1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-14; Part 6 of 6

it's both google which in a sense was a negative ripple we let <unk> know that we are contemplating hiring mr liddy through mr dean that was sally discrepancies in discussions with another system astronomers one that was carried out in fact that led to a memo which i sent to mr haldeman explaining all of the individuals who have been hired from the white house about what's our hands on this truly is included in that memo some of this out when mr liddy told mr mitchell and you have to go against on file with him and said that he said that he was going to write the majority to say no don't do it now isn't it true also

that you did you get mr howard some information that you've received information from that break in a number of informal discussions with him i indicated that we would and information forthcoming and that if you work with mr spanton was again the conduit we probably be able to provide them mr carlson is you know headed out this what's euphemistically called the attack and this was that i was referring to the gem stone but to be fair to without i didn't say this was gemstone information coming from our caps now you have any discussion with artist maya yes this is a type of discussion with a number the employees that were being questioned by the us attorney's office are generally speaking was just that we hope that they would do nothing that would affect the president's election type of discussion whether people be discussed with the other farmers have any

in other people more detail facts about what to say to you when you have that when he indicated that there would be no problem with her testimony reporters and again i think there was that other individuals who were more directly involved or more directly involved with and talking with people respect of witnesses i think i probably did mention as we had when we found out that we were not there are you know you want to be worked out a course on the phone and what he told you well he simply told me he was parceling out the cash in effect looked at my specific well i really can't because the only direct reference was when i would get i know somebody could make it drop for him to one of the defendants in miami so he didn't go into detail as to how he was doing it so it's very difficult for me to be more specific

i think it was some reference to the three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and a lot of rhetoric that was in his dish it was casanova mr haldeman and mr strahm and then transferred that was taken from listener did tell me when this is done by the pakistan one of the receipt mr russo duty receives a message not just get the money now you said you were suggested a secondary alternative i think it was picked up a point in time and i think he was serious discussion will lead to the troubadour told me that they did not accept

my offer is that true that mr coleman told you that the president wanted to stay on yes that's correct and mr altman told me when mr mcgregor became campaign director they wanted me to stay on as deputy campaign that's correct is it true that there was some discussion especially if every fork is some risk again about that subject up and towards the end of the meeting again we're getting into these very sensitive matters and mr deans at i think would be appropriate in the future that we not hold meetings with mr mitchell and his office but that if gardening you and i mean myself take your this matter ourselves and ten and i would become the conduit to mr mitchell so that mr libby would not have to deal with mr mitchell report mr dean was a very big meetings and later was working with us to break him and that was it your impression that the city without him

alone or was he acting in his capacity as a white authors well he had worked for mr mitchell so he was in effect acting as illness that's helping mr mitchell again it's an unfair assumption for me to make as to whether he was or wasn't working and record for mr altman or mr workman i don't do not know i naturally write it my opinion was that he was working under their instruction is just one final question you in california washington california no i did not it he was not with us are the beverly hills hotel i'd left from the beverly hills it i read in the newspapers that they met him that the new border into port oh i think of the testimonial evidence i know it was going down a list of

names of those involved in the cover up and i think one of the names mentioned was mr schloss i think your testimony was yes was there no i didn't mean he was invited because of the money you know about the cover i don't mean i'm ryan fact that i think it's been justified on islam and you agreed that he was not involved in the cover up my knowledge he was not involved and i think he obviously had to be aware of it because he was feeling and nia finds that biologist at that very quickly on june twenty four in terms of the problem of not just as not finding out how much money mr levitt oh you were the fact that on june twenty third mr sloan had given a final report into the stands which that they get one hundred ninety nine thousand dollars was given to dallas where yesterday's testimony on june twenty four as tristan not tell us what we want the piece

there's no question yes sir and then what was his position on july nineteen seventy one center he was assistant to mr szwed and he worked in the department of commerce us are and then we have any other duties other than those connected with the department of commerce not to my knowledge in yemen in connection with the campaign not directly did he have any connections indirectly well i think you're referring to the memo that i wrote to mr mitchell economy we discussed it was an old invention and we were discussing some of things that we should be doing in the campaign mentioned that what he can sit calmly discretionary fund that he said that the secretary and his disposal it was a legitimate

as a puppet under certain circumstances it could be of assistance to is the campaign to be the next question i remember the same way johnson utilized and many government departments he was referring to now was this settlement money yes sir and he did mention now that there was a discretionary fund of one million dollars that in the car parked there was this amount that they were using for activities such as hiring and iraq was at the secretary's discussion i don't think this was a single fine i didn't get the impression this was a single fight that impression of it here and there you

could use funds without any great direct control of government control that's a challenge in the members of american memory this in the record now intercept july twenty eight nineteen seventy one confidential for the attorney general dick whitney who is secretary stand political special assistant spent some time with me discussing nineteen seventy two one idea what you brought up might be useful in other departments the sectarian discretionary fund of commerce that would total about twenty one million dollars he is using this month for congress' iran and other activities that would be beneficial for the president's reelection if you feel it is appropriate cypress there's mike discuss this concept with other cabinet officers to see if they can develop the same kind of fun within their own but then you

have a and i never approved through a new name is gm's leader this was a memorandum submitted two mr mitchell that's correct and i submit is for the record i have a patient and i would recommend that all right

so worms you gotta go success to pitch and that was a testament to his eleven the recall to be available on top of the aisle we have no sense of committee had summoned to be with them all my obsession on monday night right obsession will be on tuesday well that is how

one of the longest and most dramatic days of the four weeks of hearings and mcgruder admitting of high campaign officials including himself took part in the planning and the cover up of watergate burglaries testimony now points obviously towards former white house chief of staff hr obama is personally gotten strong as liaison and reporters committee was kept constantly in touch with the watergate planning strong has now been added as a witness before haldeman himself appears strong as reported ready to say that halderman was in on the plans from the start the hearings resume on tuesday when john dean the former presidential council here's another dramatic story to tell two men who watch the marines in their entirety with around for a long time student of congressional investigations and john cranmer a professor at the georgetown university law center here in washington and a former assistant us attorney here coming after four weeks of the watergate hearings

you know i imagine that a great many people like myself are troubled at the picture of the country that is being presented to the world and the course of these hearings it's not it's not a lovely picture it's not the it's not one we choose as a photograph of compusa and yet it seems to me to reflect the kind of soul searching a kind of self inquiry if you like that is that it's indispensable in a self governing society something like what we went through i think in the course of attempting to deal with and solve our racial problem in this country we yeah we had the first to acknowledge that we have a problem they're facing frankly and then not to try to do something about it we've done that with healthier for it i think the one thing that is indisputably been disputed nuclear as a result of these hearings is that the united states

has got a problem to use the phrase that was used over and over again by the witness today and the only way to deal with that problem is to look at a face and resolutely and do something to bring ourselves back to health i think that what the country is doing through these hearings is the indispensable first step toward a restoration of a good health of the country has i think that the problem not basically lies and a devaluation of the currency a bunch of the ethical life of the american people but i think we have never happened in our history the condition like the

condition that has been revealed in the last four weeks before the ribbon committee is a condition in which scharff people at very high levels of government meeting the president out of the question for the moment people who want to walk a party offices of the very highest trust and responsibility engaged in tactics for the sake of thought of winning an election with incontinence with the american ethos with me but what we like to think of as the character of the american people i think they i think that that there's a kind of rock here it has to be cut out of our body politic square as an attorney probably used to this kind of finding thrashed out in court rooms rather than in hearing rooms do you agree when the smart oh i definitely think so i think today was the statement of the philosophy that the ends

justify the means i think that that is a very dangerous time if in fact i think it's probably very good for the american public that it came out this way in this hearing because trials are not more satisfactory way for telling stories they're destroyed their moms with the jury is asked to leave the room i sometimes several hours on end more motions are you and this way the whole story that i don't fall over the solid too arch up in the morning you get a sense of continuity in a home i'm a legal point of view what did we learn today from the testimony of mr mcgrew to do glee i think you are in that the prosecution certainly has the makings of a very good conspiracy and like you can see how they would build from his testimony and also in the forthcoming testimonies of this to diminish the strong what each in turn says something about the members of the group and so build a general conspiracy in the administration of justice what did you think is a professor of law mr kramer and around about the revelations and activities are some members of your own profession

it is shocking but very distressed lessen the lawyers themselves and also believe that the ends justify the means and that perhaps coming up is the proper relationship of an attorney to apply for many of the people the president is their client really actors as his attorneys not just as well as people representing an otherwise and i think that is his best interest to cover things up as is their districts and your image of course not all the watergate revelations come in the hearing room things have happened elsewhere do have an impact on the cost of the hearings as chief committee counsel sam dash explain to ampex peter case our own the white house briefing today that the missing file of presidential contributors the ones intentionally before april seventh and found the words of presidents financial sector where the possession or web version of this fall make any change which invented back in the money matters and if we're going to get back as i think maybe in the us

bastian says the medic with the very beginning that i was awash in the senate this committee that was the president money matters campaign contributions which the years with these kinds of issues that are now in turn to understand the common cause or so and the political espionage that is what this is the time to time at this hearing and the chance that either the witnesses being quote dictator's testified and because of the watergate case the cover and that he will be cleared back at another date not at the senate hearings but another set here but campaign contributions that was the time that we hear from them purpose but without the discussions dozen investigations that the specimens had begun to recover and therefore it's very important the public understands that he was observing these

vans in the seventies that kind of a resolution that was revised the watergate break in and the cover of this report that we present these facts here racist honestly with the west as another set of hearings that will be with the other parts of a resolution that in the fall which and that an investigation of president obama's staff which will deal with the political says the nigerian also the campaign contributions you mentioned the prosecutor dramatic testimony of the day and i really doubt i think the supreme court records to review this very same issue in the position where he had to make this decision the courts have said that the law because the moment this does not jeopardize any eventual

jeopardize that if they were to try the person next week or the next month but we know that they do not expect to bring down about three months and i had a trial for about five years and was there for about a third of these hearings on watergate when this hearing rumors been talking about nine year before the trial comes seems to be though that time they have their trunk road through that won't be tainted by the prejudices terence fletcher dish thank you very much it's also taught peter kenyon in the absence of any unexpected developments the next five witnesses will be john dean haven't come back and tell us the way it's returning for his second visit and once strong and conclusion about robin now most of the senators as we all know offered their own critics of james stewart graders abilities as a witness today from a weekend pass on that and as to the content of his testimony what can you say after years of gems like incredible remarkable

staggering startling and you can come up with this mini just as many of those as i can so as we all digest book is called articulate young man had to say and look what to maybe even more dramatic performance by former white house counsel john dean next tuesday it might be well to sort out just a couple of points from the day and then say good night but i think jeb magruder story should once and for all but the rest the idea that watergate is the figment of song newspaper reporters imagination or some such story the rumor and speculation states in other words should be over now the number two man in the nixon campaign just told the world that yes there was a breakdown of that was a cover up for a lot of other related evil an illegal finds they were committed with the knowledge and the health or the help and or both of many important and semi important people in this country there will certainly be weeks and months ahead of disputes over the

specifics as the trailers fall further but let it be said that on this day just three day short of the first anniversary of the watergate break in that we all learn once and for all that yes or it really did that period and secondly jeb magruder jeb magruder finally showed some believable light on the mental attitude of those involved they felt they were being mistreated by lola's people so why not buy back some lawlessness overall now why does that line so believable maybe it's because that kind of rationalization have been common in recent years in this country in government on the political left and on the right but also right square in the middle at john dean will tell us more about it on tuesday and will be back then i'm john ware or robert macneil and peter kay thank you and goodnight from washington you've been watching gavel to gavel videotape coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign

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