The Nation - News from May 9, 1988

A top official in the Justice Department said that Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III is “as clean as he can possibly be” and suggested that a congressional report accusing Meese of violating White House ethics rules should top a “list of sleaze.” Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds said that the bipartisan Senate report, which concluded that Meese violated the rules, resulting in “improper favoritism” for the Wedtech Corp., a defense contractor, hurts the continuing inquiries into the attorney general’s actions. Appearing on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” Reynolds, the top enforcer of the Administration’s civil rights policies, said that the report was based on “a very egregious, incorrect statement of facts.”