1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-07-12; Part 4 of 5

it's been discussions she has respect oh nice significant

seven years a major reason why us attorneys mr stanton's he has been brought in by was just as originally it was setting in helping on the head first to stand centers on how you testified before the committee a baby this episode centers questions that you were the invasion planning to

well those to assure the president election which would really i don't think we should love that quality it limited to up i my crimes and misdemeanors involving the president offers i guess that the record language of impeachment and the constitution perhaps i take it that you also scoot merle although you haven't seen the summer because john white house but i don't like this might have been in a particular well what actually would have offended your concept of having to do everything necessary to protect the president and his reelection bid to work you did get favorable considerations of leveraged i don't think the fall over the kurds that interview just put the question

mark an answer our approach quickest way to get the opposite results that while in some cases not saying that they're never been successful understand the unfamiliar cases his books well you thank you with fixing the well i think that the most of the lithuanian influence with

giant iowa there was never any civil liberties handle that in the first year at facebook video the other two cases that were fall the un has reported on i know i've read that story in the newspaper that is absolutely therefore your father standings that you would use to do anything that people along so far is it or is it that you say as a matter of strategy doesn't matter what in fact that was effective at what about that question than

gum up the decision what wasn't made that have to be made and i would have great reluctance to you are where you are but on balance here men or the reelection of the president of the ads that president nixon would that reluctance have been overcome a hypothetical question that's the money i do not agree with mustard dean's testimony so far as i know about the discussions that had to do with the litigation that was before gentrification what is it that you you know presidents that

discussion well obviously i have no assurance that a liquor but i do have my own knowledge of what took place in my presence with respectively numerous discussions we have about that litigation only estimates as to what judge regime might do in connection with that and he told him personally that that this was going on and you one person obviously a person's full view of a lot well the worst violence since the sense a public event that fear anti smoking is building them about things that i have been advised that mr parkinson i don't recall ever read it myself it was our concern was denied there's probably an area newspapers but i guess the question will you personally

partisan in lima we have this burden president nixon reportedly night by his doctors to be olive oil pneumonia when a bethesda naval medical center for treatment doctor or dick said the president has quote no complications and is expected to remain in the hospital for at least a week with western medication the president confining of discomfort in his right chest someone budget cuts of five thirty am today and a preliminary diagnosis indicated that are on the moon presidential press secretary ron ziegler said the president was running a fever between a hundred and one hundred and two degrees with an excellent spirit even though somewhat week in response to questions from reporters who were summoned to the white house this evening but it because she's sure the present the vial of ammonia is all that is wrong with the president

public television's coverage of the senate hearings will continue after this pause for a station identification on a bridge to coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service of the member stations of pbs the public broadcasting service the the pain

and like continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities you his duty as a report of a few moments ago president nixon has been reported by his doctors to be suffering from pharrell pneumonia he will enter bethesda naval medical center for treatment for about a week if we go back to the hearings committee counsel slam there's going to start with executive clemency and then move into those so called not one would clarify how you are about discussion of that dependency on i think so far testimony seems to be that you over their records cleared as to how you already was president was telling you this i think that election

and it probably was john dean because he was more closely related to and my recollection i have is that mr todd in connection with those discussions were they were going through his counsel mr bergman directly most records or directly to most polls but anyway to colson they bottom line that i recall in connection with that was that mr juan wanted assurances from mr colson with respect to executive clemency and did you hear that some assurances from boston my recollection is that there were assurances of mr whitaker executive funds now you know mr mitchell that the only person who had come to the president's desk how are you the president is the only one to maximize our

what's not in that context it was in the context of that colson would exercise his best efforts to obtain the executive homes and elevate ever so exercise is best efforts of the president discussions of a mystery mr michel were or last time you had a communication from the president or someone on behalf of the president of this lawyers with questions but it wasn't true it met with the president have not talked

a moment of the really really for ninety days with phrases like a long on behalf of the press well i don't think i've had anybody on behalf of the president but i don't want to exclude the fact that we had mutual friends who've had dinner together and i have had calls from finances with respect to certain matters that happened in new york well yes it's been welcome sir i've had dinner with in the post for ten days and police are our members of the west after his friends of bell

you could tell us who they were yes mr robert chappel and rosemarie word was another one telephone and we give them a stronger will not have to have humans image of ireland promised an executive clemency or as lawyer or any how oligarchs year residents of family matters and i thought i must have debts that with respect to matters in question is absolutely not and with respect through circumstances that your trust that it's not necessary it was not necessarily an incentive iran

asked yesterday whether the president ever asked you if you know anything about your knowledge of all about waken so called white house said the president hadn't asked you to whether mars one second nineteen seventy three when you met with the president of it that is true you said no you didn't think that was peculiar president asked are you surprised that this bio your own decision to keep concealed from the president which you know you never want to ask you what you're doing interviews were on the watergate matter or anything else that was severely in the newspapers bailey

involved in the grand jury investigations before this committee was there's you must remember that it has the watergate matter was discussed a great one has a much different context with i mean obviously now in a much more direct contact well that is a possibility and you're my question is as your statements the president ever after their most famous bags actually used to quiz on it yes you especially before the election certainly in

nineteen seventy three you had a considerable number they're huge there's a particular series of calls that you can help us understand what they were about on march thirty for nineteen seventy three and about fourteen calls on that on the period of that that long and four thirty five and forty seven am i mean there's a camera one of nine pm but even a twenty seven not all

want than forty one thing for the atm a local seven eleven twenty sixteen it appears that from the poles that there was somebody sitting at the phone a number that the last time when they were musicals and you made is that those are your testimony about this i can't say that i didn't make any of them but certainly not in that range the same as the rest that a frequently calls from the white house are not necessarily talk to people in the white house to get through and the full operation i have over the telephone numbers of people that are available to them well this it was in that

sense i think perhaps the whole and i think perhaps i'm asking for your system the first is that if you really want well certainly sentencing procedure before this record it was important it's given to make employees committee and again or was accusing dean and you're so good there's these three one to fourteen cars to be different people the white house to discuss the of his invocation of you or certainly not a

power surge they call it one online pianos they have a twenty seven pm as the iranian people and a fight and forty one pm the latest blow learned that the six pm or later well ok we're not my cause there's a new and you say that when you say they're not i'm not saying none of them were that there was no need to make telephone calls to the white house and the white house person the revelations came out yes i'm sure that matters for disgust with mr dean i'm certain of the toughest thing i don't recall discussing with anybody else until much later date the new tiger question to what you refer to islam are correlations i

believe that mr bing was a little white house that i've discussed the record lerner this record and can actually afford to this committee an executive session diseases that the switch that they knew well wouldn't have gotten out of the second session yesterday ocean is an aesthetic that's relevant to ensure that it was discussed being white house ladder never cause as a combination of its customers to be more like that cemented discussion from the skin of the subject matter i can isolate that well first time or crush her name became identify with being of our likely it would have been discussed i'm sure in the concept of what was said was respectively has a record a record low with respect to what came out of your

executives sessions throughout the facts are allegations i should probably should say were contained an area but ticket items police shootings witness to where he was given the concern about the amount of the operation so far you're making it and your legs mr dean yes conversations increases the information came from this committee heard from mr mcwhorter who ever came forward and jim at that time were you in active discussion with his demons as to how the grand jury

testimony was to be paid out weird the meeting have already testified that most of their sights on one meeting we have only seven members at the meeting where the innovative place that you were going through so they're in a position that there's no no discussion of the electronic surveillance or intelligence about me mr dean no i do not believe that that's contained in there with respect to vote a meeting that was held libyan ruler obviously not discuss that you wouldn't be a revelation of that happened discussions and just it was going to be with you it

continues to allow about that i agree with you with him and he was pacing that was the basis of a discussion between being rewritten mitchell on march twenty eight but the fact that you had been to meetings that were shown in lawns and the question was whether or not the virgin and sell there's testimony from a grand jury

just five years ago the fort a lot when they hadn't happened and about what he told the grand jury he told me in generalities with respect to that then the question as to what questions he had been less than he could recall on a specialty you've already indicated that you were deprived by the lawyers decide what was the greater grand jury afterwards back in august there's actually cracked or you know i did not know what the questions were i knew it had justified too april nineteen seventy three thousand and it's time for the president to make an investigation was in and at the number of numbers including a similar straw and others is doing anything about your knowledge of the watergate villain to the best of our collection you know about the meeting

that prison rules on saturday the fourteenth of april but is this a separate said no no i'm not as you now admittedly every year when he was when he was supposedly making it investigation for the president of the one of the earliest you're gonna kill them most you know and they say i i think that on the router statements that that you approve a bugging operation and one girl morrissey i don't know

twenty one i think so you know you'll recall this is the one where we didn't sit at the coffee table that we were over and this is a recording of that conversation well what i said a conversation with a young recording artist and it's not a very good recording the pacific that's right we were

but we knew in nineteen seventy three with this and the declining met with the president and informed him of a number of people might be involved in tire grooves not aware of other prisons are going to press i was not aware of that until i rather than the president then ask you about your job i had not very prestigious i think you have a costly indicated you're close friendship with the president and the president i think it's reciprocated not the person that we had as of this is true first of all i have not expressed my question is to the president that's been an assumption that the news this year certainly with respect to the question i believe that he was having that

investigated by the proper people on the proper circumstances and that was not a function of a president united states to carry out such an investigation i as a person these references are sympathetic characters as a crucial matter as a matter of human personality and the relationship you have with him as his attorney general and campaign manager we do not expect the president or you and say john what about this i don't think that necessarily be appropriate to the circumstances you would not want to get from your lips a lot along with your views i don't like the martins would be one way or the other i haven't found it or at least the side and on the fourteenth of april thirty after having learned was only a truce isn't taken place there and then a determination

when he testified before the april twentieth sometimes her testimony there to send us the money in before this committee well the public testimony has much more expensive on the subject matter is simply that are consistent that is exactly the same as for you testified before the first war again i guess i don't move sometime in september the day before the indictment was recorded testimony than the same as the testimony in april of this year though is different because the questions are different with you specifically whether or not they were involved in the un meetings in january and february seventh

every four on a discussion of well you know i don't believe that most of those i don't recall if there's specific so that it was a very brief appearance was done almost on the basis of an apology but grand jury want you up there and i don't recall the specific civilian nobody to my recollection estimate was there a discussion of electronic surveillance that the meetings in january and february investigating this matter i mean mr mitchell was not

raining right now as workers staged a reservation the kind of the reservation and the understanding of the committee expresses beginning on the reservation right see any into this situation and they're getting into the prestigious remember grand jury the first graduate angry because that was the nature of testimony that you're given some deference before the grand

jury that you said it was a sort of a little deference the former attorney general herbert going now it really does i don't well it must address that my reaction to every submission would be considered an open question in my mind that was a determination that it was not a protein showed an extreme distaste for the fact that it had been brought in to me in any form or circumstance now mm hmm they're a real person and a fine line for quite

some time and he also of course was to working with marian campaigner it's going to continue to work with him very good two seconds til it's almost two houses that are put together mr rubin than statements and meeting that we head isn't really part of the house where mr rose damon as a rule i don't recall letters to measure the telephones were writing room where we were meeting and how many times he was on the telephone i have no recollection

it was conversation that is right and these operations so the cia briefings that question was answered just to date most of the action of my recollection has truly affected he did that is martin did tell me though that he said that the white house using the germans they have to prove that with respect i want to remember things

you deserve it to lose to he referred to himself in hot i'm certain on love with going beyond that i have a very you know well liddy said i don't believe that that was discussed at that particular time with imagery that would be that either either at that time or shortly thereafter the us or you know about us

it does years later how aggressive had discussions with champion of that the subject matters and were more to the effect as the welcome wears were in palo operating in the white noise well of course mr mr levine or the operators and they were actually working on the directions to crow bend a regular wealthiest kroger according to miner knowledge information of the white house or organization was assigned to a man domestic council on which mr

i don't know mr martin as for the stories came out yes listeners it didn't take

and so ms martin no no season mm hmm emily me

as being fake it well it is realize that they were the same tables a job as there are internet some time very early part of nineteen seventy two said that he had been having discussions with the us to call someone white house concerning these cables i'm sorry this is

because beaks the committee recess for a vote on still another amendment to the alaskan pipeline bill then return to the hearing room just long enough to decide it was time for lunch there are no further testimony before leaving public television's coverage of the senate hearings will continue after all for 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 the the pain

and that continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities you again correspondent jim lehrer as a go back to that hearing she counsels and that has taken up or aleppo with questions about the so called lauren of the boom on those involved in watergate restoration see you in the state as directed and february fifteenth and as i recall we had lunch at to discuss a number of items and sending a forthcoming hearings of this committee and i believe if my

memory serves me right there was a casual reference still thought that so some people thought that i might be interested in that subject matter and as i recall i had well thank you what was your reaction now i think in a question being asked by the centre and wait to you about whether or not after information that matter in the war against the president became aware of certain

vowels and it allowed westward put you mr mitchell well when you consider what the president did was horrible on is your language he went to work for the treasury and mr crowe who was left the white house became under secretary of transportation because the router went to the commerce department strong became general counsel of the usa and i'll be there now but that's how they left the white house with a wire that was that you're understanding of it that i'm not familiar with that job that these gentleman of hell a ticket with respect of the time

frame but i would believe him but my recollection that they were placed in those positions before the period of the subject matter that the senator and i were talking about there's been removed positions mr brolin yeah well i can tell you there were an earlier time a time frame with respect to him i don't know when they were almost murdered this case might be an exception and that was that he was coming to see us outlet of mr altman i think it's justified yes or

they get over the same kind of assistance well i don't want them says the general well the commerce department it's also the only state to dramatically but i think it did make a dramatic statement in terms of what you thought was necessary to get a president you would pretty much it not one allowing things than when they're at their reelection and i know that you do for certain exceptions to that would you have included an hour now anyway the

president relied on somebody else's part of the subject matter that there's a very long very hard i know and i think maybe he was according to testimony and that it was that the briefing that gave you all the information of lee's operation which included the so called white house are as i'm writing now have you ever been i mean anytime theres the morning i told you about this conversation i have no recollection of a melody that you just did you give a deposition on september

why in the civil case civil action number one point three three guests are really really really you do it was to look at his cell phone question what do you do you know whether or not they're still rule had a discussion with mr gordon liddy about disability answer by you i don't really know i believe according to my best recollection was that really one of the other or maybe a living when he decided he was not going to cooperate with npr i'm not sure which one of them was either one or the other question for you you were not present at the conversation and see what you know now i have nothing left of the reasons the middle of june and not seen as a political question which you think even as the martin reports you on a

conversation with libby your answer no he expanded his services and generated and whatever way it was about was the testimony as the september five nineteen seventy two was that it was the best that relates to the basis of determination was living no question but she was that even as the march report you on that conversation with that but if you go back through the basis of that had to do with the subject matter of determination of most of the michigan the questions put to you forty five you know whether or not and then you said and i don't really know that hinduism has the winds and the question was at the mass the more interesting reporting on the conversation with this delay and your answer was

no limitation they answered speech to the terminations service is my part of my response with respect to the other subject matter was a political because of my recollection is testifying three days here that the important part of that conversation that mr marty was talking about was the white house florist and the watergate break in and says this was september five nineteen seventy two before the election you answer no willingness to keep a little awkward conversation you would have an opening but most of that i've spent many many hours connection with what happened during the spirit of time and preparation of the testimony of this committee matter is one of the reasons why more specific knowledge or

better recollection of what is going on in a particular line in september when his reply september five tune in to the particular time or to subject matters contained in that discussion one of which have to do with is germination a mailer had to do with violence in the middle your answer now that mr martin did not tell you anything about libby with regard to libya's involvement in awarding episode in that it's actually quite contrary to testimony under oath before this committee mr there are two subject matter's there's no relates to terminations aspect of it and the other answers as i say but that thing you put a limitation on the question but he was dealing with the question of innocently concerning his involvement and you said that was the martin did not tell you about a

palestinian analysts said was upset about discrimination mr ewing you know it was the morning did not tell you about a really concerning is what any involvement is directly contrary to the testimony given here i still disagree with the interpretation has intimated that they also point out that in addition and reconstructing these events closer than other matters presented to us that relate to the subject matters which of refresh my recollection including testimony before liszt you actually had no recollection that morning in the white house what is it nice

work you also forget about his involvement in the break in order as i go back and spend and they actually gave you i think there are two subject matters fire and there are two answers are you the statement was made it was made under oath her now your circumstances under which really was fine as counsel to the committee to re election the president in the introduction of your interview with him on november four well i think my testimony and my recollections about what happened after the spirit the broadest of video me with me and you know from her twenty four nineteen

seventy one and discuss the areas in which he would be working we met as lady bee myself we discuss that and then as i understand it the suggestion was that since mr mcgrew was then overriding committee and mr levy they put in touch with mr dean mr mcgrew there by mr dean hiring took place over there you were the circumstances as mr dean haven't brought mr livio to meet with me and i having said that look the mail like he could be perfectly competent counsel on her approval of the natural i would presume that that aisle now have you ever

denied anybody that you're aware of it isn't one of the committee there was one occasion in which my recollection failed with respect to who actually higher visibility it is still my opinion that mr mcgrew there hired libby and not john mitchell so the question of who actually and yet it became law which included lose your interviewing oven and you're having some low i mean if you ever denied at knowing any of those circumstances i don't recall the fire on the same testimony mr mitchell september follow her nineteen seventy two the question to put you on page eighteen of the transcript mr mitchell do you have any information as the circumstances under which mr libby was hired president

answer no sir i have do not question that you never made a quick to find out how it came to be desired answer and i made a great question yes answer no not now that testimonials on how could you have actually been able to answer now that question will grow easily because i was not aware of how mr mcgregor ultimately be a question that it wasn't that was used in the context of that you've read again as i understood it at that particular time the answer was yes it was you had any information as to the circumstances under which i would be truthful answer that wait a minute when that information

the greenest convention the question as to the hiring or not hiring was done by mr magruder following month and i have no knowledge of those aspects of you remember that interview i have no recollection of your approving a restaurant that using the word proven one wasn't that extend a basis of the conversation and yes i think he for the canadian leone that decision was made by macgregor message you know that agenda was prepared for that interview and that if you didn't approve mr liddy you know that that could very well be the case or a wider than our laws is by it's both