1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-06; Part 5 of 5

it's been my first meeting with mr reagan was an ugly sometime in february of nineteen seventy two when he transmitted to washington on behalf of us to come back seven hundred thousand dollars in cash which represented me as being a team of nineteen sixty five it's true well this is death made in places that point on but mr obama still very active as a fundraiser at one point time in march what happened i've

got the records that was taken out i think it's i'm steve inskeep yes sir i've forgotten center precisely only got a statement that the procedure when in one attack was saying throughout the campaign cash and an outlaw recording receipts and distribution so that they're like a book and on one record wherever this is the

regulations ok when i was in my office i had a combination of my secretary or when that senators on the committee to reelect president will use the most transactions are unique within the political committee has because in a sense

this is awesome you're welcome it is he

says i want to want you upon this information right right tony la russa fifty years i did not know i mean

i felt that you know phoenix i mean you'd be a little more specific well certainly in terms of the law

twenty one and you just professional looking at that was the end of the

line if convicted individuals and i think but there was something that was in my life he's in prison he indicated to me that he had absolutely no watergate he knew about this and reading matter and indicated that you know the full story was told that would be understandable over tobacco and at great depth about those he really thought that some of the water was unimaginably president obama the one

you referred to y eso president's speech information because it seems explain why it is understandable attempted

anything you do i would say the only comment i've even heard that would be relevant that was a comment by secretary stands or to be when we're in a legal conference earlier in some time i guess we're as quite attorneys as we're addressing herself a certain civil litigation certain matters to leave the room for a while we were chatting informally and he said well i think it's africa about the press they said well it looks that we know now at a three and fifty thousand referring to me you know

nice they knew thanks ari i'm renee montagne

that's it this is beef the people that day seven of the watergate hearings tomorrow we'll be hearing more from jerusalem about the large amounts of cash an adult and about his continuing discomfort in the wake of watergate sloan's testimony follows a pattern set by the committee so far in allowing people at the lower echelons of the campaign organization to set the scene for the subsequent appearances of their former supervisors for the first time today the committee spent the bulk of its time examining campaign finance is instead of the events that

the money went to pay for today's testimony reveal some difficult problems and controlling the vast amounts of money collected by candidates in the most prominent elected wins tonight is the director of the office of elections in the general accounting office says others still loopholes in the law that just barely as an effect or what needs to be done to prevent this kind of thing from happening again i think there are number of ways in which the law could be improved no law is perfect and certainly a ministration of it hasn't been perfect as first time around i think it sort of represents a quantum jump forward from the corrupt practices act but these kinds of things i think can be done first of all the use of currency cash she'll be minimized and beyond perhaps a hundred dollars we see a need to simplify the reporting process as much as

possible consistent with fundamental disclosure objectives we think they are somewhat chosen limiting individual contributions contributions by an individual or by an close members of your family how we think there are some distinct improvements that can be made and details a lot of definition of what is a reporting committee so to be clear to everybody and to include as many committees of reasonable size as as would be possible i think the single greatest improvement in future elections that will come about because of the the official starting date of the new actual been passed and we won't have that april seventh of twelve point for the political committees and for us to worry about worry about what law applies and how much disclosure need take place and saw the gao and under you was the first to officially the syrian government to actually do anything about this whole business that later

resulted in watergate up confronted with new situations that are bound to come up do you feel that you have the tools available now to enforce those laws it's now written owen is sitting around some additional tools of course the big changes that i suggested and some way to his bird ministrations well how we feel a need of supreme power both my parents and to require people to appear before us as we audit and investigate how we think it would be useful to have a slightly symbol litigate of powers the authority to initiate or to defend human and civil cases without the need for going through the department of justice his long referred to judge means within the campaign that money that had as they interpreted didn't commit it in advance of april seventh could be spent while we disagree as to pose to that point

essentially we fill up the cost of an expenditure under the terms of the act the money should have been paid to somebody you're rendering the service to the committee commitment it seemed to us and still seems to us is not enough nor is the transferring of money from hand to hand within the committee enough as for example from songs hands so you feel it has there been any court decision that has appeal and half the most significant action i think that has taken place says with respect to the vessel case that is still pending justice department of justice is prosecuting the case and has charged the committee with him in violation of the act that is on the contributions side rather than the expenditure side as far as i know there are no specific court decisions involving these issues thus far so it will have to be met so the legality or otherwise yeah we're mr sloan

report that the committee did and he was involved in this transfer involved in is not yet established that not to my satisfaction well as mr hughes says the operation will also for the nonprofit save the very least the flaws that have been detected have led some critics to suggest that the whole system of private contributions be scrapped and the government finance campaigns we're at the end of today's testimony impacts peter kay talk further with committee vice chairman howard baker about his opposition to such a director at stake do you feel that there's some sort of federal financing under this anymore the case for an hourly still feel pretty strongly against the law still feel very strongly we don't exchange one evil for another it is clear to me that the electoral laws the financing aspects of national in federal campaigns have to be overhauled and have to be overall severely one of the jurisdiction purposes this committee has to make

appropriate recommendations to congress on how we can prevent this sort of thing in the future i guess today cast to the previous summer my thoughts in that respect but i am i am just as opposed to the federal bureaucracy taking over the electoral process and that's what would happen if it was federally financed as i am a continuation of an imperfect system that promotes watergate but before the committee can grapple seriously with that aspect of its brief recommending changes in campaign was it's got to cover ground far more dangerous and the media with each day of the hearings the trail inexorably leads closer to the time when the committee were fined or will not find evidence that implicates president nixon that is what for the moment the investigation is really about and that fact is from going on oh so much hearsay evidence or prejudice the fair trials of those who may still be indicted and on the other senator evan bayh says telling the truth to the american public

is more important than sending a few people to jail archibald cox the special federal prosecutor failed yesterday to get the hearings postponed on those grounds today he renewed his attack leading up to testimony of john dean and jeb stuart magruder be heard in private that has yet to be decided but there's another debate some people are arguing that the president process is destroying the ability of mr nixon to govern and that the committee should therefore come immediately to witnesses who were closest to the president and who could once and for all implicate him were clear his name the committee rejects this argument to saying that only by careful systematic accumulation of evidence and the witnesses be properly examined a growing number of politicians are getting impatient congressman mccluskey demanding that the house think about the process of impeachment senator fulbright calling today on mr nixon and mr agnew to resign sen levin the michigan republican demanding that mr nixon tell more himself the president himself with his white house reorganization

today seems determined to ride out the storm it reminds one of the final scenes of one of those shakespearean histories the forces hostile to the king are rising on all sides messenger after messenger rushes in with bad news but the decisive battle there's still some scenes away and we don't yet know if this is a tragedy we are witnessing for peter j jim lehrer and and but i'm robert mcneil from washington you been watching gavel to gavel videotape coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities as coverage is made possible by grounds for special events coverage from the corporation for public broadcasting and the ford foundation and has been a production of unpacked and a vision of a greater washington educational telecommunications association you are well

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