1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-07-30; Part 1 of 6

the pain is eight am hallowed and as was the case with all means in the oval office with the president was there this meeting with his tv news report at the president's request i recently reviewed a recording of that meeting at which i was present throughout in order to report on its contents to the president i should interject here but also reviewing the recording of the march twenty first name of the president yesterday and myself for the same purpose and i have made reports to the president and both of these meetings i have not had any time to listen to any other recordings of the meetings in the president's office or the president's phone box and the president did not open the meeting of september

fifteen with the statement that quote bart has kept me posted on your handling of the water close quote or anything even remotely resembling that in the senate of the united states good evening this was one of the most fascinating days in seven weeks of watergate hearings the reputed superman of the nixon white house bob haldeman came on like mild mannered clark kent and then casually dropped

sensational news president nixon has let him listen to two of the white house tapes that the urban committee and the federal prosecutor a desperate to get their hands on more over mr haldeman listen to one of the recordings just a few days ago long after he left the government to do so mr mullins about what was on the tapes of two important meetings is largely what john dean said it was a haldeman says dean court entirely the wrong interpretation on it this dramatic development sharp the committee out of its obvious exhaustion an equally obvious internal animosities during the last hours of john ehrlichman was five day appearance there was evidence of open bitterness and partisanship but always smooth over in a session at the end today when the dispute and said something nice about each other ehrlichman said after his testimony that he has no fear of being indicted because as he put it i've done nothing wrong and that's peter carey aston foreign in an evaluation of his testimony as robert latham mariner

how do you think you know i think i did that courses question what your goals were my goals were to tell what i knew about a list of subjects and if you remember my opening statement i lay that list that as plainly as i know and i've been keeping tabs as we went along every day and checking off the sentences we got through them by george we got through the next to the last line about twenty minutes before the and so i feel pretty good that we had covered the ground that was my principle concern that we cover the ground and then i got an opportunity to fully develop the facts as i recall a memory been able to learn from research the committee decided today to push on and finish the watergate phase of this public inquiry before taking a summer vacation this means no adjournment this friday and six more witnesses after all former fbi director l patrick gray deputy cia director vernon waters a former number

one and number two man at cia richard helms and general robert cushman former attorney general richard kleindienst an assistant attorney general henri please in order to get through all these people as quickly as possible the committee is adopting a faster game plan he'll hang in there later in the afternoon start thirty minutes earlier in the morning take shorter lunch breaks try to keep going through senate votes and most importantly impose a ten minute time rule for it centers around the question the plan would with nba to try to wrap up hangs by a week from friday august the tenth we shall say about that for the record the vote on the decision to keep going with the committee's first four three vote with senators urban baker montoya on the losing side tonight's play that is one of our longest and probably one of the most important and thirty three days of testimony to help you chart a course through the words of john ehrlichman the nature alderman there is and that hour by hour viewing and our number one john ehrlichman says he didn't immediately inform the president of eos or break him because once it occurred there was nothing the president could

do asked about his exit from the white house said it was due to appearance problems because he had no legal liability in the second hour ehrlichman was asked if he knew the president had been told that national security burglaries were illegal he says now be characterized as perfectly silly the allegation he ordered patrick great to destroy documents and our number three oregon testifies that charles colson was on hand when plans were made to open howard hunt say when confronted with conflicting testimony from colson ehrlichman still maintained that colson was there and in that hour he says a golden john dean requesting him to stand firm on the files given the gray did not amount to recover and the fourth hour ehrlichman label john dean's version about offers of executive clemency nonsense saying they never took place and in his closing statement ehrlichman took issue with gordon strands advice to young people and challenged young people to come to washington and do better in the fifth hour h r haldeman begins his statement saying that a nineteen seventy domestic spy plan was approved it was withdrawn and never went

into effect he said the donald cigarette is dirty tricks operation as originally conceived contain nothing wrong in a six hour call dimon denied that he ever ordered strong to clean his files and in that hour he admits he listened to the president's state of the september fifteenth meeting with john d in the seventh hour haldeman revealed that he had also one that it says that teens conflicting dates about when he discussed clemency with the president was a genuine confusion now to the hearings at senator of an open today with a lecture to the audience it's b requested oh yeah

it doesn't happen who knows illustration of the piece because by a puff ball it was i mean

you're welcome you know the nineteen seventies rita going to blow up in that memo that is they didn't know that was on our cameras and medium robertson says and there's a lot of it is that this will be imposed their will know that they will be asking it is that's right

and that this is radio and it was right right the patrol was on the nineteen seventy three we think without letting

the sort of the way it's rated documents it would take a long time to leave but they stayed in that exactly what listeners that name of that there was no political volunteers that are used at that there are portable what the news media he also the testimony one million dollars out of one step is the opposite of the committee and i don't want to use meteor or two in nineteen eighty nine

nineteen seventy three it's brave to be with you so contaminated at june eighteenth nineteen seventy three a lot of promises of nato to resume that they do he's

buried no they didn't throughout twenty eight nineteen seventy two i'm david greene they weren't real there was

no political party that all situations which as chairman two short matters which are the result we can research questions which were asked on friday near the closing session i wonder if i might be permitted the first has to do with the questionable propriety it appears that this question has been decided the court of appeals for the second circuit in a recent case involving alleged corruption was speaker of the house of representatives the case of united states versus while and in that case it's white who was the most racist which was charged with accepting

massachusetts well as give his testimony to the grand jury and that the testimony was taken not my personal appearance before the grand tour but my fried assistant united states attorneys coming to his office to look at and one of those occasions taking his testimony in the presence of mr mccormick snappy an outsider to proceed the defendant in the case appealed to the united states pork bills stayed very much the same kind of rejection that was stayed here through the procedure and for forty one thirty second that they've won fourteen the court ruled the taking of speaker mechanics testimony for grand jury is it by this process that action that

was taken out of the state even have witnessed all this invasion of men who have wealth that witnesses available and is available through the year so far now that will look into that patients sleep you respected the same way thank you most germans cited his nation won fourteen for forty one page one forty one analyst from us sir nineteen seventy one

and with the and with that because they were made in the justice league that year that corroborate ought to take this stand and my boy or understand as chairman that you're asking or actually the statement made by mr spanned us attorneys that was subsequently submitted

well i don't really make a distinction between what was it i don't want anything the other the other matter and have a listen in some of my answer these settlements weren't subject actually turns out i've been provided with a copy of a congressional record for april sixteen nineteen seventeen they just fifty nine eleven to let the nineteen twenty four which is a hero falling writing for a contrasting procedures and the kennedy administration and the nixon administration with regard to white house access to income tax returns and other tax records it appears that the

regulations which the nixon administration imposed upon such access were anomaly and i had not been in effect before they require requests in writing and they integrate the number of sets for varnishes white house request up to this nineteen seventy day the committee also be a movie kennedy administration were six days after inauguration mr billy no special consultant president obama commissioner of internal revenue an under inspection of many many tax returns for days at a time there's extensive description of mr billy knows examination of the tax returns of various individuals were quote bizarre and unquote oh yeah

time frame break and help the democratic tent wall and what it came down to that report they'll march nineteen seventy three thank you the committee will approach as ursula he did not ask it personally involve myself in any inquiry our investigation on this matter until march thirty he did ask me and the only the only request of me that might bear on this was the request we made me about a sixth of a lot three weeks later the

fbi to make an unlimited investigation and to take no instructions from ending as to the scope of the investigation mr ray along with the farm in mexico and i didn't make those instructions that are now below i may be wrong well no not specifically mentioned in the media and i can't recall who raised those that circumstance not the funds themselves with the circumstance of their being gay mexicans source of money somehow came up in the meeting by one of the participants using that as an example and that kind of thing certainly as i understand it the cia about

six days later determined that there was no connection with any cia activities and a song for me actually i twenty nine and i believe it was an outlier july six between the cia and eight fbi and i think it was about sixteen so called mexican connection with and if you didn't have that time away at least temporarily in the bank account when i have gone wildly why didn't have any special knowledge of german and go wrong there again i believe i read that in

this film i didn't really have to serve her and that was way back in the summer might be and then and just about that time and we know the fbi was all out in its investigation as gentle well liked the tighter rules on what we're saying that mr ehrlich has been on the stand up for its fifth day we covered a great amount of testimony i'm sure there are other questions that would occur to all of us where we permitted now after recess to go over the transcript and arrive and suggest new lines of inquiry i think they'll arrest chairman interscope time that i'm done or go any further questions were full understanding mr lippman that if there are other matters that clearly with so called race to replace three of this operation of

this inquiry into the alleged dirty tricks operation or more in detail about the financial transactions sanders thanked us other witnesses would be willing to return to just wrap other on that or any other said senator i don't believe that i would have a great deal of information on either of those they says one attorney mike is that we forgo questions that does not imply that we cannot answer questions later mr willson and the copy of the congressional record dealing with income tax practices during the kennedy and nixon administration solicit your wish that that be examined the committee or make for the record there's a bit of what it was that questions about making statements of their own state and then your intestine it relates to the testimony about the witness

mr lippman and response where it went largely person montoya an examination of an empty chair it's been a week mr oliver no way of april thirty nineteen seventy three ccp was shapiro and that you know it's not at

all yes that's the status quo in today's debate the first thing that he said was that he had some suggestions of points of view that you like was the purpose of the meeting but it also conceivably though some opportunity to develop additional information because i was in the course of this and that refers to our

craving richard kleindienst statement to congress about executive privilege and he simply didn't have the heel up in arms and you know then he said that at two pm on the coming monday would once again the best boat you're saying first man he said his sources were both within the government and whisper whisper that he would testify we're talking about responsibility and

i'm in the latter he says all this information will be coming out and he said with religion of islam or as i recall setting of this was a reporter is coming up with all sorts of wild stories and his latest story was that the court and even know when the libyans had been involved in las vegas las vegas saying it thank you

how kinds of allegations that are making some awkwardness such a thing all in this whole sordid business he said well i don't think that those words my son howard hughes operational it out as a senator and point out it's like it's kind of hearsay and and i don't to sort of troop event in the us but it simply describing what olson was describing as mr records rather extreme charges at that point then he went on the inception of the watergate which he living here say which was the post watergate break in that's the second reagan that character isn't stupid that libby told that it would not be a problem

and that it wasn't going to get out there again for any of the reliability had that that simply hearsay second or for air paulson said he was also picking up a rumor that mr mitchell at a quote one no one will to mr levy that there would be a president for mr libby and he said that he thought that there was a possibility of legal operating for our party honoring four and and you have a situation of two people testified because they're so called double hears it and reportedly made on information that they were hearing and then again this isn't the river stage about the rangers who were investigating this dimensional in addition italy or grand jury looking into the best no matter that there was a second grand jury in washington dc which was looking into money with an

incline mr mitchell in consideration of government contracts or climb and you know the right response i just hear an american team in team will at this time but they are also not going to go out we'll link

you so apparently indicate that maybe it will take years that may be true questions

are you like any good ideas respect human rights and there are a number of educators found on the last case which had been speculated about in the press very unfairly mr mitchell and i am i wish if i may simply to make clear at least

six or seven references to mr mitchell asks a or mr shapiro host second hand at characterization and did not in any way by mr golson mermaid mr mitchell either as an individual or as a potential weapons and the operations of a very cruel indifference is of an education that are totally unjustified and they're running well mr woodman in the last four months remaining i have a few questions here which may be a bit repetitious but just for the record sir the president of us in your presence but marginal this year for information on exactly how the watergate break in yes sir but in this sense that are indications

the president asked that a complete definitive statement of the whole watergate matter paulos plan was executed the whole picture except down on paper unreleased and i had gone through my nose meetings and which the senate was disgusted and then say that on at least eight cases the president made that rick wiles will receive satisfaction no sir and i think they get one of those occasions that was just prior to be sending data to settle down in march of this year but he asked the writer to do this back in in september he asked for state now whether this science of reading in november in november that later in the month around thanksgiving time he asked that in response to a letter

that he had received from a friend about this expressing real concern about it said that you wanted this out cleaned up before the congress came back into complete definitive statement out he did the same thing again on december eight where the instructor john dingell watergate summary he did the same thing on the eleventh of december and seventy one and that statement by christmas again he didn't fire are meeting and ask the average man and one of the major purposes of that meeting was to impress upon has to be urgency for such a statement and he did it again in my presence in the market and and again on the twenty second in this meeting that mr mitchell and the men fall and i have with the president where he said that he wanted to lead such a state where the president when did you become aware of mr mcgregor the owner of

information is the information have been given in mr mcgregor presence and the presence presence of it very gentle mr klein the previous day which is to show that the cabinet and mr mcgregor and others assemble that when in fact no one in the white house was involved that the investigation had been extremely rigorous by the department of justice and the seven persons responsible had in fact been indicted and he he gave a total of our to the method of investigation and the results of that investigation the definitive state he was well i think that that what was the river's gonna sell that in universally mcgregor has said yes they asked me to make a statement backing

in july august and september but i should have known about the cia and i should have known about the special unit and i should have known about other things that were happening in the white house it seems to me that that if i may say so it's a general in fact back in the convention and immediately after the convention days and following up on the attorney general's report on september on the president and mr mcgregor and others that mr mcgregor was in an excellent position to step out based upon very expensive department of justice investigation i made a statement of the facts as we are at that time on the fishes then the attorney general and so if the president report as their collection as well the thought here was that there should be two

reports one with regard to the white house the white house involvement which in fact you and also like the other part of that an important part was the involvement or non involvement of various committees or electricity that was missing from the marines and my final question in restaurants or less the middle of his testimony suggested that he withheld information from the president right to life in prison because he didn't want to let people know if you have a key information away from the light and i had certainly never liked the president's senators i hope whenever they're certainly not certainly not a phone and intentionally anything that was not true now as far as keeping things from the brain a great deal of my time was that in trying to

evaluate what stood and should not be considered a matter for presidential attention certainly it did not indiscriminately everything again on my desk to the person i have i have made dozens and i suppose hundreds of joint over the four years that matters of information even matters of four decision need not present that end up in the hierarchy of our priority of how he should devote his time that this was whatever was a manner which would needlessly occupy his attention or that they'd better be decided by someone else and so i have i have literally hundreds of it the victims of the brake and on bob dylan's art was

important enough or was that a modification it was a it was an event that had occurred there wasn't anything to vote on could do about it was i mean he was called upon to do about it was in a continuum of investigation and i simply made a judgment that they would unnecessarily texas detention center under circumstances that really it wasn't a given ginger cruz of the meetings was to live in boston with good mr mitchell mr dean the office of the attorney general and laden key biscayne was important enough that a lot of patients are really identify within an hour we'll have a wonderful about that i learned about that in my interview with mr rhyne in it is the early part of april of this year on april the original bodies in

june of nineteen seventy two nasr you mean to say you were kept in the dark until april of this year mr frommer discussed this with you know the best of the moment is that mr pollan another discusses with them one chukker is when reporters were being made in the us about these meetings and one reports were being made in the press are suggesting that these meetings have been held well i think those report i don't notice when those reports of hearsay but i don't think they were very much a previous my having talked to mr ryan at the same time i don't have

anything else twenty one indeed an investigation such as granger with them the grandparent ago with proposition if the grand jury had failed to make zuckerman says with this revolution while before local chairman i might think if i'm a sense i indicated when i remarked on the situation on the previous examination of garlic in that i thought it was improper conduct hearings other than before the grand jury that really confess i was not aware

he's matured not written exam and i also know there are footnotes seven on page one twenty one with some five or six other cases are the same and that the shepard citations half appalachian shows that in this case or sharing with an eye on the us supreme court on the second circuit court of appeals decision the dr kleinman just footnotes says one such intention is that an indictment was defecting is that the indictment should have been dismissed very interesting testimony speaker mccormick minimal way instead of calling mccormick just one person the grand jury sent three assistant us attorneys to interview him on two occasions once in the presence of his anatomy michael long story short the court of appeals fail supreme court in her and pressured by the ninth character in the appropriate way to reseed now the question still

presented i suppose in which this committee ought to reserve chairman is whether or not the test of inconvenience why would some or maybe applied to the courts to mr stanton was redoing the spiders are that question this is a moment when the spring quarter nasr credits her rarity they've been ordered to of that was a little town people were calm humiliation but this is without it president

in question with a youthful and without regard to your medicaid the president's request the myth that ailes the man who might have been denied which would've justified when you're in constant well placed to be some that are inspected persons who want the committee to reelect the last election up there who made the requests an ordinary

observation that is a witness before randy orton and you're not going to the problem with this one more thing an actual situation for the grand jury but gave his deposition now i think maybe it will reserve the end coming up a report on a valuation of wisdom or lack of ways of doing it that way but i apologize and that is the reason for an objection to witness and mr wilson who previously expressed in the end depression that was no way to proceed i think there's been a big

week we want them to be you and i don't mean that i do today you're

welcome in the two weeks in the duany had several meetings over the united states what made him conversations that led up to your resignation will you tell the committee and what he said to the president what the president said to me i saw her standing water and dozens of the white house one on their nose to expand quite a few of these meetings the conversation at the white house and it became

and now fifty eight president decided that he would work with the petersen personally it did get a number of meetings with mr peterson gave him a real digital information what i didn't have and what i'm not but i am one of the first things that this is the president's view of armstrong now it must've been very early fifties the basis of this report at the same time the fact that their interrogations

and so there was a lot of conversation between us over this time voters to was that it should be in the white house and what yesterday's that issue on monday the sixteenth the president telephoned me and said that he was going to see mr bean mr side of peterson's desire notwithstanding he was going to be a new family a war czar he asked that we've prepared that would be appropriate and both of these alternatives and the moralistic didn't want to be in those lessons and we're watching he literally the twenty twenty one of them basically from member station wabe so we reported that to me

later on in the day there were those kinds of those kinds of questions that were going on the discussion at that point in time right there the price and tell you why he wanted to do you know have him resign well the us since the spending was continuing to come and the white house apparently had access to these files files presumably in the several thousand white house they had basically an adversary relationship and that was the situation this obviously did not take place tonight gather from talking to the president i gather it isn't strongly urged the president following that they will move toward the most concern and the president and acquiescent we became

color became a newspaper and other media attention about twenty seconds here and from then on through the thirtieth newspaper los angeles times dishonest and false story about my interventions behalf of the spill people and some middle eastern activity we were continually finding i was continually find myself laying aside workaday repair a statement sort through research documents of things is that one of the striking record gem that we should strike and recommendations just to get wealthy subject

back with my wife at the time as well i'm sorry that was a german and that this was the instance however that directly led to my realization that i simply could not do my job or an and continue with button the mild and the last minute all levels going on we began discussing very seriously with the president in the war and then this was at it i began discussing we've been discussing the president mean for the early lessons about this point in time and as we progressed into this

we had the twenty thirteen serious consideration of alternatives to pick up from a van and carry on the domestic side work in the policy questions move the information the president saw and well by the time the president went along i think twenty seven after we return from mississippi do have some responses ceremony in the city that i think presidents saddle in his own mind and it was my impression from talking with him on the airplane that day it gets settled in his own mind that we should take a leave of absence of war astronomer and i discuss this twenty eight and it was our new tool that like that even a leave of absence and a clean break

president biden was the camp david on the sunday before night we separately discussed with the president are points of view on this at that time we both had extended private meetings with him and that was the senator's age literally april fourteen april thirtieth in these meetings where we discussed it was mainly a discussion on how more and more you're becoming an effective because of media exposure to watergate including new arrivals all and those were discussions that led to the resignation there are other points obviously that raises the peterson was pressing the convention for instance i have urged to get out of the country a lighter versions of the store the contents of the safe and he was flying back to present the justification isn't the fire at all testimony that that would be picked up

such evidence is it points and as i said before i talked to the people who were happening in june nineteen and i report to the president what they had said well likewise there's a very timely consultants and laid out the facts for counsel and his opinion as to what are now we really have anything wrong and made that report so we were very much personally involved in trying to indicate a reservoir when you have no recollection of the facts i'm a part of this war in any of these meetings that the president becomes a jury in tension you were wrong and to cover up in such and such a fashion i can't leave you alone because of any of the conversations now they won again

there's a style of making an accusation against it means running out these are serious allegations is that what you're telling me is true but let's face it prosecuting attorney mr peterson is strongly urging that i that i want you only the medicines and i have to listen to that advise the investigators nasr the vessels in a moment senators monterey and weicker will have their final questions for john ehrlichman public television's coverage of the senate hearings will continue after we pass her station identification on a great coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service by the member stations of pbs the public broadcasting service the in

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