1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-11-07; Part 1 of 6

it'sbeenis isand the investigationneverthelesscombination with others in the presidential election of nineteen seventy two when the campaignsays the nameis it told the previously that when it injects tomr stan siegelman miami that sustains it that the fall of an epidemicor wrongly mr franzen fernandez has been presentas shrek tonight i didn't object he did not think the phone

call senator obama and i asked him and i said what doyou gaze at the check and it as possible way thatwhat always was that a phone call here as promisedsecretary romney recall in the fall and outmr stan said that you don't make a call and thereforehe couldn't tell me that their retirement check is typical ventilatorand knowing it in my company to say it would make godzilla third nicely whatdo it reassures the pain for my money i meanit in the competition so for any other reasonthan that you're not seeking to make that vision for the reelection presidents know so i wasn't reallyinterested in the informationand that brings to washington

tonight on a great videotape coverage of today's hearings bythe senate select committee on presidential campaign activities here is nprcorrespondent yukijugglers out of town on assignment will be back with us tomorrow night six monthsafter hearing its first witness the senate watergate committee begins the third and finalphase of its investigation of the presidential campaign of nineteen seventy twoan inquiry in the campaign financing and the first day produced to lightfireworks the first man to testify was a somewhat unlikely witnessfor an investigation that promises to explore the relationship for in betweenraising money for president nixon's re election campaign and some of the biggest corporations inamerica the witnesses' names william amato is a former white house staffaide and he played a key role in marshalling election year support among spanishspeaking people he was followed by john jay priest is a miami baylor and

was previously gave a startling testimony when he said was there was an alleged dealbetween him and former commerce secretary laurie stands to exchange acampaign contributions in exchange for favors from the federal housing administrationmr spencer nemo the knife is midnight tonight is the russianmisses the committee council is in charge of this phase of the investigation davisfirst they produced a sort of a classic quid pro quo of the campaigncontribution in exchange for a favor that is this going to be the pattern of futuretestimony well i'm not sure that we can to make an ipad and we intend to show a variety ofconduct that is relevant and they might make some comments on what you said first i thinkthe major thrust of the first witness mr amado was that there are other waysof financing when you can claim and raising money and spending money and part of theclass was to show the committee and the public that there are hatch act problems and

resources available to the incumbent that familiar to spend resources withouthaving to raise a dime some non literaladjective not yet we see the attention he deserves and should be the focus ofany committee that hopes to make new legislation in this area that withinseconds to face this i think the testimony of speaks for itself i'm notsure in fact i was question whether it shows any quid proquo arrangement with mr stearns that i think issomething that i would rather not comment any further but i think that the story would lead them astraynegotiations between was the priestess and benjamin hernandez the head of thehispanic finance committee and of course mr stearns is the chairman of the financecommittee was poured into it but i do want emphasize that i think we actually have tosend them to me but the approach was made in a pre quid pro quo but says mr cruz seesas wilson whether to testify that you have another was given money though that about

some of the other things that are coming up i'm going to give intothem up front well let me go into larceny what we hadon public hearings up to the united states centers out what i can say is another publicreprimand me that three high officials or from a high officials and that the threecases of associated milk producers incorporated the largest milkproducing cooperatives have been rather than be on thecommittee and what this means is that they can be required to testify despite anyinformation they may have to plead the fifth amendment are there any indications unite subpoenaed former treasurysecretary can in this regard and in the newspaperswhat about it at any giventhat our present information is not so that is a majorarea which are we would require and others that the size of the one we have nowand it's not really equipped to do it and if we look into it it would require us

packing wants to produce the evidence for the publicno commentsituationin the prisonthe senate rules committee continued its hearing behind closed doors on vice presidentof a major oil fired and the house judiciary committee announced it would beginhearings on ford in one week senator george mcgovern the phoenix hisopponent in the last election the president either would be impeached or wouldresign and republican senator george aiken of vermont said congress should adrianpeterson actually get off his back a federal court judge answer record

turned down a bid for a new trial by the six watergate conspirators and at thewhite house a presidential lawyers said they would not oppose the appearance of the phoenix isconfidential secretary rose mary woods before silicon to testify about missingtapes finally the continuing revelations about a three hundred thousand dollarssecrets fund for florida republican edward kennedy a member of the watergate committeei'll be back after today's testimony to talk to fellow gailey of the nightnewspapers washington bureau about the story and reports of similar shutdowns reportsindustry praised he's testified to today that today's testimony in thefirst hour former presidential aide william amato city at amafia white house group set up to capitalize politically onadministration programs to help spanish speaking americans during the second hourdrama coach testified that funds to a minority consulting firm were cut off

because of farm was not on the next city and our number threemile markers testimony was interrupted by an argument involving senator like her in mindand chief counsel send theirs montoya cop car mamathose efforts an incredible and so just like we said the committeestaff seeking to lend legitimate political activities with previous reports of illegalacts in the final hour john j priestesssaid he took a twenty five thousand dollar campaign contribution scrapbook ofhis troubles with the fha to murray stands crp financechairman and former commerce secretary stanton right now most of you did not help greece doesand the money was not accepted now callthem onit's

been greatthankyouwelltrial counselor for his turmoil in itschairman <unk> else could hear a brief opening statement which wewould like to present to the committee's time this is awritten statementlike media restated an open myself the questions is i mean it wassuggested first episode as they didn't come here today voluntarilyalso the company by counsel with him in trouble

within the limits of the law and yet without leaving anylegal rights as punishmentyetwithout waiting any of my own legal rights to respond intelligently to all questions of this committeeand the virus that the reason for the colony here today is to provide information relating tomy work and president nixon's administration to my involvement presidential election ofnineteen seventy two and was happy to provide this information whati did i believe to have been a public service for the american people and mostimportantly spanish speaking americans of a country you nowsay categorically here and now and for the publicrecord that at no time they ever involve myself in illegal or unethicalactivities or even engage in a typical political dirty tricks on thecontrary at all times i try to the best of my ability for more

quality ministration in the campaign in nineteen seventy two honestlyopenly on her own without anything to force the minethree years and white house staffer stan including individuals for sub cabinet positionsfor the executive branch nato is responsible concretely for thecoronation this administration efforts on behalf of spanish speaking americans i workclosely with a candidate committee on opportunities for the spanish speaking peoplesome agencies identifying it's creating programs and making sure theprogram to implement you may know spanish speaking people are thesecond largest minority in our nation have been for many years soaring intellectpresident nixon set out to do something about meeting the needs of the spanishcreated a statutory chemical media opportunities for the spanish speaking peopleyou sign up members of his administration which include cabinet

officers and members of the white house that just begun making federal government since thenthat means spanish speaking most of all he made the spanish speakingpeople active participants in the government this month'sexecutive level policy making positions his administration issignificant that the president waited more than fifty spanish speaking peopleof top positions in government couldn't record this is a timefor the last two administrations combined there the morning and she hadsixteen points program to greenspan's americans and all levels of government as a resultwas speaking peoples people persons have been brought in the federal governmentever before edition president nixon co the spanish speakingpeople do not have to take a backseat any other americans and benefiting from government programs andaids education he created special programs for spanish speaking childrenand how some innovative programs to write more in their homes for spanish speaking

americans and health president prove more and more funds to improve health careprograms a new economic opportunities that decisionwould increase business job options this is because we discovered that the spanishspeaking americans what have the economic mainstream of this country theywant to be businessmen industrialists developers share nation's economicwoes as nixon also wanted him to have that legitimate opportunityconsequently <unk> nixon's administration more spanish speaking have to stay inbusiness the opportunities provided by government than any other timethis is due in part to the fact that a team of which i was a part ofhow to identify spice picking people that want a piggy bank of these optionswe help spanish speaking people to know and understand a great varietyof federal programs qualify for themand doing this work never compromise the principal legitimacy we also been a

compromise the right of opportunity for those who want it government programs andcontracts because this activity in their progress waswe created you may ask why i was chosen for this job theasian american simple reason is that i wanted to do and thejapanese americans who look at the mexican americans in the body odors of southern californiai like them nowhere discrimination and lack of opportunity to mei was eight years old in the united states of america in my family theconcentration camp but also know what opportunity and justice is in america johni know the private job that comes with some give you the opportunity thedignity that most all other americans has always been the birth ofrichard nixon gave me a millionaire spanish speaking americans that opportunity thatdignity he did it and it continues to do and not just because he's seeking their votes andpatronage but because he's doing what is basically right

and basically just and counselors in the vicinitythe polling stationcan you tell us when you first get a while i guess i came in thefall of nineteen sixty nine was first that at wwith iran certificate staffers assistant to him and then inthe fall of nineteen seventy came over the white house as part of a newexecutive recruiting effort at an apartment not like and apossible a deposition in thelatter position that indiamore than three years there i was part of the team that

helped recruit individuals throughout the executive branch withconsiderable emphasis in the mine leaving green area for blacks arespanish speaking and other minorities in addition to that i had recruited other individuals notfit that category for all different kinds of positions and thenthen the laptop the last two years i can correctly i was responsible in a big daybasis for programs affecting the spanish speaking korean controlso and i would be fair to say that you werewhite house liaison for opportunities thati would try to define a price in terms of mrmaliki made to meet two high level what'snow during the year of the herbal what mightbe considered a campaign in nineteen seventy two was theatm and understanding that you had witnessed a mallard with regard

to your position that you're alsoengage in seeking opportunities for updating where forspanish speaking american twenties i think it was muchbroader it's basically afelony and five yearswe're assisting eligible and qualified spanish speaking firmsin organizations took aim federal funds or whatever program they wereinvolved in this could range from npr programs health educationand economic opportunity secondly we're responsible for any specialactivities and related to spanish speaking community and one example is when presidentchampion mexico was here i believe last year and now we haveto provide some suggestions as to what states and cities and

activities that might participate in conjunction with some are spanish speaking communitywe were responsible for the communications pertain to thespanish speaking in terms of equations of publicity of cordoneighteen i first went to various agencies and the white housefor me i had a responsibility of all the recruiting efforts forspanish speaking terms primarily of presidential support they positions but inaddition to that we also assistant sixteen point program andfourthly in conjunction with the speakers the whitehouse scheduled most generous years andalso what the service program at the committee for the reelection of presidentwe had a separate spanish speaking service programthat's when the army's sometime in the year

nineteen seventy two when her vehiclewith regard to where the opportunities for granted as i'm speaking a nineteentwenties was explained in terms of relationships to workwith the committee elected president the finance committee also the variousagencies i don't think there was any discussion interms of committee for the reelection or for the finance committee which wasfirstly there was discussion in terms of tryingto get a better handle on on the grant making processwhatdoes on withour listeners will equate it with theone gentleman who headed up one part of the finance committee and this wasgroup that dealt primarily with the

spanish community called the finance committee vehemently forcechartered the first part of nineteen seventy two and had a void benjaminfernandez los altos california i'll he internedorganized a national effort and about the mostdistasteful we have a high concentration of spanish speaking and i might add that this was thefirst time that the spanish speaking community had any kind of meaningful role in anational campaign was any responsibility to engage infundraising for libya under the national hispanic finance committeechristians were this tremendous blow ithink for therevenue that goes by million dollars movies about fourhundred thousand i was at an andy lee is our working relationship didyou have with any other person in the committee elected president about was that

speaking about tax on the finance committee the committeeyesterday parliament elects on viruswas the director the spanish speaking to vision of the committee for the reelection and whatthat it was an informal arrangements set up withthe theseand other members of the community there was aninformal arrangement was very first of all we had a team abouttheir five hosts were involved in spanish speaking area anddonna rodriguez who was my deputy carlos condit was on roberts'mind staff at that time was the director communications all what theyclosely with a phobia and the rumors he was chairman of the committee anoptimist spanish speaking and fourthly and some of us we used to meevery monday afternoon beginning i believe the report

nineteen seventy two to strategize in terms of thespanish speaking role and to keep herself a breast of our cropsand this is amazingglobalizationi think there's certainly something you can and it wasdisgusting those meetings were political nature in terms of what kind ofimpact would make unspecified community yet and i think that kind ofcommitment and dedication that members of this team head was one of the advocacyrole what we felt that this was the first time in his vision gavethis particular minority group an opportunity to get into the mainstream of the americaneconomic social political i think there's a twofold

situation do you have anyspecificsi will say thisconsistent with her opening statementtheinformationin the systemi mean my question

that's up the solomon islands that i used to doa weekly basis chuck colson and but now i think it's fantasticwould youthankyoutheplanincludesbigmm

hmmmr mala khanyou and this waswhitneyreports oh this is the i guess the humorous apartment at thetop of the news reports we do that i think that very focusedon a few occasions and dropout not only of suggestions from our butalso we decided to not be a good use of that talentthese entities

amish mafiathese groupsas wellthankyoui think substantial

assistance is provided through use of thecontrol of the executive plans through this controlled and fill in anygaps in the president's record and generally favorable publicitythank youfor usanadditional identify ensure that those federally subsidizedprograms with opposition political operatives are closelysupervisedsort of

now a garrison well iwas meeting was what you want tolearn the trade give youan overall view of how this fit into the bigpicture under arrest colson he had a responsibility forspecial interest groups such as the veterans usethe jewish vote the ethnic catholic women the elderlyspanish speaking while i think there are severalothers all of us have the mandate to developprograms that would best benefit our respective constituenciesand within that umbrellaincluded pointless to high level positions clear thatgenerating grants and contracts and

included trying to publicize all these accomplishments achievementsunder the next administration to our respective constituencieswhen he saysresponsible humanrights for nowthe plan and implement the plan to well to usethe power of the executive branch's department spent making powers of thepower in thisparticular a campaign adthe planis nowliz's at white

houseand to deliver and editorialwas some problem with the organization told meyou know what the need is this year but whatthe national economic development association which is suingnational spanish speaking economic development organizationfunded out of the office of minority business enterprise at the department talksyou say that i am attaching aneditorial written by anita employee opposing viewpoint made upas deputy director and they want somethingamusing office landlord business in france this is the latest example of theunwilling and the administration i think

and usuallya good and it's lined the fact of what i would reshapingthe court matter i wasmuslim cemetery commercehe waspresident of veteransof the organization what should explainlet me just explain that on this to me andif i recall correctly was responding to that thepolling doing that the past year or so we've found thatin finding a fine spanish speaking africacouple of the senior people with that decision were

very disruptive uncooperative in trying to further somebartles objects and this editorial was latest one forsome reason was recommended for the job after a nationalsearch as the number two man at the last minute as a surprisefor some reason some of the members now just in one year that they felt that he was a threatit would've been very controlling agencyfor the popei'm sorryof course the point i would make is the factthat this was the first time there's been speaking individual and opportunity to benumber one or number two positionbielawski says the unit

he was at the time the executive vice president of the organization andthat you'll ever ask him tuesday jerry avorn a demonstration in front of the losangeles times yes i don't know if ican follow to demonstrate thati was asked on that occasion by mrpaulson and the los angeles times came out with antennas visioneditorial calling particular subject wehad to as the video was organizing whodemonstrated for the los angeles times i think after acouple of very simple messages can do was thatpart of the strategy of your program that the organizations thatshow themselves beyond friendly to the administration or any individualswho were causing trouble and send information no

no idon't think so i think our main thrustwas not that so much as it was to try to enhance anddo everything we could to get the spanishspeaking people in the mainstream of thegovernment process i understand thatthat was due tobe among those who were competing in the spanish speakingcommunity that was part of this question was not out in thoseagencies as to who would get whacked in some casesrecession might be totally anti administrationthere would be a neutralizing effect of the us

which is a a weeklyhave a weekly reportthat's itthe poemthe compilation of eventsthis is a grey nineteen seventy two we can report

to you that that report and then youarrange for thatjacobsyou have thatiamlike manybusinesses herenow what we know

from the committee or the president is the political branchof the year in its entirety for the campaign ameeting with the black granite lowyesterday he wassigning off on an economist at mit it really is a signthat it wasthere was a momentmeaning andtherefore it was necessarythat's a testament to this

if patientswell again as they doon this and i scheduled to see larry silva andlater that night in a gw and job whatever thataction next week they should wrap up thedebate was this an effort at this period in march toyou from the white house and mr almond dust from the committeeto be meeting with this as acouple of us i think it was more grants again we try to dois select any deep on her agency that hadvacancies for high level positions or grants orcontracts that would pertain to this community and weasked are we asked to cooperate in trying to involve the

arctic a constituencyare you aware of the programyou briefly tell the committee what your understandingabout this believe it was the latterpart of the nineteen seventy one of the first park since nineteen seventy twotop officials on the white house staffdecided that we needed a vehicle to court madeany requests and action through the executive branch in terms ofhigh level appointments friends in contrast publicity of abortionsother things that would fit into this area yet for fivemen who were are the first reports that now ican and i believe today he's wellwhat was the way what was the years

within the four or five men who work on theirstaff they each had responsibility for so many departments and so manyagencies those of those schools is operations special interest groups and wouldfund any of our requests so that there was a court native effort on the white houseand the leadersand this was of his timenow they're trying towork with both of the saints have it's amemorandum from twoabout yourself now it's onwindows with temple and john adamsmr brown a special

assistant to the president and had responsibility for the black communityalso mr jones was the director of the black tradition and the committee for their actionsmr cole as the number two man at the mosque the council underthis is a different i believe was on thelegislative and congressional relations staff of the timemr evans was a member of the domestic council and among other things that responsibilityfor it outus presidents and the recently about the use ofthe audit that i thought oh thisopportunity to make a contribution and they had waited in theblack i have discussed the situation that cango on the importance of this program is a

real effect and it must be as you are but the white housebeat andibelieve thatthank youi am liberty there'sa couple that any early todaywe sat down with jon discuss the blacks and thinking problems respectivelyand sure he's fully apprised of your needs and other people is on asthat out that was at the beginning of the sort of concentration ofdealing with one person and that is that they're expecting up to this point wasfragmented for us so we're trying to jam into one office

i doso yeah we were i think of preferred wasbefore before the march nineteen seventy oneat theearthwell melissavisual the only a wave ofimproving ordination and more effective means of getting political impact andas that one about a tremendously decentralized in yourcapability to seize whereby one would obtain data regarding westof any congressional district organization publishesa system we talk about this i think on several occasions

but never could put together untilyou're beating again i guess it was at thattime was special counsel to the president inunison at a legislative office at the white house andthen there's the softwareimproving coordination and more effective means of getting political impactwe wantedit to spanish speaking and also the site that's political and thatthe installationsand what they wanti'm on page two have refined mr

evans now assuming the role that verified with the state's attended inthe world by john evans regarding my body business enterpriseas that are imposed on her greatest also be invited skulls wererecipients of grants for fiscal year seventy two as well as those being considered foradditional grants for fiscal year nineteen seventy ninewhen i represented the political rancher the committee thecampaign and one of the purpose of therecipients of the day the fiscal that seventy two as well as anadditional question says the us senate there were some instanceswhere these two cities could get a refund so forthat reason that the group was reviewed and i think there's a typographical error here in thesecond dimension to shoot rabinnow

you report that really isi'm the rhythm masters tradition asvision presented all of those materialif you set aside threehundred thousand dollars for one of our contractswhat was the meetingjimmy before answering explained whatservice under the nixon this fish and reestablished a minority business programa sba and commerce we can encourage more minoritybusiness more minorities to get into the business thisprogram which calls for set aside or department agency of fundingorganization put aside so many dollars for a minority countryin terms of our i think here we really met

one of our ownqualified competent management consultants from the communitywell this isan application within the impact that is becauseone of the meeting your best recollection of itif i recallspeaking greek do any work and transportationso that i think the site disinfect a mention of thepodcast vision there's one other notion and i think the firms names will recoverwill compete against each other so the effort here towork who preferwhich is your weekly report that enables them

to have them out in the polls and then on page twohundred and you have that as animmigrant at reporter curious and i work on the following the first thing youmentioned it's revealing with john evans brown and wallypoland where i'm going to make sure the right people are being considered andreceiving grants a right people want i think those who are eligiblefor funding you have to remember that there arevery few number of spanish speaking firms havegotten government contrast in the past several years well things and we're trying todo is get new ones and tall to make themselvesqualifying apply for federal fundsincludingso that's it yes and i think you

hear like to clear the air in terms of anyfact that we were just looking for republican contractors because in the spanishspeaking community and very very few actually looking for those whoqualify well as i think you've indicated earlier was was foryou and those who are working on this special program tofill gaps in the federal government has theresonance of the gaps in their imaginations and believe me that was to bringin more spanish speaking american peoplethatwas not the effort of the committee rejected president tobe a lot of as many of thedemocratic side the americans the president saidit would be democrats but it's

time to a distinction between a qualified sportingnowthepittsburghwhich is your weekly reports some of them out to the polls andmake twenty six nineteen seventy two and the ageto fight meand then your reports you mr mallard with boltonyou say expressed concerns over yet polio raythree million dollar grant to the mexican american unity council on thefind there are some legal kind of trying them all they promisedat least the opposition

i think this is a situation where they had received anyaggression or you know before sunrise that they've had beenthrough that it weren't necessarily supported the administration and listen and koreais trying to find them and checkingwith their general counsel we found goodquestion i don't recall someso the average loan fund them really was based on their body that they were notsupport of musicthat was always thebalance that has been seenas another one of the reports of my thought about the

polls and if he'll send a bakeryand well rodriguez is in theprocess of developing the list of all federal employeesrage he has fourteen and out for various uses by sevens you know why not say theone we're on standby now on this to me was that the military like the presidentbut what use is where they made ofthe federal employees great ideas for him outthey seem to be goingpurpose of this particular project all that i can recall frozen played itbecause you could not get any computer thati can recall that proposal intended purpose was trying toidentify who they were you know we can get them to assist us inidentifying programs that you can get involved in addition

to help the state that the case in terms of demonstrations studentswhat he'soblivious fourteen and over there's a state task force for the administrationis i mean you werewhat roll it might guess but i don't think we asked them to getinvolved politically to to articulate to the best to the nazi achievements ofthese ministries and a general sense that might be a legitimateuse of income because of the un programs in they could demonstrate them this wouldalso have an impact on the campaignsixteen you reportand another weekly report was not often rodriguez

medley well as a measure to talk aboutsetting is that doesn't have money for some about republicansetting asidebut you know i was at itthe widow of thousands of money for some ofyour republican i think perceived as this is one ofvery few times that the republican has ever been written in thesereports i don't think that that intentionally intentwas all rightmr lombardo and i think you have medically obese they'vebeen the main question and this actually made it there was a very substantialeffort made on your car uses spanish speaking americans andamerican businesses but i think it is fair to

say that in the effort to doso there was in kept in mind the political impact thatsuch an activity would have as another factor was preference thatyou've already indicated on a number occasions but those were supported by thebundling of the number these references to reports it's a show repeatedly andreports some of them out and is suppose that you're reporting meetings withthis federal agencies in which an effort was made to want to establish a relationshipand two i'm saying and irresponsible rebel un programpreference for supportive does that isthat a fair statement nowthere isthe memorandum that i won't notice

would be different with that in total talk about these in general theidea with particular that happensthat youknow is that the you know thisis the last clue a company were what they dothe services and in his firm's jamisonsolutions has been he just had his own firm here in the districtfor a little over ten years or soplease democrat pleaded up the marylandvirginia district committee for the national hispanic finance committeea number of yourmind you indicate that progress has been madethroughout the tang clans for him or what programs that so

he had already received some governmentcontracts and before this program by the administration thenthey're in a course of our effort again was a lotof that it had received a few years well wehave refrained from time to time and you said it repeatedly youqualified spanish speaking americanbusinessman how our bt chairman larry to theirbusiness was qualified or not when you look over graham who made that decision it wasthe program the agency will of the vices thefirm was totally unqualified we would have to explain that to happennext to these firms that i would say generally speakingthat most of the firms that's made proposals won't qualify

this question of theseasonyou mentionedand leon all of libya are qualified theagency would report that you and you would not press for prayerthat's rightit was not support the ministrations was more qualified than another was aboardthe preference would be given that one was for years and i think that thatwas an exceptional situationrose's organization was thatyes i think so i

generally did not deal directly with these contractorsconsultants security that it was very big yes i think thatwe as the mysteries of my staff bits and checking onhim two or three agencies were really good of the countrywell another number that's right there were friends of those systems within therest who as you say was the head of the year both the ceo ofmaryland and virginia is that it or finance committee for the presidenton that tax can you march thirty one reportpage three the nineteenforty oneoccasion of polio of washington of the citybut then you look at that fifteenpage to

seven of thedepartment of transportation working with underrated seventysoldiers in washington state and thatcomment about the polls and he is the chairman of the dc maryland andvirginia section of the nationals financethat they said and werejust selecting it a few days ago that i'm aware thattime going through all the minor ones that thirty sevento payrecommendedthey're what make a contract to us facilities thatwas a standard that they are not related to intercept the companies