Edwin Meese

Edwin Meese III served as Counselor to President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985 and as Attorney General from 1985 to 1988. Before his time in Washington, Meese served in Governor Reagan's California cabinet, where he worked alongside Earl Brian and Lowell Jensen. His personal and political associations with both men became central to allegations about his role in the PROMIS Software Scandal.¹

Role in the PROMIS Software Scandal

The House Judiciary Committee's September 1992 investigation (House Report 102-857) placed Meese at the center of its conspiracy theory. The committee found that Meese and Lowell Jensen had "consciously ignored INSLAW's proprietary rights" and that Attorney Generals Meese and Richard Thornburgh had "blocked or restricted congressional inquiries into the matter, ignored the findings of two courts and refused to ask for the appointment of an independent counsel."¹

Meese's connection to Earl Brian was the committee's primary circumstantial evidence of motive. Both men had served together in Reagan's Sacramento cabinet; in 1985, Meese's wife purchased stock in a Brian-controlled company.¹ INSLAW alleged that Meese had arranged for the DOJ to steal PROMIS and funnel its distribution rights to Brian as a reward for Brian's alleged role in the October Surprise negotiations — a theory that, if true, would make the PROMIS theft a product of a political debt going back to 1980.²

Upon becoming Attorney General in February 1985, Meese reportedly recused himself from all PROMIS-related matters, citing his prior association with Brian. Jensen, then serving as Deputy Attorney General, took over all PROMIS decision-making on Meese's behalf.² This recusal produced a specific documentary trail: a May 1985 letter advising that PROMIS software was being provided to an Arab sheik for resale and distribution, brokered by Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard Armitage, was brought to William Bradford Reynolds for signature by Jensen's secretary while Jensen was absent — Reynolds signed it under the impression that the letter required a signature from within Meese's inner circle.²

The Bua Report (1993) and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (1989) both found no credible evidence of a conspiracy between Meese, Brian, and DOJ officials to steal PROMIS. The Senate report found "no proof that Jensen and Meese had conspired to ruin Inslaw or steal its product, or that Brian or Hadron were involved in a conspiracy."³⁴

Dark Alliance Investigation

As Attorney General, Meese received reports about Barry Seal's massive drug operations at the Mena, Arkansas airport, but took no action. A letter from Louisiana's Attorney General to Meese characterized Seal's smuggling operation as having moved "$3 billion to $5 billion worth of drugs into the U.S." Despite the scale of Seal's operations, which made him one of the largest drug importers in the American South, Meese's DOJ dropped federal cases against Seal over the strong objections of state and federal law enforcement. The stated reason was that prosecution might expose national security information.⁵

Meese was also the official who publicly announced the Iran-Contra scandal in November 1986, revealing that millions of dollars from U.S. missile sales to Iran had been illegally diverted to fund the Contras.

Resignation

Arnold Burns, Meese's Deputy Attorney General, and William F. Weld, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, submitted simultaneous resignations in March 1988 after meeting separately with White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker to raise concerns about Meese's conduct. Their joint departure was described as an unprecedented mass exodus signaling complete loss of confidence in the department's leadership. Meese resigned in August 1988 following an independent counsel report that found "substantial evidence" he had violated federal law but declined to prosecute.²