1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-07-17; Part 1 of 4

it's been is is it about directing the waffle sole agent of the secret service shall give testimony to congressional committees or in their duties the supply of the senate select committee which is investigating matters relating to the watergate break in and the crime happens which i have no longer been made an impression on members of the white house detail of the secret service you have to communicate that information to you

you should request for information on procedures in the white house will be given consideration would receive only sensor that was in the senate of the united states a resolution to establish a select committee senate investigation and study of improper or unethical activities were engaged in by any person is acting individually or in combination others in the presidential election of nineteen seventy two campaign managers or other activity related to from washington and that brings to gavel to gavel videotape coverage of today's hearings with the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities years and that senior correspondent robert might need the testimony of watergate bagman herb or come back today became almost a

sideshow to the struggle between president nixon and be ervin committee over the production of evidence held by the white house mr nixon stop the committee from interviewing secret service agents and his spokesman ron ziegler stalled on whether the white house would give the committee the secret tapes which could implicate or exonerates the president while all this maneuvering was happening only partly in public view the committee tried to keep its attention on combat former minister nixon's post would turn and suddenly this afternoon his testimony became much more dramatic the committee revealed that john ehrlichman and take a phone conversation without combat knowing just before combat was to go before the grand jury in april combat said he felt has really been kicked in the stomach and accused women others accusing him to pay off the watergate defendants peter kay tells the story of the other drama that of the presidential debates which we first learned about in surprise testimony yesterday from former white house aide alexander butterfield the second chapter in the story of the white house tapes began yesterday with a subpoena for

secret service agents responsible for installing and maintaining recording equipment presidential offices then in quick succession president fired off a letter or forbidding secret service officers from testifying before congressional committees the secret service men showed up anyway today and appeared briefly before committee chairman sam irvin vice chairman howard baker and staff members they met briefly in the agents refused to testify the watergate committee went into executive session decided not to press that at this time instead the committee authorized chairman irving to write a letter asking the president to make the tapes and documents relevant to the investigation available presidential press secretary ron ziegler today reiterated decades of presidential conversations as well as documents would not be made available rufus had missed in the committee's deputy chief council believes that the white house is using the tactic that the tapes really or part of the secret service's presidential protective service and therefore are off limits to the committee that the committee's letter the ball

around the tape is back in the white house for tomorrow chapter three i'm a recording of a telephone conversation a white house phone also became a key element in today's examination of armored combat the attorney representing comeback it notified the committee staff we believe john ehrlichman had recorded a talk with come back on april nineteenth late in the day senator of them pulled out a transcript of a conversation began asking questions from and that exchange ehrlichman indicated he had been misled by john dean wheeler more details on the transcript later in the broadcast news unfortunately rundown orchard been seeing in his first hour of testimony explains how he gave two hundred and twenty thousand dollars to anthony you as a rites for the lawyers and families of the watergate seven in retrospect comeback says the action seems absolutely improper or didn't look that way at the time and the second

hour chairman urban league's the committee's letter to the white house asking cooperation and securing tapes of presidential conversations senator baker emphasizes that the committee is and on a fishing expedition khan but then resumed says just like telling our delivered three shipments of monitoring four hundred thousand dollars in nineteen seventy in new york and california at that time he says he was unaware that it would stop george wallace money comeback continues in the third hour saying he thought there was an obligation to wait those arrested watergate because he assumed someone high in the campaign organization and given the mission a green light as he became increasingly suspicious of what he was doing he didn't complain to the president come back says because that would've been presumptuous in the fourth hour comic discusses a tape of a telephone call between himself and john ehrlichman that was recorded april nineteenth without his knowledge he says he felt it you had been kicked in the stomach when you realize the recording was made secretly and the final outcome but says he feels he was used by top white house a obscure their role in the

watergate cover up and now senator evan begins today's hearings were never come but resumes his testimony no no and yesterday you indicated that that you have been called to washington on june the twenty eight but after being mr bain had previously given testimony before this committee and really indicated that he was going to happen is that right with respect to the iranians

the survey indicated that the urgent matter is necessary and want me to come back a lot and the first available next available playing do you know you understand him to mean that there might be an associate the white house when they use the word we i wasn't the center but david leave that night on the twenty eight and arrived here six thirty the next morning and it was then that you know it must've been empty and then you proceeded to do luckily a bartender there you go

to a little gesturing with him on the horizon for viewing me washington and mr dean testified that they won the game well i told him everything that i knew about that i told him that i was very concerned that this could lead right to the present i didn't have any hard facts i know that i was incorrect i explained to him until the seriousness of the madder i relate to him the fact that some records have been destroyed told him virtually everything i knew at that time and i think there was no doubt in his mind about

the sensitivity ali situation would you say that this is a correct statement he was going to use that word they're being asked to raise funds for the legal defense of these people well to mention any other locations around the country recently the white house president might be hurt that is those are not now then after this meeting you proceeded to go back to a hotel called the stands to make available to you as much money as he could is

that correct answer and was then asked what do you the summer of seventy five thousand one hundred dollars and if you visited our mystery alaska there's las vegas and then new york and came down and they're given instructions i live in the center and i'm not certain whether or not it didn't instructions that time well when did you receive your instructions from mr rew memory is that i received instruction from either mr bean a wonderful rule within a few days after the thick with my cow well and you say that mr larson the sec a man to washington to collect money on the thirtieth and you have

an understanding of that who isn't but most of the instructions which received with respect of the best use of this money came from mr moreau actually i have always regarded orchestra demon with those interchangeable despite receiving instructions now why did you pick on his three license it is and i ask him he indicated knowledge and then whether or not a fun little rule it's my memory but at that point he indicated and

well yeah they realized that i didn't know assignment to pursue their instructions from the people in the white house for thirty years and he was trusted you knew that he was a reliable man and do it on assignment for the white house listen i'm not certain as to what is simon says he received it simply not know that and didn't know at the time that he had been receiving her handling of silence for the white house and for certain people in the white house over a period of years i think that probably it was reporting primarily for mr calvino

you know these are the science illustrated not really determine his reliability was simply that it was a matter of trust that if he had been performing duties for the white house over thirty years of uncertainty and then now you were together with mr las vegas and they're determined that he would use the telephone booth or approach in communications and said this kind of communication to you i understood it this was to be a confidential assignment and i think i wanted

to fill in those two procedures to follow and we developed together it i have probably wondered aloud about using that toppled hosni and you get a point well you're trying to protect the confidentiality of the assignment or indirectly afraid that you might be attacked make certain the confidentiality un concerned about being out that well we weren't we didn't know if we would be no then the second thing is a mystery at

the airport in california correct it continued set up until that time in the us with maybe one of this provision i think that was in september now it's been reported that they're somehow four hundred and fifty thousand dollars was expanded with respect to the watergate defendants including their defense and also the cover up and i believe you have a responsibility for approximately two hundred and five thousand dollars saturday by the memory is the approximately two hundred and twenty thousand that was the month that i was that i did in addition to you know raise money

dna or with the figure that gao is come up with the way to one thousand dollars now as you look back in retrospect and in view of the secrecy that was imposed upon you and what you had to go through in order to develop a line of communication and carrying out should mention you feel that then you proceeded it correctly senator and at what point did you really become concerned that what did you become concerned at the beginning through a senator

it means a lot they did disturb me was that they're in conjunction with me the stories that i would really raise an element of the level of concern now if you hadn't gotten had said differently would you then go under the presidents or plantain friend and told him about what was going on there but another thing that you would have done as differently would you have gone to the president your client and friend and told them everything that was going on when you understood that it was about that because you'd been assured by

mr erlichman was contained there was about an assignment that he knew about human quite a few years and you know these secrecy imposed upon you and the different methods of procedure that you have to resort to and you try to put this is a lawyer in their proper context then they come up with some great concern on their part well said mr bean and then and mr erlichman was no question in my mind that these men had asked me to do anything improper and did you feel that it was the proper thing to raise money the defendants when there were indications that not only in the press but also in their conversations that their money was being used to silence

these defendants i had i had understood at the time that this could be the request of and then again when mr hardy the propriety of this assignment than it was before and you have to visit the white house well not the prime minister when you have the white house but yesterday and there was enforced all the time this white house has been used to have and then did you have available to you when you came into town any white house picked up at the airport after they didn't take you

up did you have any direct line to the president from your home at one time i didn't have cider and ale when was that i think that was in nineteen seventy eight and seventy one but i don't recall any particular it did you have any conversations to that direct line with the president sen levin is there in june of nineteen sixty nine and i think that i probably problem on that particular telephone once or twice so actually yeah and you have all these arrangements that i would say that day you were a vaporous and they posed to the president

and i am standing as well certainly very interested voters are now we're going out into the jones contributions which you say was seventy five thousand as a man attention jones says it was fifty thousand there be a mistake here somewhere i can only intensified after my knowledge and then when you you approach him as a fundraiser for the president for the president's reelection do not election and it was in that context that you went to ms jones conservative and day you don't miss john's that this was a basic things the secret mission the durand virginia the money saved memory of that meeting when mr jones oh

is that i told him that it was a special assignment i don't think i said that secret assignment as a special assignment and the nature of which i could not revealed to do well when you said that when he resigned you say that just gave you this money that interview robbie of your presence there you know the fact that he knew you were the president's emissary and that the president is running for reelection that the money would be used for political purposes and it was not used for political purposes was ms jessica lucas defense of the sport that we do you say that this was a violation of the understanding

that ms johnston this money over to you thank you and i thought that was not apparent is now in retrospect i do write when you say to ms jones and i'd have to refund from the committee if you use this money four of the defendants and you were right and so using it

then mr jones as kind of a subject the payment of a gift tags would you say earn income tax lawyer and you become lovers with the tax laws of that country the question is that the attacks and i'm not certain that point the center that was used for the purposes indicated that might give them my big effects on well if it was a it was not used as a proper medical purposes and it was used for some of the characters there's a questionnaire asking whether that money well when you say that and again today you didn't call the president because the years some

there that the president knew about all these things well mr dean and mr erlichman an animal believed that i should speak to the person about this matter what you indicated area here that if you had known what you know now in retrospect than if you'd realized all these things you certainly would've called the president about all the provocations if he was alive anyway no no

ms benita piece be come on you indicate that you're selected in nineteen sixty nine and personal council president now who selected as the president's first requests and to have a discussion and i said no in june of nineteen sixty nine after this poster this

matter but not any other conversation of the closing of that astro saturday is not my intention to get into the euro the rule will call the realistic answer but as i understand it then you're selected or your chosen by mr hall in formal portion of personal counsel to the president crazy and specifically discusses lessons which i think is very precise words words stacy my actions immediately following the

region and support their families were in the valley but it was proper unnecessary to discharge what i assumed to be a moral obligation that had risen in some men are unknown to me by reason of earlier events answer now is a paraphrase i'm paraphrasing with just the proper paraphrase i assumed i was acting not really based upon an assumption of mind the facts existed mr dooley simon

was it on the part of someone and i never knew it who are more than one person that money should be given to these people for their legal offense and for the support of their families and again a center i found in my own mind that was a great human thing to do there's been a little messy the new factor as senator that i was being asked by the president's council yesterday to undertake this assignment so on that in some ways easy

to use if there was a moral obligation that was my own assumption the senator just based on on this assignment and the requests that have been given to me by mr bean that there must've been some feeling that those are moral obligation to be discharged why would he feels a moral obligation one other legal obligations to establish a moral of sen levin feeling that with a moral obligation you feel that maybe somebody or somebody something here as a way of phrasing that i know i had a feeling there that someone in some manner expressly for

and by prisoners some action record these people to go forward on this assignment and the assignment was as i say stupid and illegal idiotic but there was a feeling as long as they'd been directed through to undertake this that there was at least a moral obligation to provide for lawyers for them and for the support of their families well let's get to another word here and we say to be a moral obligation to resign and some men are unknown to me now you're telling me you wouldn't mind rest your entire career answer

on a belief that such activities were proper unnecessary the sort of moral obligation to resign and some medical known him yes sir senator i was again there was a matter of absolute trust and history being and later and mr bergman i had known as i stated that in comprehensible to me and was at that time i just didn't think of it that these men weren't asked me to do an illegal act obviously you must and eighty seven as the real events that occur years later today the legal liabilities at out what led him to those conclusions was that some ingredient fat or embark on this project no i did not go senator i just played on the space that was

one really go to stupid and idiotic you leave say i associate myself with a delivery or an assignment to provide funds which i thought was an absolutely believed at that time that they would be something for these people who and that they had been called in some manner and i had no understanding as to how that was done and i don't know that at this time but in some manner they were told to go for it but then when he was once undermined forest question that in retrospect not so sure that you did the right thing in retrospect as i really is not

entirely isn't entirely candid with the committee did you have reservations even then when you ask them do these acts as you so much americans retrospect now that suspicions them i think that yeah the fact that within a matter of minutes after i spoke to mr dean at caldwell lives through stand with a matter within a matter of are also raised to seventy five thousand one hundred dollars is indicative of the fact that i have no reservations lessons were probably for those proper and necessary to discharge listen to be a moral obligation terrorism

why was that these activists believe the proper was not certain cancers is that the us was just been admonished funds an attorney do you follow these activities were believe it had the proper why was with us so let's give it a code name as the rivers and while industry mrs months given the code name of the writer and the writer's wife and just the whole and code name of the rock senator again this is just an abundance of cotton in the right out of the assignment the confidentiality in the sixties simon all so again when you make a statement in retrospect you felt that it

wasn't a proper thing it's not just in retrospect it was a but i don't really know these activities leaked by you the proper then why didn't hear last words and your instructions distribute money the defendants and their attorneys in luggage locker is at national airport and telephone moose encounters and restaurants and fresh you know nineteen seventies private what you're

going to have these activities are believed by you the proper than why did you feel compelled in mid july of nineteen seventy two july twenty six when the senator john ehrlichman the propriety of what you were doing the senate as i testified yesterday's announcement and that was that and the secrecy involved primarily the sadness involved is that other factors that gave rise to a degree of concern and then it was i made up my mind that the only proper thing to to make certain as to the nose to the authority

mr being directed in this assignment and to make certain as the impropriety was the reason i asked for the meeting when it sets things that the visibility of their unwanted at the end of september senator again on january nineteen seventy three refused to take any further by that time at the center again after i'd say mr jones and that had been either mr the enormous toll road through additional funds this level of concern and came back monday and i made up my mind that this was something i would not be involved in a disappointment trying to make here the day that i it seems to come out of the picture of

an individual that might be outside of start off with lessons suspicions invest order a long way and yet use just one for the committee that they use of force in retrospect these things thrown at what point in time to really sell yourself what happened just like the rest of my career of what's going on or what point in time as you said before us rather than some earlier point in time if it and when was that within some time in latter part of august the end there's a number of nineteen seventy two center then i knew that that i had reached that point of concern and in that moment why is that

some individual or individuals you just but on july twenty seven nineteen seventy called johnston author corporation to raise additional funds for the pundits the pundits authority to request forms of jobs at the corporations that you might be in it you testified that on july twenty seven nineteen seventy two you called tom jones water corporation to raise additional funds for the defendants in that order did you request it was

witnesses and that's when at that time confirmed as i've testified that the assignment was that mr bean didn't have the authority to reject any assignment and formidable formidable we need a statement from the main to go forward on this assignment walk away at the level of concern that had built up an education my request for this meeting and i thought the big concern was was not entirely not as one for this again senator on absolute trust in

this man yes sir that did you always confirm witnessed ehrlichman for useless the principles of large corporations such as mr jones reporter not i did not you can find anyone at the white house party requesting the most astonishing corp from our union that's right wealthy individuals seventy one of the fundraising for them

medication to solicit secure corporations are in serbia i am i know most of these people are yours and i approached them as individual characters are asking the bay that they would agree to be a model or to be re election by having such executives within that company as we were interested in support of the president and the president's programs to agree to contribute towards their reelection financially your incessant donations in cash no sir i never get that there's optimism of jobs except that wasn't about special assignment and was chosen to get any surprise at all julie nature of the contribution of bean casserole

lighter now say it again when it appeared at his artist sometime between the first and the third that i don't remember what it was he had the funds in his desk drawer and there they were in the forties in the form of debt why mr johnson white motor corporation the right moment to begin mr jones as a head talking me that several weeks before and that indicated to me that you had additional funds for funds available before and that i could call for those funds the pentagon and on it in my own mind i decided that i would call them what i want to talk to john ehrlichman before him but the name of northrup mr jones came to

directly or came to you through a general notion that business has testified that he was known of the million one hundred thousand dollar surplus left over from the nineteen sixty eight campaign no i would like your comments about that statement do you have any evidence that mr michel might have known or didn't know about the fact there was it was nineteen sixty eight campaign senator i believe that i am headed by mr mitchell at various times that i didnt have funds under

my control and this would possibly account for the fact that his law partners germans wore the coat trustees portion of that money but as they become synonymous with a certain income and it than it is to the best of your recollection there were times when you indicate to mr michel there were such surplus funds funds yes sir before senator in our taxes term question and robert cone that would undertake a short break public television's coverage of the senate hearings will continue after poll suspicion of education unabridged coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service of the member stations of pbs for public broadcasting service fb the pain

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been from washington and ride

continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities here again correspondent robert reich new president nixon's post military herbert <unk> witness stand as beans beans you're seeing in the most prestigious law firm and among your clients to some of the nation's a corporate giants lot of cooperation united airlines insurance ncaa atlantic richfield daughter and his face a southwest corporation known at the university of southern california the nixon foundation stands on that i gather from this that wisdom and

mr well i don't support you with that was from a low self social like john wayne your success through illegal activities were being paragraph beef a plan for un related things that star that has now been related here and he says was to combine should i raise these funds what would you ever buy this crime if it applied him

situation separate millions of ways likable in anyone would be a place where i want to i want to ask him to exercise the importance there's no but in my situation senator i was i was dealing with the the united states it was a matter of absolute trust in me and his integrity and honesty in the end as i say i was absolutely inconceivable to me that this man asked me to do an illegal act that i've never been an illegal act

which are related the committee of leading a criminal case relating to the nineteen sixty two elections in the corner listen to but does that is that there was a lady on a matter that was filed in california i have some funds and please judge you some asian of that was there was in order i think to this is the only factor so those circulating certain kind of literature it is those

it was but i know i would ask the beloved minnesota for me it was mr litvinenko i don't recall his name was intel and that israel believes that was because of the trustworthiness of mr erlichman you are convinced that everything was properly will absolutely un charter of three so it was nineteen sixty one yes or i was at the festival is once again center on the basis of trust cash

runs this early nineteen ninety eight and the five hundred and seventy thousand and a check and it isn't a stranger campaign closed the president indicated that they haven't that wasn't supposed to use to pay the debt senator i i was open to biochemistry standards in january of nineteen sixty nine and was advised that these funds were surplus to characterize the lenses from the primary campaign and i didn't question what are you aware of the ad nixon campaign committee in nineteen sixty eight a lawyer and then

again don't i don't recall that that was the case the center i think it would be my recollection that there was the only finish that campaign and more evans sr indicated that they can write it and the republican party a betting person that's in sixty eight campaign how about would you tell us if you were absolutely certain that the apprentice who had received these on or a certain group because then the receipt of such in their income tax returns senator answer

them why all the secrecy the recipients we're going to close i recognize a receipt of these funds official in their income tax returns why all the secrecy and the beloved of response again senator the media the actions by the us attorneys would be that would be the way i would expect that they would show but as to the procedure that i was to follow there was just no question and that was the all encompassing confidentiality center so you took the advice and instructions rest of the question absolutely

given the good that you know a minimum is that afterwards you destroy certain important documents the reports and the record of contributions as a senator and my memory and that is that i get my reports me when i considered the original report to muster stations in february march of nineteen hundred and seventy two and there are destroyed what i consider to be a partial in supporting documents and i wanted to re insurance papers i destroyed them to maintain the absolute confidentiality of my records in other words certain other certain other

checks that were destroyed during this period inadvertently well what i what i intended to do close to make certain that all personal and supportive papers that i have senator were you people were and here was a jovial even know there was a the legality of kabul and joe said it was a weak and those that victim is a virtual mall yes absolutely

it was committed to exactly how much all of the attorneys have received a certain the assignment but i love all their clients well certainly my memory is that i got a two hundred and twenty thousand to be given us with which was dispersed twitter is answer fb