Edwin Meese III

Edwin Meese III served as the seventy-fifth Attorney General of the United States, 1985-1988, under President Ronald Reagan.

Attorney General Confirmation

During his Senate confirmation hearing to become Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, Edwin Meese faced difficult questions from Democratic Senators. One area of questioning regarded an unsecured loan for $60,000 on which he did not pay any interest on for over 20 months, after it was noted the Washington Post. The loan had come from a trust fund managed by John McKean, who Meese barely knew, but had supported to be a Reagan appointed member of Postal Service board of governors. Another line of questioning regarded Meese's role in the Reagan Administration's decision to back out from their support for the IRS determination to revoke Bob Jones University's tax-exempt status, because of its interracial dating/marriage policies.

Iran-Contra

"Attorney General Edwin Meese III became directly involved in the Reagan Administration's secret plan to sell weapons to Iran in January 1986, when he was asked for a legal opinion to support the plan. When the secret arms sales became exposed in November 1986, raising questions of legality and prompting congressional and public scrutiny, Meese became the point man for the Reagan Administration's effort, in Meese's words, 'to limit the damage.'"

Profiles

Edwin Meese III served on the Council for National Policy (CNP) Executive Committee in 1994 and as CNP President in 1996. Meese was "distinguished fellow and holder of the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy, the Heritage Foundation; former Attorney General of the U.S.; Counselor to the President, 1981-1985; former Chief of Staff and Senior Issues Advisor for the Reagan-Bush Committee; former president, Council for National Policy; former professor of law, University of San Diego; former vice president for administration, Rohr Industries.

"As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Council and the National Drug Policy Board, and as a member of the National Security Council, he played a key role in the development and execution of domestic and foreign policy. During the 1970s, Mr. Meese was Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management and Professor of Law at the University of San Diego. He earlier served as Chief of Staff for then-Governor Reagan and was a local prosecutor in California.

"Mr. Meese is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of United States Studies, University of London. He earned his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

"During the Reagan Kitchen Cabinet, Joseph Coors and others from the Heritage Foundation received a letter of endorsement from White House Chief of Staff Ed Meese in which Meese promised Edward J. Feulner, Jr., the president of Heritage, that 'this Administration will cooperate fully with your efforts.' After leaving the Reagan administration, Meese joined the staff of the Heritage Foundation."

• Trustee, Free Enterprise Foundation
• Trustee, Center for the Study of the Presidency

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch resources

• Iran Contra: Rehabilitation
• Meese Commission
• Think tanks

External resources

Profiles

• "Edwin Meese" in the Wikipedia.
• Edwin Meese, Conservative Hall of Fame, townhall.com.
• Edwin Meese III profile, Heritage Foundation.
• Edwin Meese III profile, Hoover Institution.
• Lawrence E. Walsh, Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters. Volume I: Investigations and Prosecutions, August 4, 1993, Washington, D.C.; Chapter 31: "Edwin Meese III: November 1986." Posted by Federation of American Scientists.
• "Edwin Meese III" profile at watch.pair.com database.
• Right Web Profile, last updated: November 22, 2003.

Documents

• AFSCME Resolution: "Opposition to the Nomination of Edwin Meese, III," International Executive Board, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, March 1984.

External articles

By Edwin Meese III

• "The Dangerous Federalization of Crime," Hoover Digest, 1999, No. 3: "Federal crimes used to be limited to matters that truly involved the whole nation, such as treason and counterfeiting. But lately the federal government has been amending its criminal statutes to take over more and more criminal prosecution from the states. Edwin Meese III on an especially pernicious form of federal aggrandizement."
• "How Reagan Helped to Build the House of Bush," Hoover Digest, 2001 No. 1: "George W. Bush, it seems plausible to argue, wouldn’t have been elected president in 2000 if George H.W. Bush hadn’t been elected president in 1988. And George H.W. Bush wouldn’t have been elected president in 1988 if Ronald Reagan hadn’t invited him to be Reagan’s running mate in 1980. Edwin Meese III describes how Reagan decided to issue that 1980 invitation—starting the Bushes on their way."
• "At His Side. Remembering Reagan," The Nation, June 23, 2004; appeared in National Review, June 28, 2004.
• "Partisanship Is Their Principle. Senate Dems on judges — then and now," The Nation, July 16, 2004.
• "Reagan Revolution Revived?" FullDisclosure, May 26, 2005: "Ed Meese on Tax Limits, Pornography & Mental Health Reforms." Lead-in to purchase streaming video online.

Articles & Commentary

• Email String January 2001, Wolves in Sheep's Clothing; re: "Should the Boy Scouts be Saved? - with background on their 'savior' Edwin Meese. Meese was listed as one of the possible presidential successors - outside of the Constitutionally designated successors - to the presidency in case of nuclear disaster. From the Continuity of Government plan being touted today by the controlled media as Bush's 'Shadow Government'"; accessed July 8, 2005.
• Nicholas Stein, "Business Behind Bars. Former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese has a way to slow the exodus of jobs overseas: Put prisoners to work," Fortune, September 3, 2003.
• News Release: "American Library Association condemns attack by former Attorney General Edwin Meese; calls for open debate of PATRIOT Act powers," American Library Association, September 30, 2003.
• Heritage Foundation, "Edwin Meese III Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation," undated, accessed January 2005.
• "CNN's John King let Meese falsely claim that Plame was not an undercover officer," Media Matters for America, July 7, 2005: "On the July 5 edition of CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, guest host John King left unchallenged former Attorney General Edwin Meese's false claim that CIA officer Valerie Plame was not an undercover operative. ... King asked Meese to comment on the possibility that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper could be jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leaking of Plame's identity. Meese told King, 'I'm surprised the case has even gone this far, because I don't think this was really a covert agent. She was some sort of administrative person at the CIA, I think, at the time this occurred and I think, perhaps, this is an exaggerated case in its entirety.'"