Deaver Used Reagan Ties, Lied: Seymour

WASHINGTON —  Special prosecutor Whitney North Seymour Jr. today accused the Justice Department of aiding the defense of lobbyist Michael K. Deaver as jury selection continued in the former White House aide’s perjury trial.

Deaver, a former White House deputy chief of staff, is charged with lying to a federal grand jury and a House subcommittee that investigated his lobbying for possible ethics law violations.

Seymour’s latest filing revived the controversy over his unsuccessful attempt to persuade Canada to allow its ambassador here to testify as a prosecution witness.

Seymour accused the Justice Department of coordinating its filing of legal briefs on the Canadian matter with Deaver’s lawyers.

Seymour charged that there was evidence of “the existence of a prearrangement between Deaver’s counsel and the Department of Justice.”

‘There’s Something Rotten’

“To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare, ‘there’s something rotten’ in the way these applications have been initiated and pursued,” Seymour said in his brief filed with U.S. District Judge Thomas Jackson.

Earlier this month, Seymour wrote a letter to the Canadian Embassy’s lawyer urging a reconsideration of Ottawa’s refusal to allow the testimony of Ambassador Allan Gotlieb.

Seymour’s letter about Gotlieb’s refusal to testify about a Jan. 5, 1985, luncheon he had with Deaver said it “has forced us to place much greater emphasis at trial on the unlawful acts engaged in by Deaver when he was working for the Canadian government.”

Deaver, who became a $105,000-a-year lobbyist for Canada, is charged with lying when he testified that he did not participate in a White House decision to appoint Drew Lewis as U.S. envoy to Canada on the issue of acid rain.

Seymour has indicated that he plans to introduce evidence that Deaver violated the Ethics in Government Act when he met with Lewis and Gotlieb and another Canadian official on Oct. 25, 1985.