1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-07-13; Part 3 of 6

the pick well most of that bathes the united states directly implicated members of the white house that would your book curiously was about six the right to link to the committee to relive the president will be present that i was curious about why the president even do any research on this oh yes i guess it's just a series of meetings that i mentioned that texas to that list of stairs we criticize i heard those distances recycled text kagan and how and what happened when i heard about the first one of the resettlement i

think i think who are you thank you yes the answer is that for the people here but what you think about a convention devoted several of film and at the pinnacle of islam you think to make an assumption that the two members of

the president back in a law to cover operating subtle emily i know there is at this point in a way the loss of this conversation was going wow a sense of like you were paying attention and he's right i wasn't paid that much attention to the status of the law that's what it was i made the decision

connecticut has a ritual where the damage was done as a very short list of all of the things right now i guess i guess i wish i had been through hell and i was again as i've testified that statement things began the problems but you know i went back in the fifties as what they're what the state of alabama we'll go back in february all these things we are so familiar with no without being suggested lot of things about this i think that would take on several occasions

i don't know that was august twenty nine that was a political ad if it's proven that was always a problem in justified sometimes

one was accused of it the person who uses this defense columnist to being suggested that we should request that all the panel members discuss their political contributions why was that necessary was am i going to mean that there was some limited to the accusation well i mean why come up with a defensive missile within that second think that they did that was like twenty this was long after these discussions about their parents that this was a now that i was being made

i didn't plan that this was the first day was coming and it didn't happen he didn't say that usually investigated he said it would be a good recipe for the public to know that this episode members of this committee were willing to subject themselves to investigation at a table that's been sort of yes you did then said that we've sort of think about that i'm going to let the president i said nothing well let's go

what i was suggesting so there's that that the committee would agree to it would be because the fuel cell and that finds mr mitchell three days of testimony it is signed up to advise the president of irregularities he was afraid that if the president learned of these irregularities and the involvement of white house that the boys you immediately more liberal when it used the phrase immediate dismissal this is one of those woes discussed and an immediate dismissal in the lore of the boomer to lift a

scanner would have been exposed and the election and i'm david greene you know one of the election with an endangered or do you agree that of the president have been advised you wouldn't be laudable on those and well i think that one of the former attorney general about is this committee that he had decided not to the president aftermath of the watergate because he knew that the president upon learning of those would immediately lower the boom that's all a little bit off right now what would you like to do

so i did i don't think so as the president acted really without careful investigation on it almost twenty four cylinder block mr deaver yes only everything in the nineteen seventies in the prison struggling new evidence i don't know the building that you make of austin all about that time twenty four

the poor well the president then five on being debated almost twenty second and the president doesn't it was to do you to be our lives online is on the committee as the white house liaison to this video i don't i don't know that there were five and a half weeks later the president announced the resignation of mr haldeman mr glickman this tv ad he accepted the resignations of

reluctance and they won't appear on the old and the name was this your idea of immediate dismissal and more nimble the president is a lawyer it to me that the action against this veterans' service with alton up to lead the study for investigation that's right yesterday by the way well i don't know

and this was april seventeenth as you would expect to take that much but i think you know that's why that wasn't sure that that really in the oval office the next morning without people having to do that you know that delay because now they report that was once a picture of reasons until two o'clock

as the senators to make another floor vote mango h will interrupt are playback briefly public television's coverage of the senate watergate hearings will continue after a pause for station identification on average coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service of the member stations of pbs and public broadcasting service the the

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hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities here again correspondent jim lehrer the hearings resume that lunch with questions by sen bernie about richard morris background nice boots the

cover and we know something about it we have the discussion one of the few witnesses the convictions on all us carries and then to you also are very few people who have a lot of watergate in the meetings that you had with the press you have to be you know so i think it would be fair to say that really no other witnesses were going to have in these hearings as testimony which is more important a local was committed and then you have as i said just about every

facet of what you know about watergate has been covered already by the interrogation of the truth i think is important in any kind of a hearing of this are obviously the credibility of the witness is important and your credibility is the most important you brought out a little bit about about her but i think it would be well if we heard more about you mentioned that you graduated from law school and then you discover a great flavored or new york and then moved to california but let's start in new york and lying to the committee or of the family

when your career is as yale law school as alarming and new york i actually read it later and then and more and more to a point i began my legal career as you did in new york city or the year before nineteen thirty eight and well if you perhaps would not like to

say that i worked that they were two of the finest law and not only in new york city but in the united states i know i spend just about four years in the army i went usual it's mostly as serving their forces of intelligence lots of alaska came back and worked and military intelligence to chew on so called special guests mid nineteen forty six i know and without understanding that with television which was doing a

television thank you and after two or three years the los angeles times they're money is television prize which i did twelve years now what we have duties no television station katie tv which it was not that we're independent station which we also got a distribution of programs that production and i also was a member of the board of directors of that parent company that their company where i

want it to the committees my activities were broadcast television company does the time stamp of the los angeles times best at the time publisher of the last blow up after about twelve is stuck at this day a lifetime career ended up winning or get into some of them cable television also detained by other broadcasters several years and several cable television prices and this happened in nineteen sixty eight i

had an immense were founding companies we use all of the insolvent is an expert in the television view of the company subscription and social services available to people twenty five that cable television israel for assistance i was the primary funder of

that time that was later acquired by the time life people about nineteen sixty i was the industry i was vice chairman of the national association of cable television not been accurate and just a moment and that matter was fascinating and just about then i got a phone call she was the event is to get nixon to go i like that these facilities politically i

was which was and then i came back that invitation but meanwhile as john mitchell and my company asked us he said that i think that i can do in the division and given as they say that it was taking in with images anything else so i had a very

busy year that when the invitation to come to the white house with renewed with the president in nineteen sixty eight mr mitchell when the justice department in nineteen seventy and seventy long as i understand it and was mailed millions well mainly the advisory work on television and public relations work that way that television or say that i think shakespeare was the television director and find what that actually what the president said today was the one of the generals who would be available to any problem closing statement that happened and there were some suggestions to have a response on it or not i mean it stops on that airplane

for his local rally speeches with two where would we updated the topical as many as the subtler about that yet it was basic issues and no then there's save it an inviting others they're not what you think of this out first the utility infielder mr mitchell just thought that i was a general what general assistance and in some of that they could bounce ideas off also certainly and by the way in the end of the one when agents should respond when he should've issued statements when that with what this would be more and the populations in a couple with seven talk about the sit in on legal matters to win as a top official

at the end of a legal deed but it was a combination of a lawyer communication so mr mitchell i have a bet with him every day every day and one of the problems that might be that they feel like i want to get to los angeles just a moment in your private life and who do community activities dave mentioned that you were prominently in the cable or television industry what about community activities you have anemia but yes i was active in the community center of the whole time and i suppose my principal areas where i was a director of the los angeles chamber of commerce for many years i

how is the director of the hollywood bowl i was active minnesota special interests and they get arthritis foundation which we used to forty nine as if members of the family

yes and i was an amazing comedy he writes but it was that attracted him to the vote would be but we also issued a good deal of the state i like to think that i mean this is it is

it is this question back at the airport i was if you will the responsibilities no staff secretary i was available to get into any particular issue program project that can go on whether it's transmitted that's right i really don't know with that would come in aspen ideas and social problems and i was i was a bit of a news planning committee

refused to make believe it if you were doing anything this week agencies and but i know of many of the statements have messages of the president and even occasionally a part of including this beach is the last major speech as i said they're waiting for their suggestions and criticisms of editorial suggestions than that but they didn't take it even though your title is special counsel victims were armed robbery murder or less of an attorney a legal advisor the end and you were going into other duties as you have is a lot of what i see as the nineteen forty nine but then i find myself

working as a team member some legal background is even useful of the reason that being primarily i would say it was just to touch upon your relationship previous testimony before the committee one was doing was here in response to a question the senate in a way you know you have this right well richard mourdock to me as a wonderful man the council is an older man and i respect his judgment very much would you say that's just been talking would you say that that would characterize your relationship at least as being so it was so he didn't touch a

friend and confidant and as you have mentioned him before he did go you at times when he had the trouble is money and that idea this week his own life so situations starting with the nomination video of speculation here surrounding was watergate affair as to whether mr urbina conducted the investigation now i'm talking about the summer of the nineteen seventy two following the breaking of course prior to a surprising statement an audience about the fact that mr dean had conducted an investigation in the white house but

now all you have any knowledge of what was deemed was doing and those so called investigation know i don't foresee that went back to review posts at the vigil in that area not really before march eighteenth meeting it was really the first time as i see his testimony that he has any real hard evidence of discussions with the president about war i and i'd like to read from his statement which there's a toy and then in a conversation on ridiculous statement about meeting was a

teen for the end of the conversation we go unnoticed nationally specifically i told a cousin about the fact that there are many demands being made by the seven convicted defendants and the sentencing of these individuals was not far off it was during this conversation i told a cousin about the fact that there was no money to pay these individuals to me that a man's yes me how much it would cost i told him i could on american estimate that that there might be as high as a million dollars or more he told me that that was the problem he looked over all and repeated a statement he then asked me to have a man in the money and i don't when it was possibly coming from on through his attorney the president referred to the fact that they haven't promised executive clemency you said that he had discussed this matter and contrary to instructions that were open had given colson i've talked to the president about it because and have also discussed a

linen way to express sentiments in fact the folks who had also discuss this matter whether there's a little more but that's the important part is the sabine has testified that this meeting on march thirteenth emotional blackmail as well as executive clemency were discussed you of course mr dean hans problem and blackmail an executive amount of inequality but the blackmail esteban reyes you were to stop all them when you know it means that the military was malik came up between you

again or for that matter any time later i suppose up to march twenty first that he'll discuss this matter of the million dollars and executive clemency with a person and that you think he would have told you about that if it actually had thought he was telling you you know the estimated that theres a defeat his eyes

to all it is very key question as well as giving my father what he might one of the reasons i'm asking is that a lot of missed the dean's testimony have to do with impressions he got the president might know something about what was going on on the president's mind and what i'd like to know the association with him at least in the spirit of what you might have known what went on in his mind well as the beans i would say just that that as much as he might well have told me though that happen but that the fact that when i asked them they didn't the indication of them it

was that he and also i this episode of the way that funding though you shouldn't tell me and if that happen and when it was facing with a new system that when i asked them a month twenty two so i can't go out the notion that if that happened he might well have told me this occurred as i recall you had their two before they march twenty first meeting the president everything the my conversation with him in which he said that he had not told the president any of the things that were other that conversation was on march twentieth have a conversation eric heard there was much dirty i mean you got to cut that conversation where he testified that he told about these things beyond

pointing out there is that your discussion with him about three to blackmail and most of it was really close to the march twenty first meeting when he told a person police blotter delays the second and were created by votes on a bill to limit the use of explosives as there is pick up again senator bernie is asking for richard moore's opinion about the president's knowledge of the watergate cover up mr morris we marry dozens of executive clemency richard's came up in a meeting between mr dean and the president on march thirteenth again i simply asked the question if you did miss the dean never discusses with you at any

time that he and the president have talked about executive clemency your ads now let's turn again to have a very important meeting richard haven't missed being on april fourteenth that's the meeting that he mentioned to the indictment and that's an important meeting because as i recall you were servants you were pretty shocked when you have this long list of people that approach was well along into the area where mr dean was making his plans about what we should do about its future and watergate and the testimony as i recall have indicated that he had engaged or cancel the time and say the two are in process of

discussing this matter where they are prosecuting attorneys so as i say he was well along with this that he never mentioned to you in this meeting that he intended to say that sometime in the future and of course as he has said that the president didn't know about wanting i didn't know about the cover art at other discuss with you at any time her to your knowledge about the fact that he was going to make the case that the president knew about the cover i know sir could you give us any reason why he would have had on the school is i wouldn't want it no

i don't obvious reason suggests offers a daily basis without him really no intention and direction and whether these thoughts came later but it really should come in i was going to the largest employers no indication to you from any conversations with him for at any time during this period of time the president actually knew about it at least in you online from your conversations with mr bean and also your meetings with mr dean the president and the president himself will there was nothing to indicate to you that mr didn't

actually know that the president was involved in a new about the cover org it's b so big it has set aside some of his curiosity about what the president knew or did not know and while he goes to the senate floor for a vote were taken by public television's coverage of the senate watergate hearings will continue after a pastor station identification on a bridge to coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service of the member stations of pbs a public broadcasting service it's been the pope

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pay and pike continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities here again correspondent robert mcneil as senators return to the caucus room senator garn is about the wind up examination of richard moore the white house special counsel it's been the push back you're

also involved in the white house responses on the surviving yes i don't particularly want to write about i think we're going to know things went on however utilities to have a connection with and i quote him directly with with the president what did you mean so

we used a week well you mentioned writers and you mentioned your daughter chabon and then you had a qualifying where he discusses the white and you mentioned the words indirectly with president and that's what i was asking about the pope the pope has been it's

been the key to power in kiev joining us in this interview the pieces he discussed it staff witness someone its nautical miles of you you said that you had discussed as a dramatic indirectly with the president that's what i would like to ask what does the

press was referred to answer the president's discussions of twenty questions about the recall seventy years ago that's right with that mr holman

and you know if you want to come you have any knowledge on iran or any other person in the white house of the wichita mayor about this being of any involvement in a cover up of watergate well just one final lot of questions because the soviets also employees have been the press with you now and yesterday you started very clear in what i thought was forthright statement about the investigation surrounding the watergate your meetings with the president and mr damon of meetings and most of innovating for the president and again in this testimony is an

example because as i pointed out earlier you were one of the very few witnesses who wasn't directly involved in the watergate one where are they you completed your statement am in cultural question you on some collateral to watergate notes that were directly connected with your memory was rather hazy and we built most lawyers that that's one of the ways of attacking the credibility of what if he remembered some things accurately and then he doesn't remember other things or and i'm sure you know that as well as i do and i think a proper question at this time would be to ask why your memory was it on salads on that well sir are one thing but what the subject matter was going to be at this session ask you a

bit about which is a substantial second if you recall the first question about the white house report will know what that was there's a white house report about the investigation and i simply couldn't recover from the brother that memorandum such white house report about it to the investigation and the secretary together there are days he's burly do

any connection with the confirmation hearings very very carefully i think if you believe the things about hearing the nomination but i think it was possible or i think he did but this series of episodes of these daily sessions about the confirmation hearings are really a question about the meaning of the question about june thirteenth a meeting with the president now that was a parody of the weather with a lot of the great many days i had that had nothing to do with the

review that the community and then suddenly i recall there was mitchell had resigned this campaign director of the first of july and this was the person being with the president to discuss the situation now i don't know i was for people of all that is that if someone is willing to have that he doesn't know exactly where it was a cult some of these things that the situation presented but my mind and my preparation was blessed us back to the lectern in that time available and the day before

mr shortz no so that if i was a little slow day because it happened again to us you know what was the reading as the next that meeting was about this there's incentives to discuss a tank meetings and conversations you had with a president who's been with presidents day and you have not to do all the other meetings that humans have zero all let's hear on appomattox and that seem to please the collateral on perhaps at nothing to

do what you thought your mission here was precisely that it's just one final question in the present for how long i met him in nineteen fifty and then i went really got to know first first name basis to go in the campaign or sixty two better known better when he was out of office and a lawyer in los angeles and then we didn't officially it was and sixty two

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