Two Ex-Meese Aides Meet With Reagan

WASHINGTON — Two former high-ranking Justice Department officials who resigned last month over Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III’s persistent legal problems told President Reagan Wednesday that Meese ought to resign for the good of the department, White House sources said Thursday.

But Reagan later conferred privately with Meese, who reportedly reassured the President that the department was functioning smoothly. The President took no action against Meese, who has been a close adviser ever since Reagan was governor of California.

“Nothing will change as a result of the meeting,” said a source close to Vice President George Bush, who attended the first meeting. “Meese will stay, although we wish he wouldn’t.”

Reagan Called Session

Several Administration sources, all asking that they not be named, said that Reagan called Wednesday’s session with Arnold I. Burns, Meese’s former deputy, and William F. Weld, formerly head of the department’s criminal division.

Reagan asked Burns and Weld to express to him their concerns about the Justice Department’s ability to carry out its duties at a time when a number of the attorney general’s past activities are under investigation by an independent counsel, the sources said.

Burns and Weld told the President that morale at the department had plummeted and that Meese should step aside, the sources said. Also attending the 30-minute session were White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. and White House counsel A. B. Culvahouse.

The Associated Press, quoting a Justice Department source, reported Thursday night that Weld “laid out the facts” in a hypothetical indictment he said he would have brought against Meese if he were the special prosecutor investigating him.

In Reagan’s subsequent meeting with Meese, a White House official and a Bush aide said that the attorney general sought to reassure the President. In public, Reagan has repeatedly expressed his full confidence in his longtime adviser.

“Nothing is going to change,” a Justice Department official said later.

Not Reached for Comment

Meese could not be reached for comment. James Rocap, an attorney for Meese, said that he did not know of the meetings.

Meese has asserted repeatedly that he is innocent of wrongdoing in connection with a number of matters under investigation by independent counsel James C. McKay, including his links to an Iraqi pipeline project that was promoted by a close friend, San Francisco attorney E. Robert Wallach. He has insisted that he will remain in office.

However, some officials in the White House and Justice Department have begun to press quietly for him to step down.

A Bush aide said that pressure for Meese’s departure will mount as the November election nears. The aide said that Meese should leave no later than this fall, to prevent the controversy surrounding him from harming Bush, who is almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee.

A White House aide said that Meese is determined that it not appear he is submitting to pressure to resign when he has not been charged formally with wrongdoing. “If you guys would just leave this alone and not keep writing about it, he would take his own time and leave,” the aide said.

Pipeline Role Scrutinized

McKay, the independent counsel, is investigating whether Meese helped arrange government aid for a billion-dollar Iraqi pipeline project that was promoted by Wallach, who had been retained by a Swiss businessman involved in the venture.

Wallach wrote Meese a memo outlining a plan that included both an Israeli guarantee not to interfere with the pipeline and payments to the Israeli Labor Party at a time when Shimon Peres, a Labor Party member, was Israel’s prime minister. The pipeline was never built.

Investigators are also looking into whether Meese improperly benefited from an investment fund managed by a Wallach associate, W. Franklyn Chinn. Wallach and Chinn are under indictment on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges that include allegations that they a1667458416Bronx defense contractor, to influence Meese.

Also under scrutiny is whether Wallach helped secure a Washington job for Meese’s wife, Ursula, from Meese family friends who later received a multimillion-dollar lease for Justice Department offices.

Removed Self From Dealings

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Meese has removed himself from Justice Department matters involving the family headed by Howard M. Bender, which received the lease. Meese has said he knew nothing about the real estate transaction.

Testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday, Meese said that “even an unduly sensitive” person would not have spotted potential hazards in the actions he took that have become the subject of the independent counsel’s investigation.