Presidential campaign and transition Following the
Iowa caucuses, Meese joined the
1980 Reagan presidential campaign full-time as chief of staff in charge of day-to-day campaign operations and senior issues adviser. After the
1980 election, Meese headed
Reagan's transition effort. At the advice of Meese, Reagan secretly allowed his campaign to establish a transition office to avoid difficulties similar to those faced by the
Nixon administration in its
transition following the
1969 election. "Ed had an uncanny ability to look down the road," said Pen James,
Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. Meese's presidential transition team employed more than 1,000 individuals, with 311 being paid in federal funds, 331 working for a "token" $1, and the rest serving as volunteers. When accounting for inflation, the Reagan transition team spent slightly less money than the Carter transition team, $1.75 million versus $1.78 million. Meese became Counselor to the President, who appointed him as a member of both his
Cabinet and the
National Security Council from 1981 to 1985. On Monday, September 14, 1981, Meese chaired the first White House discussion of what would become Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the missile defense program. Near the end of Reagan's presidency, Meese's involvement in the
Iran–Contra affair as a counselor and friend to Reagan was scrutinized by the independent counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, which stated in its official report that Meese's knowledge of the 1985 HAWK transaction "raised serious legal questions". Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure in the
White House. Former Reagan advisor and journalist
David Gergen said, "He's a tremendously influential and highly valued adviser to the President who advises on issues all across the board. He's one of the men who has known [the President] so long and so well he's become almost an alter ego of Ronald Reagan." Shortly after, Meese offered a tongue-in-cheek defense of Scrooge, saying that he "had his faults, but he wasn't unfair to anyone" and that he suffered from "a bad press".
Attorney General Reagan nominated Meese to be
William French Smith's successor as
U.S. Attorney General on January 23, 1984. For more than a year, Democrats repeatedly charged Meese with unethical conduct to bar his confirmation as attorney general, including a report by
Archibald Cox to the
Senate, which alleged that Meese had a "lack of ethical sensitivity" and "blindness to abuse of position". Meese was finally confirmed by a vote of 63–31, with more opposition than any other Attorney General nominee had received since the 1920s. He began serving as Attorney General in February 1985. In 1985, Meese received
Government Executive magazine's annual award for excellence in management for his service in this role.
Iran-Contra scandal In the late-1980s, Meese was investigated for his role in covering up the
Iran-Contra affair to limit damage to Reagan. Although evidence supporting this accusation came to light, Meese was ultimately not charged with any obstruction.
Wedtech scandal In February 1987, James C. McKay was named independent counsel in the
Wedtech case. The investigation centered on actions Meese took that benefited him and his longtime friend and former lawyer, E. Robert Wallach. McKay looked into Meese's involvement, while Attorney General, in negotiations involving the company Wedtech. (E. Robert Wallach worked as a lobbyist for the company and sought help from Meese on Wedtech contract matters.) McKay never prosecuted or sought indictment of Meese, but in his official report, which is still confidential, he was highly critical of Meese's ethics and urged further investigation of Meese's role in that scandal and others such as Meese's efforts to help
Bechtel Corporation. Meese described it as a "full vindication". While Meese was never convicted of any wrongdoing, he resigned in 1988 when the independent counsel delivered the report on Wedtech. Prior to his resignation, several top Justice Department officials resigned in protest of what they and others viewed as improper acts by the Attorney General. Reagan publicly voiced support for Meese in his role as Attorney General, during a press conference: "If Ed Meese is not a good man, there are no good men." That was in response to questions about his actions at the Justice Department.
Meese Report On May 21, 1984, Reagan announced his intention to appoint the Attorney General to study the effect of
pornography on society. The
Meese Report, convened in the spring of 1985 and published its findings in July 1986. The Meese Report advised that pornography was in varying degrees harmful. Following the release of the report, guidelines of the Meese-led Department of Justice were modified to enable the government to file multiple cases in various jurisdictions at the same time which eroded some of the markets for pornography.
Drug control policy As Attorney General, Meese chaired the National Drug Policy Board, which coordinated with
Nancy Reagan's "
Just Say No," national anti-drug educational campaign. One of Meese's innovations was to seek the cooperation of drug-producing countries. "One of our most effective weapons against drug traffickers," Meese wrote in his autobiography, "was to confiscate the assets of their criminal activity, such as expensive autos, yachts, businesses and homes.... To make this technique even more effective, we shared the proceeds with cooperating local law enforcement agencies to enhance their drug-fighting activities."
Supreme Court views In 1985, Meese delivered a speech calling for a "jurisprudence of original intent" and criticizing the
Supreme Court for straying from the original intention of the
U.S. Constitution. Justices
William J. Brennan and
John Paul Stevens disagreed with Meese publicly later that year. The dispute foreshadowed the contentious
Robert Bork hearings of 1987. Meese was known for his opposition to the
Miranda Warning ruling by the Supreme Court, which required a suspect's rights to be read to him before he is questioned by authorities. His spokesman clarified to
The Washington Post that: ==Iraq Study Group==