Meese Aide Resigns to Join Robertson

WASHINGTON — Herbert E. Ellingwood, an advocate of the religious right and a longtime friend of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, resigned his Justice Department job Wednesday to become an aide to television evangelist Pat Robertson, a department spokesman said.

Ellingwood, who reportedly holds prayer meetings in his office and has been paid thousands of dollars for speaking to religious groups, told the department that he was resigning as director of the Office of Liaison, the spokesman said.

A spokesman for Robertson’s pre-presidential campaign, Americans for Robertson, said Ellingwood would begin work next week as the evangelist’s director of administration. Ellingwood had no comment.

Ellingwood was President Reagan’s legal affairs secretary in California. He came to Washington with the President as a deputy White House counsel before becoming chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board.