
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990                   TAG: 9005120286
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

JUSTICE OFFICIAL QUITS AFTER CLASH WITH CHIEF

Deputy Attorney General Donald B. Ayer and his top aide abruptly resigned Friday, two weeks after it was disclosed that Attorney General Dick Thornburgh ordered Ayer to revoke a letter expressing the Justice Department's support for stiff mandatory sentences for convicted corporations.

The resignation of Ayer, the Justice Department's second-ranking official, was the latest in a series of embarrassing personnel setbacks for Thornburgh. A former U.S. attorney from Sacramento and deputy solicitor general, Ayer had been tapped by Thornburgh to help him run the department only six months ago. But sources said Ayer was angered over being "frozen out" by Thornburgh's inner circle of aides from Pennsylvania.

In February, Ayer wrote a letter to the U.S. Sentencing Commission expressing the Justice Department's "strong support" for proposed guidelines that would mandate stiff mandatory fines for corporations convicted of fraud, dumping toxic wastes, and other serious crimes. But three weeks later, after business groups complained to White House counsel Boyden Gray, Ayer was ordered by Thornburgh to withdraw the letter.

The White House announced that assistant attorney general William P. Barr, the chief of the office of legal counsel, will be nominated to replace Ayer. Barr, one of the strongest conservatives in the department, is best known as the author of two controversial advisory opinions last year authorizing the U.S. military to make arrests overseas and the FBI to seize fugitives in foreign countries without the consent of the those governments.

The White House also announced that U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bonner, a former federal prosecutor, will be nominated to be the new chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Bonner would replace John C. Lawn, who resigned two months ago to become vice president of the New York Yankees.

While Thornburgh aides said that Ayer's resignation was a result of the attorney general's determination to "manage" a tight ship, other administration officials said the move reflected the insular nature of the Justice Department under Thornburgh's tenure.

by CNB