1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-12; Part 1 of 4

it's b in the sixties there was a loose he's like really senator ervin's watergate investigation today

successfully fought off several high level attempt to curb its activities confronted with the first reluctant witness leading the danger of a prejudice trial the committee unanimously voted to force him to testify under threat of content of the senate jay federal judge jones dismissed an attempt by special watergate prosecutor archibald cox the blackout television coverage of some witnesses before the committee that applies immediately to the two men who reportedly have the most dramatic stories to tell just up the river and jaunty dresser record that had both men immunity to appear ago the number two man in the nixon reelection committee will probably appear tomorrow and gain the white house counsel mr nixon fired will appear next week and democratic members of the committee mostly dismissed the much publicized charge by vice president agnew that the televised investigation was a gross perversion of justice the message from the committee today was full speed ahead and down the torpedoes judge director's decision and

a delay of several weeks and given immunity for being an mcgregor special prosecutor archibald cox said he had no plans to appeal a surrogate decision so rick also ordered jon bane to appear were for the federal grand jury here in washington and didn't get so we're in the bank and according to press reports to the man there were to chafe committee lawyers sam dash and fred thompson absent today they were preparing for the next witness and prepping jeb stuart mcgruder who could answer a lot of the questions that have been raised in the past few weeks georgetown university law school here in washington watched today's proceedings with this race stands testimony presented the committee with its first major legal hassle over the testimony witness did not yesterday at the problem workers chief counsel from his dismantling a battery of attorneys in the hearing room or as lengthy opening statement objecting

today hearings because he felt that they could prejudice is contrary to be tried by an impartial jury in another jurisdiction and senator and as you will see a couple murdered mr walker's presentation and turning down and they and all those shipments continue we'll be back with bill green hall at the close of tonight's broadcast of disgust that many other aspects of today's session he will be joined by alan bar or watch an author journalist who also watched today's session but not even mention because their case today except you're sure one another that they wanted to talk about the top instead of the large amounts of cash that stands angled including seventy five thousand dollars and over two hundred combat the president's personal lawyer without even getting an explanation of work the money was going to be used for twenty nine you

know so he was in washington and as well there's an alley running for their idea that there were speculation a new allegation and said i don't have any can't get new data check fees at the check cashing business you know later tonight you'll hear stands at which that was in the white house

between his testimony and that in order to day there was an eloquent debate over which branch of government should pursue the watergate investigation to help you plan your viewing here is an hour by hour a rundown of today's testimony in the first hour campaign schedule where a reporter details what he's then cashier including several payments to pranksters during the primaries bit less purchasing equipment using doing photographs of memos from senator muskie's headquarters is secretary replied some of them the second i find senator evan in the constitutional debate with robert parker journey from a listener where can he get a fair trial in the light of a blanket of publicity and explaining why the senate was moving ahead senator evan charges the electoral process has been polluted and the third hour finance chief maurice turns testifies that he had no knowledge of either the watergate operation or any campaign savage much when he's asked about a memo suggesting that stands out to a political fire the commerce

department says he knew nothing about it and the fourth hour standstill so i'm meeting with the president's personal attorney robert comeback he says he gave combat seventy five thousand dollars for a special mission with authorities said from the white house later stan says john dean colvard and asked for twenty two thousand dollars to replenish her white house from stand says he doesn't know how the money was used not so well senator warner a witness a reporter continuing his testimony last week the committee the committee will come on and on a proposed indigenous

beauty you have the patriots speaking as a sort of celebrities of the fact that the two pregnant two pieces of testimony again they said last week words that you dismiss and sixty nine thousand dollars bonus i wish my thoughts on the current program at the trial that was the groove is requests on what you pay at the money to do it for two viewpoints there would you explain to the committee disposed of sixty nine thousand dollars i don't think that was gone into a much detail that we are so

creative the pittsburgh has approximately thirty one thousand dollars the purpose of useful purpose i was not aware of that eight thousand dollars to mr richard hauer at the white house that mr rivers request when to use a us facility where he was going to use this money i don't know it was a vacation because he felt that the campaign finance reports of

eleven hundred dollars to lionel hampton for an airline for the remark thirty seven thirty eight hundred dollars to a rotten reviews in los angeles on televisions the motives and some signed the family that was a sensuous and also came on tv we use eighteen months to do so

three weeks mr robert martin for an advance california leads the bank was closed three hundred dollars to about i would say seven or eight people in various spots around the country to follow the president's campaign opposing candidates signs of a city this is nixon country over or whatever you give each one that marked the paper signs here and there were eight hundred thousand to one

occasion to enter soon leave a week listener mcgovern's headquarters and i played another two hundred dollars to mr stoneham senators known for second time in hampshire to make a contribution to that these were all the direction of mr mcgregor no three hundred and fifty dollars just reverse direction for the printing of a of a small amplitude a new listener must be candidates at approximately twenty five dollars word for stamps and about a thousand dollars that's really want to carry on about two or three occasions is a common say that once for approximately three thousand dollars families

youth director the creators of forty nine thousand five hundred dollars after april seventh i gave thirty three hundred dollars to reverse direction i did not know i get approximately ninety dollars to my purse or without a bath undersecretary for two months it so again forty four hundred dollars to filter one of them is that many of the four thousand dollars to mr robert

little on two visions of two thousand dollars that morning i think that three hundred dollars for cash expenses on a trip to california is that mitchell's in the more incendiary rivers and the reason we've been seventeen mr cannon he was on i understand and i'm a total payments of about six thousand dollars over three month period again to mr stone that was passed onto a mighty river's last name i wasn't mentally from a local who were

three of the primary campaigns as kind of eyes and ears in the campaign and a movement that's about nineteen thousand dollars sixty nine thousand dollars fifty two thousand before april seven thousand about seventeen thousand dollars after house when he was testifying he testified that he had given you a hundred thousand dollars annual cost of the discrepancies in your testimony and hiv these discrepancies and i said the wrong and that it'd been approximately sixty five to seven thousand dollars and the biggest reason now

i know he was a genius that's true i answer your question mr libby was going to come it was

nineteen seventy two with the exception of the thirty three million dollars but he was also getting money from we do mr gruber after he had come to a water hole and quoting from morocco you study also told me they were going to be seven indictments are listed off a series of names a number of names people that you thought would be indicted for these people if you thought the end i really believe that i believe the names mr lew mr martin himself is strolling mr strahm

being mr colson from west virginia he had any discussion of a wide and thought that they were implicated an isolated you and he have any discussion of that particular time he really would be indicted good morning and you mentioned that you were with a number of people question of the

week that's true reading that to secure nobody ever asked me anything and i said we had a phone line and a little sweet and he said well that wasn't good enough and i said why do you need it and he said well we want to talk to me and then there was also and i said well what's wrong and random in and go i don't know what i mean i don't believe so there was also testimony that i think it was your wife

mariane as chaplains magruder the information and wisdom and roseanne for morning long he was playing sunday mornings she later and they were and that's an island made a comment to me that senator mccain had been a sense very early morning on morning he's on the phone the juicy lucy magruder at all the rest of the day on sunday senator i believe that on that morning in addition to his parents and i supported

the conversation any time there ms day of the outbreak of this really was making arrangements of that time for education that the washington and he left washington sometimes people did you see during the purpose principles and most mature was the rules of modern anybody else morning renee political meeting mr mitchell we do and it was

in those conversations mr mitchell and in the news and i was asked on walking to spend some fifty yards away or whatever it was and then at this meeting who are particular meeting fb mr clifford miller from los angeles was president but i'm not sure that he was president that there were several of these conference is going on here that you say three or four probably and would you please name all people if you can

remember who participated in some of those you're going here and it becomes did any of these people repeat you later and then i asked i think it was believe that the one of the company's employees have been caught inside the democratic national committee asked him what was james mccord through and what about the rest of the time when you were in california you recall any conversations that took place about watergate that you have any knowledge i don't know who didn't even hear those conversations with any of those

people you're in california did you make any phone calls i have been asked to leave that question by one member severe committee i received a phone call from the same roger stone i mentioned earlier in this that the lighter testimony and was just taking the house while iran i had taken my family and help one of the reasons yes a significant he was the i think it was on monday night is feeding our dogs and the phone rang in it's best for me and i don't believe you

i don't think this is accurate i think it was no one immediately and i was convinced it was a prank call me but because i think and he just took the information to think you know again you participate in any conferences phone conversations with anyone about this watergate break in to discuss their the committee report you're worried about the destruction of weapons rockets that you

destroying of the only accounting that you mention all i really didn't have an interactive center rather than a song speaking german other things that i had been compensating over current ones that really were not classified as anything for an hour from the time that you were only socially committed or what the president will now have you had any discussions about loaning aig opening of surveillance and sabotage in the hole no one has to be called no no with anyone

and i don't really have a meeting on january twenty four nineteen seventy two most mature mr mcgrew there is that many of us in the campaign had been a series of positions spanish michel

just to find out what you know of your own knowledge while the present united states had any prior knowledge about the watergate surveillance and knowledgeable about the united states to have any participation the knowledge of the cover up beauty is true the paintings by the peace boston working in the white house

responding to a request now while you were upset with voters invested committed reelected the final record might be short we write an extensive damage thank you it's been

successful i started finding it rolling stone in that context i'm doing this for you because i

was aware of it indicated that as important even investigators from getting investment june his daughter ran the president now however say i believe that that was important and that the investigation be kept widening investigation and that because i'm having to go on foot others he's the seventy three investigators he and the investigators of the opposition

to the democrats and what was any incentive to do that why didn't mention those specific names good morning he didn't say anything i mean i should say that mr mcgregor in stating those who were present at the meeting i got a picture that there was a discussion but me bringing messages from the meeting

one of them as members of that money there was looting i was involved in watergate however there was a problem with the authorized funds given the mr levine and he had taken some of these authorized funds but industry senator the us they decided at this meeting that they wanted to be able to say the investigators that the money had been authorized to actually or something they were a little bit more legitimate sending them than what they had been authorized for an unused mcgregor was going to do

that and asked me and i got the impression that i was being asked by the other is also true and in fact replace one authorization with another one that will be less embarrassing but one that was not in any way in my opinion to my knowledge at the time when the watergate he committed perjury he said he was making that i don't believe that those words were used there are people who are what groups do think a lot of the pieces of the meeting so mr mitchell or

a group mr liddy have good news to see a long low is that what was instructions oh for you and anything happen i don't know do you have any question exactly as indiana law he

would give you see along will tell you and spoke to the ambulance deliver him to the attorney general of the united states they were in a safe place ms lee yeah you testified last week about a meeting you had witnessed parkinson's law believe in the reelection of the president was in awe i know he'd do just that

it was a command they created a conversation you're referring to is that with them is that the main body is meeting in his office at his request was me i don't remember exactly no he said and he circled label by an actual movie

raiders were not holed up under indictment and it's a foreigner had meetings with mental mean when we for anybody i know i never use them conversations recruiter and the thing jennings in the second paragraph i never had any meetings after that mr mitchell or listening i may have had a conversation with mr rubin and that was the extent of the beginning of some significant

conversation true story the facts of the case so we'll see so i think it was for the question we can juries

but the moneys that was to which you gave to seven as you mentioned in that list the purchase of microfilm viewer but the image would be in nina rees and liza mundy not specifically mention it was reed's money or is there a separate extension it is a separate country or a community now that explosion i believe it was probably a sixty dollars dollars in the nature of a microphone as a microphone

as the films that dylan of the thirty five millimeter film at the microphone so you thought you had this class thought in your mind and of the reduced payments but isn't that soldier gave us money to secretary michael duncan are secretary i'm renee montagne you know were instructed your secretary to purchase for michael senator i don't

remember i think at the time that the best reader grow some thirty five millimeter negative known to be one on occasion i remember looking for a a better viewing be a golden a little tiny thing the middle of your eye and i i didn't go i believe do one or two cameras norris host of the committee and look for a thirty five millimeter film projector and it's possible that it might have at a lunch hour something to go to one of these places to see if she could find one or see if you knew where to get one i was having trouble finding one and that getting one in new york out of a new york company so this no no

with thirty five millimeter they were angele thirty five millimeter photographs or negative intro office memos from senator must news campaign headquarters and did you get any sort of an admonition to your secretary ms the corners to whether or not she was free to talk about the sport i think there was a general understanding is under the time that there wasn't anything that are being talked about that question won't know exactly what this is duncan's function was in

relation to these particular a backup center answer the question people more fully and put in context at a certain time and not in the exact month november perhaps nineteen seventy one best recruiter came into my office with aig small role very small role of thirty five millimeter film and a little viewing device like a sword from the back and he said we're all these for me but i have to staff members so he came back later i think a day later perhaps and retrieve the phone and said that he was going to show mr

mitchell he came back giovanna mr mitchell because he was a little irate at me for not making sure that the batteries work he got a letter in the batteries and work in la after that and as a reader where he got them and he refused to tell me at the time and later date mr ritter said that mr ken reads we're trying to deliver and what i knew of them and for him for mr mcgregor and anything that i thought oh

no or an interesting idea and history has started delivering these things to make and i didn't do them and that i think the first or second time i did this so it became apparent that i needed something a little more easy on the ai perhaps to do to see what these things said and so i then went out and out of my own pocket i think wrote a check for just a small little rejection your second term participate and typing any transcripts or memorandum based on these michael

i think it was in december from one of the campaign's officials to the center or perhaps to his campaign manager saying that the media senators will leave as chairman of the subcommittee on government operations or something like that which senator is a senator a muscular could be used as a great fun to go to california and holds hearings will be a great visual the center must be involved no we thought that was rather interesting to say the least and i thought was the past week too just

incentives and in general professor susan center mosque is speech that he was going to deliver in the senate against the nomination of women in the supreme court it's specific and he said let me check

and so we read i read the ingenuity i believe when he was top the numbing yourself does not have any kind of use them as duncan to the white house to give gordon strong copies of the full array of documents or the transcripts and i don't remember whether i did not remember it if i did it would have been deported from i will tell you

on the other hand the senate i don't remember i believe it was only one having the rehnquist that speech put together i think it was a long island and it was sentimental know that i think that may have been sent over i just don't remember and us at that time that these various documents a lot of the river is one question the entangling of these documents

did you consider them to have been obtained legally or illegally i remember asking a reason i said no i knew that interested in us mail be a violation of the law it will be in the same category as i'm taking a picture of that one waiting for jerry maguire was illegal and legal services that you didn't think it was legal why did you indicate you're secretary these were not matters to be discussed i think it is

and he kind of information gathering again an assassination there might have been an instance where you set the true to the white house to gordon strong or am i correct in saying that there were those instances in itself i can remember the exact things many variations

i do remember specific instances where congress and the night and here at night and there was i saved as duncan says that she did then i would believe that i remember specific incidents but i would say that i would say that if it's an answer i can remember the documents and there was an article undersecretary for terrorism so the first

hour testimony mr porter has given us are far more information than we had before about the extent of the espionage and senator muskie's campaign that memo staff memos in his campaign were photographed and copied by mr porter and they're going forward to the white house and he'll be asked about documents that he destroyed after the watergate break in we just like to say wow we take a pause that we are very gratified with the viewer responds to this gavel to gavel experimental coverage of the watergate hearings on public television the response has been enormous in the mail and if any of you still want to express an opinion about it we suggested you do it to your local public television station the station you're watching now after all it is that station which depends on your support and which incidentally in the public television system actually makes the individual decision on whether to carry programs of its kind public television's coverage of the hearings will continue after this

pause for a station identification on average coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service of the member stations of pbs the public broadcasting service the pittsburgh fb from

washington and that continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities you again correspondent robert mcneil

there's the hearings resume our number two will include more questions put to a reporter and some praise for his testimony and that involves some of senator ervin's now famous use of shakespearean quotations to characterize witnesses your testimony you were who had been instructed by partisans by matt mentions the reason or your testing i think specifically or did you essentially

reasons why that's right well i mean it was just the reason is that your position and pursuing to work in your conversation with mr parkinson and there are the other people you didn't appear before the fbi or you were interviewed by the fbi needed him for the grand jury and then you did a year before the us attorneys

i think they could interview me i did appear before the grand jury and walking and i didn't hear that the trial court and the testimony would you have used all three places was with respect to the movie this first one hundred thousand dollars what is that what was your testimony that mr libby thirty five thirty five thousand dollars which is correct what i've stated that was not correct was that mr mcgregor had asked me in december ahmadi program of infiltrating radical organization because and i told him that it might cost three hundred thousand dollars and

use that as the base of that conversation as a basis to then say it it is there was a dialogue between you and with respect to a thing is by which you would testify before the grand jury in a hundred thousand dollars or eighty thousand dollars i understand were you you mention this year in a conversation with justin woodward indicating to him that you know that he could justify that expenditure one hundred thousand dollars by hiring but then what

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