Deaver Phoned Secretary of Transportation, Jury Told

WASHINGTON — Witnesses testified Wednesday that former White House aide Michael K. Deaver made lobbying contacts with the secretary and deputy secretary of transportation in 1985, although he subsequently told a grand jury “I don’t recall” any such contact.

The testimony in federal court went to the heart of an independent counsel’s case against Deaver, who is charged with three counts of making false statements to the grand jury and two counts of lying to a congressional subcommittee about his lobbying activities after he left the White House.

Shirley Ballard, personal secretary to Elizabeth Hanford Dole when she was secretary of transportation, testified that telephone logs showed that Dole and Deaver spoke with each other on June 3, 1985, after Deaver had tried to reach her five days earlier.

Airline Sought Help

Other testimony established that Trans World Airlines had paid Deaver $250,000 to try to contact Dole during that period, as part of TWA’s unsuccessful effort to get the Transportation Department to help block a corporate takeover attempt by investor Carl C. Icahn.

James H. Burnley IV, Dole’s top deputy at the time and now her designated successor, testified that he also spoke with Deaver about the TWA matter, in late May of 1985. He said he made the phone call after he was told that Deaver was trying to reach Dole, who was traveling in Europe.

Burnley said Deaver sought only to learn how the department would process a petition such as TWA’s request to have the government declare Icahn unfit to run an airline.

Deaver “made no specific remarks on how we ought to handle it. There was no opinion, no influence, no lobbying,” Burnley testified in response to a question from Marc Gottridge, an associate of the independent counsel, Whitney North Seymour Jr.

Burnley said he also called Deaver on June 10, 1985, to tell him that the department had rejected TWA’s petition.

Saw No Impropriety

Defense attorney Randall J. Turk asked Burnley if he believed there was anything improper about Deaver’s contacts with the transportation department.

“Absolutely not,” Burnley replied.

Deaver is not charged with direct violation of federal ethics laws, which restrict lobbying by former government officials. He is accused only of lying about his actions. His lawyers have been trying to convince the jury that Deaver never intended to lie, that he gave investigators inaccurate answers only because his memory was impaired by alcoholism.

In questioning Ballard, Turk sought to raise doubts about whether it was Deaver himself--or perhaps an associate in his firm--who spoke with Dole. Ballard had no personal recollection of the matter, only references on her phone logs to “Mike Deaver.”

Second Lobbyist’s View

Yet the testimony of Charles Black, another Washington lobbyist TWA hired for the takeover battle, suggested strongly that Deaver had indeed talked with Dole. Black recalled discussing arrangements for the call with Burnley and then speaking to Deaver, “who indicated he was going to give her a call.”

Turk did elicit from Black information intended to counter prosecutors’ suggestions that Deaver, trading on his friendship with President Reagan, had charged his lobbying clients excessive fees. Black testified that Washington lobbyists charge domestic clients as much as $300,000 a year and foreign clients up to $800,000.

Challenging Deaver’s alcoholism defense, prosecutor Gottridge asked Black to describe Deaver’s speech and apparent memory in the conversations he had with him in 1985.

“Nothing unusual,” Black said.