Word: welds
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...route to the resignations had been long and difficult. Weld, a wealthy Boston intellectual, joined the Justice Department in 1986 after compiling an impressive record as U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts. There he won 108 convictions out of 111 cases of public corruption that his office prosecuted. His difficulties with Meese began last May, as he reviewed allegations against Meese to determine whether they required investigation by a special prosecutor. Weld consulted his superior, Burns, an affable former New York corporate lawyer who, as Meese's top aide, supervised the daily workings of the department bureaucracy...
When someone tipped Meese to his subordinates' decision, he reportedly was angry. "Ed Meese didn't want it to go to the independent counsel," says a department insider. "He made it known to Weld that it shouldn't go anywhere; it should be killed." On May 11, apparently aware that he could not block the probe, Meese pre-empted the impending announcement by publicly inviting McKay to look into his dealings with Wedtech...
...further allegations against Meese surfaced, Burns and Weld became more concerned. At senior staff meetings, they confronted Meese directly, citing newspaper stories and asking, "What about this, Ed? And this?" Meese still shrugged the reports off as "partisan attacks." Both officials had expected McKay to wind up his investigations quickly, but as the probe broadened instead, they decided that someone had to do something. Said a White House source: "They had endured the situation as long as they could, but there appeared to be no end in sight...
Over the weekend of March 26-27, Burns and Weld decided to resign, and they told Culvahouse and Baker on Monday. The chief of staff informed Reagan. Curiously, neither the White House aides nor Reagan told Meese...
...Weld is known to have been particularly concerned about a report that Swiss Financier Bruce Rappaport paid Wallach $150,000 for helping promote the Iraqi pipeline. Senate investigators traced some of that money to an investment account that also held $52,000 of personal savings by Meese. This commingled fund was managed by a Wedtech director, W. Franklyn Chinn, whom Wallach had introduced to Meese. At times Chinn bought more stock in Meese's name than Meese's investment could pay for, and the deals produced a profit of $40,000 for the Attorney General. The arrangement, according...