interest laws.

Excoriates Meese

Shaheen excoriated Meese for repeatedly, in his conduct as presidential counselor and later as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, failing to abide by a 1965 executive order requiring government officials “to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

His report focused particularly on Meese’s close ties and assistance to Wallach.

“We trust that this analysis will lay to rest the claims by Mr. Meese that the appropriate standard for official behavior is whether an independent counsel seeks an official’s indictment,” the report said.