1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-07; Part 1 of 4

the pain it is i am in the senate of the united states a resolution to establish a select committee of the senate to conduct an investigation instead of the extended family which illegal improper or unethical activities were engaged in by any person acting individually or in combination with others in the presidential election of nineteen seventy two or any campaign canvas are other activity related to the wto he's a senior correspondent another round of watergate hearings ended today were fresh and

moving insights into the apparent motivation of man prepared to disregard the law because of the depth of their loyalty to president nixon you'll see tonight a very unusual spectacle of man admitting that he voluntarily committed perjury and act for which he can still be invited to cover up the connection between watergate and the nixon reelection campaign the witness was her reporter scheduling director of the reelection committee will pay down some of the funds used by g gordon liddy this testimony raised again one of the main underlying themes of this investigation how the morality of election campaigns and be determined the fallout of watergate continues to range far from the senate caucus room at the white house today clarence kelley she even the kansas city police department was nominated at the fbi the previous white house choice l patrick gray was forced to quit in april because of his handling of the watergate probe kelly himself was a former fbi agent fbi will continue to be led by william ruckelshaus into kelly's the bureau has been without permanent leadership since

j edgar hoover died in may nineteen seventy two and in the courts today the deep recession or former white house chief of staff h r haldeman was made public and it held some surprises alterman says former white house counsel john dean was never asked formally to investigate white house staff involvement in the watergate break in and never submitted a report on the topic and that set all the lending didn't talk directly about the situation with president nixon until nineteen seventy three this confirms beings recollection that he was flabbergasted when the president announced last august that she didn't had investigated the situation and reported to him white house aides alderman also admitted that he had controlled a three hundred and fifty thousand dollar fund that was used to finance poland during the campaign that the position fire was part of the democratic suit against the committee to re elect the president is more than two hundred pages long

and it will probably be another day at least before it's fully digest it as you'll see jeb stuart magruder as the new squarely and permanently and the very hot x ray lives of the senate watergate committee and mcgruder and sell those yet to be heard from but that day hugh sloan gibson final exit is former associate at the committee to re elect the president and then another former campaign official our reporter added even more to the growing magruder file sunset yesterday and repeated today at magruder spend a lot of authorities about the amount of money given the g gordon liddy and sloan reappeared after reporters there was some not only the ending was different order said magruder asked him to tell a false door or at the fbi the grand jury in a truck or for along with a suggestion from the greater number two campaign was under john mitchell and a man order trust would you know he made a statement

when i came in december you tell the fbi what was he regretted it and says that they do appear at a federal law federal grand jury and so you ask about the senate candidate and what'd you tell them and were you a witness at the trial and seven defendants who died in the watergate days and the beauty of this and accounts later reporter goes up to discuss the mental set persuaded him to go along with this scheme but his admission of perjury before a national audience today was certainly one of the most dramatic moments of the hearing so far

david austin professor of law at georgetown university law school wants the hearings with us today david was especially would you advise people to look for this evening in the testimony robin sloan is nothing short of a great witness he is confident and honesty and integrity and candor just flow from him and i mention that because when i was trying cases actively people would sometimes say they were going to be prospective witnesses how should i act in front of the jury why not sure i can answer that what was flown because if anyone's ever going to testify tuesday a good example of what to do particularly when he is pinned down is to exact words that are spoken in conversations that took place a long time ago he is very frank and candid say he's not sure of the exact words contrast from porter who when he testifies people here that he has an amazing memory and it would appear that

he can remember the exact words that were spoken incidentally a song would be a much harder witness to cross examine and you might think of the kinds of questions you would want to ask him it would be very hard as specific questions too because his memories the memory honest man who cannot i cannot remember the exact details and finally toward the end when mr porter's testify again i'm afraid that people will once again here the legal profession come in for some criticism into one attorney who partly want to sleep while his client was consulting with us and we'll talk about that more of the year at the end of the of tonight's reply all sold at the conclusion than i will have an interview that he played it at the conclusion of the session today the senator and a way of the white as you find you're hearing tonight you might keep in mind that today's most dramatic testimony and the shop is questioning or senator baker's it happened came in the latter part of the evening here is an hour by our guide to the hearings in the first hour former

campaign treasurer hugh sloan this question about possible tax dodges used in raising funds and they're further questioning he says he remains loyal to the president despite policy differences in the campaign when nothing came of his resignation from the reelection committee sloan says he felt i had essentially lost on the cover up issue and our number two's long testifies that he got no guidance on what to tell the fbi either from john mitchell was deputy robert martin yesterday singled out magruder for criticism because magruder was the only one who asked him to do it being illegal in the fair got the reporter tells the committee that he did make a false statement the fbi grand jury and before the jury trying to watergate conspirators porter says he agreed to backup recruiters incorrect version of where the money went instead of telling how much went to gordon liddy egregious a one hundred thousand dollars went to pay for protecting surrogates who campaigned on that in the final hour border admits that on instructions from a few pranksters or as democratic

senator baker borders says he was away documents his secretary copy was no documents so that is tonight's agenda as committee chairman sam ervin committee the new york times educating them and mr least and some out of your window all of these invocations of the

car this report i don't know why and he suggested that maybe one of papers received that rio will obscure place on the most likable security also i'm happy to report that un investigation made of the small indicates that these papers so that any releases may have been made to the president because this might make you would not did not come from this committee is a possibility one to understand and to be kept skill

that no one would have access to them except prosecute members of this committee and i believe a lot of this commission would make in an open respectful of papers reporter you're welcome let nation that they do not come from this committee all copies of all the copper possible this committee about a week it was do it when there was no security that's really his decision

some of her a banana an animation of that suggestion but that's really provided security of documents that were classified at a very high level i'm also member of the joint committee on atomic energy joint committee on atomic energy as the high security the studio facilities the committee permitted us then to provide four separate story of those documents in a separate safe under the direction of security officer of the joint committee on atomic energy insecurity secure area protected twenty four hours a day by guards protecting that automatic protection systems protect about other devices that i believe actually guarantee that there would not be intrusion into that area no one has seen those documents except the members of this committee plus the

chief counsel them an arctic council no one has taken those documents out of secure areas those documents are still in a secure manner some credibility joint committee on atomic energy census since its instigation since its beginning has never get security leak and i'm sure there's no exception testimony yesterday since nineteen sixty five

there is there is committee members of a connection it was mr john mitchell mr leno and vice chairman of the project and mr fred now also mr robb oval participated in those meetings and the formal keeping the notes changes and so forth as we proceeded through budget reviews you have to take that information recall related to revise it and provide working papers for a subsequent meeting would you love me callers

it's really rolling out a tool which is the reason for the joint representations actually of a lot of the members of the finance robert finance committee meetings with hitler what are the best estimates might be of what we realistically felt we could raise in terms of sons fourteen total effort we also responsibility in providing adequate detail what did ferraro overhead for the finance committee as one of the items considered in these meetings essentially working with but each of those divisions would

begin the process by any given test they want to accomplish and how much they thought it would fall the process continues and the settlement discussions with jenni along the lines individual citizen we say of setting up a monitoring function where we would report that the various divisions on in such a monthly basis as to how they were doing our forces they have fallen within their budgets and so it wasn't any discussion to discuss the purposes for which you know these funds will be used advertising budget

but the members of that parker would come and essentially and make a presentation and sale of our judgment is we should allocate sixty percent of money for television ten percent for radio and so forth but generally these kind of dimension there would often be discussion of whether that is the proper out the allegation know how in terms of percentages discussion fb never hear anybody the genesis the best in activities those are i never was that the practice of your budget committee who just spends three hundred fifty thousand dollars or a million point seven million dollars most of it

as i think it's either of these funds and the accordion that was set up to disperse them was never a subject of any budget committee meeting in which i sat i did not settle managers took place that it was to be spent on legal voters absolutely never got suspicious not at the time was doing and certainly a falling in seventeen years huge office the white house an internal revenue service ever get together to discuss follow the laws of the united states the tax laws of the united states could be it's good or for example avoiding payment of capital gains taxes were discussions of nature quite the context of iraq opinions on the subject of

capital gains liability were sort of various legal sources independent as well as i believe that we're going to probably run council in the white house early stages since we did not have a full time counselor sort out with regard to other matters for instance the biggest tax liability dollars i believe our party as well as the democratic party were urging overtly was really an attempt to reverse the decision to get some kind of a decision that would do away from the necessity of these multiple committees which are real headache a nightmare for people of volcanic island to fundraise that's right sebastian securities

but you see most toxic securities this year we received a large proportion to integrate the seventh period of aristide's informal spirit was a messenger was in all this to be accepted into a campaign security says marzano certain presidential candidate the republican national committee it would be contributions in the form of securities was among the farms received two reasons i will be a yes and when i would

i would say probably another they do twenty million dollars of that so that i'm not familiar with the receipts are going to be a lawyer with a twenty million dollars raised in march of seventy one up to the april seventh period i would say a third of that figure probably would've been in securities was this one was ten years ago and the other is now fifty and you get at the fifty and i suppose he's under the wealthy tax expert essentially said that in turning the securities over in other words not passionate here is that the individual acts of securities

himself he obviously had a model but in making a gift in the form of securities the legal opinion as to the status of the committee of which i understood their operating under and there were i believe there are legal opinions in the files of the committees supporting this wasn't the committee essentially is like say a non profit organization that sets is not a moneymaking businesses and the conclusion the campaign also last a century it too and in this report it listed several cast aspersions alibi known as the cuff discussion which line not just in the gao report jordan when he

was two i did not recall that particular transaction with a number of other words this has been a potential recruit on with the general accounting office from memory to try to reconstruct what in fact it's not like your transaction and one or two others were brought to our attention to my attorney's attention to another gentleman's ms rivers totally jurors of the president earlier version of my best recollection of the situation that existed that led to that distribution was that in india so

there's you know politicians but i understand that in return for this there was an understanding that when they had a major undertaking such as the lead it was an active theater in this case that they would save money back from was on a long basis to run their dinner and this would be neighbors too has received i gather from yesterday's testimony mr pollack yes a center that a listing of homes that it does not represent a listing of a committee those funds were fallen or committee says with nearly an

internal control over funds that were kept in a physically secure place and there's a halt in julie's piece cast aspersions or did you record there of all i listen to them on the same bus ticket and i think nightline and individuals and the distributions had been a you know sir i testified that i used to have which i had maintained for my own use in maintaining the security response only would be clear understanding that the final report made from that will in turn it over to secretary stands would remain as a permanent record of those transactions yes those are my

concern was they were out of its nearly a record of that and also a clarification and anytime that someone know one sector is denser for instance want to say okay let's go out to catch on and i want to be able to substantiate immediate that's all cash supposed to begin in other words it was a guarantee a written record of all transactions citizen committee by nature to lose money this week's session yes sir securities writer

it was too risky which for some reason i did not have information on the basis of which i could make any report at the time i left the committee i have not made the effort to get that information by quite frankly was too busy it was one of the items that were four others three others but i pointed out to officials of the campaign at the time about or items that need to be resolved later had to be returned because it's an indication that they don't wish to remain anonymous denied it not for us we had to get the information first of fifty thousand dollar contribution to

protect individual and give tax liability would have to be distributed among a number of committees we did not know the wishes of the donor in that regard i did not even know the name of the donor i had no way to deal with that the city was going in that photo it happened and what moved you to focus for different people any idea usually reporters to officials who aren't ministerial approval

testimony that was responsible you haven't friends of suspicion that's moving use of these farms of as normal procedures had been going on really a career i have to say i've been indicated it just began operating procedure like i was too busy actors or didn't have time to pursue curiosity you

know and i don't mean that i'm responsible you're saying i did not know whether whether he received a job my instructions on that distribution into mr cobb i understood from conversations with compaq that he had had a conversation with nussbaum all about the most common know a surrogate

mom who knows i think of a ticket seller of these reforms authorized by an iranian man who i work with her kids are five or six years there of man i'd have great trust and i had no reason to be suspicious of the motivation for many this is by fbi you too

you are and the migrant and stating the unity of meeting last well my first question would be why now why that one yes sir i did a survey the reason i request and requests to meet i think that the period of time in question is important only criminal trial i think so many major industries already come out but generally it was in a low period where my

judgment the decisions had been made to essentially the matter had been done away with it it starts with the conviction of a sudden i was a point in time where i was actively seeking private employment department had essentially asked me to undertake this task the continuing on all of the political leadership in the campaign in opposition to the views i know the fact that they're presumably be saying that were the source of any information i think it was particularly interesting that there was not an active effort on the part of the administration because of misinformation about the reasons i don't want what i had done that that would be active efforts to work it

was a big issue i wanted to do i see because we believe in what he's doing and i want to know that i feel that i did not leave the team as far as i'm concerned the team left me and i said i cannot understand the continuing support of individuals who in my judgment is pretty obvious aren't often the situation i mean was essentially to the possibility of employment in the us decision

to reproduce tree a discussion on his part a statement that the policy of the administration was that no individual who had become quote a watergate figures are commonly mentioned in the newspapers would be placed into my government office until the issue is totally rizzo i said i totally understand that all said i couldn't agree with you more and he said i think interns here at everything as it will your decisions the right time to go out in the private sector he won a key proving however if at a later date when this matters to resolving you wish to be considered for i generally i think this was the the town manager of this discussion are that that meeting have anything that meeting have anything to do

with your being re hired by the committee to reelect president to consult an elder i made that decision the prior that this would be probably about the ruling that dissolves appointed a committee an end in january salinas in january during the finance committee before the government is understood to essentially then there's also that turned out not to be the case retired music and song or how to count the rehiring is consulting finance committee came about after my resignation i would guess it is today and secretary stanton sought me out seeking my return to the campaign

and that was i'm not sure it would've then i'm just not sure at some point during this five moderate follow my resignation of the law i know it was an interview with you he asked me again the size it was in the terms of you take an offensive a bum rap on this thing and i know it's been difficult or if you're five months without gainful employment i would like you to come back and helped me wrap up a campaign i consented because certain conditions which would have made it objectionable to me and why i wouldn't refuse such an offer a prior to that time when that one i did not feel if i have this kind of an opportunity at this particular point in time with no prep has been attached to that association

the conditions that no longer existed as far as i was concerned was that the campaign was over there was no liability spinoff effect on the president's chance for reelection by having someone who had been named other people in the leadership we're essentially the people or that had my argument worked on the committee for the reelection of the president were no longer there had been as hazardous than edited by resignation by employment in the private sector the inaugural committee also none of the assignments i would have that was understood to have anything to do and in the capacity of an official it would be just purely personal working relationship with more expansive than assisting him in an article some civil litigation that would be for them just anywhere yes there might be

considered a judgment that you're at that time that it should be clear that i already made my testimony to the grand jury while the criminal trial not come up one of the important considerations that i took into account except in such a position would be that there could be no cost for misunderstanding in terms of having not having any effect on a subsequent testimony out here and no other individuals involved in so far as her reasons for her or other person's soul one listener he did resign in the first place in frequent

contact with secretary stands i suspected they had conversations the fact that my personal situation is resolved what about the slave so i would say that they considered judgment to rejoin the finance committee is that i did not and do not believe that secretary stanton and anyway it was in awe individually it is for those individuals in the show rather

says her after i made my decision was the exception to the phone calls we referred to hear that it was pretty much a hands off situation artist did not see any the people you knew were not all that different actors or not so well climate change so we're all sinners century man i did not believe the white house an involvement by the known facts that point i did not believe that the finance committee had a bottle i disagree with that along the lines of the finance committee because of the very obvious potential for misunderstanding in terms of financial transactions presumably one of these individuals that the finance

committee early on chad they separate statement and attempted to separate itself away from the political committee in terms of its own contest in the financial transactions would be judged purely in terms of what they were i had no knowledge but secretary stands knew what these funds were four i accepted authorization of others as well i guess these two areas and my mind when i'm connected i think have been an error in judgment and not addressing a political problem for some resolution there it is that's your question it's

difficult to determine you know those individuals that because people were talking about oh but you didn't know that you were one of the few people were insisting on telling the truth and you wouldn't get in it's disappeared and the resolution of the matter had been made on the basis of what i've said that it's basically a very limited knowledge on when the fire but from a factual basis all i could ever say is it a certain individual certain morning an indication of the river it was a case of yes i knew i'd been approached to do that but in terms of testimony where he gives a contrary question i can survey an actor time fully understand it the cross the position unless they add additional information going on we cannot proceed with every of the sokol situation one that we're against another i thought that i really had to do nothing is going to come out and it was all

over the central why do white chicken it's business you know when you think about united airlines are what i think isn't usually the same kind of a situation where it was the volunteers men at work with her to an end years i had no i have not seen anything of them since the one time i'd seen over time i was about to leave town eventually a number of people the white house always intervening period after his oath was there any concern in your mind that there were those in this budget who seem to be ending up with

reading the job while his lawyers know well and actually the whole of the meeting in his very definitive definition to me of administration policy with regard to individuals who would not be appointed positions and in government i do not know whether he meant positions that actually require presidential camp writers i think it was only a few days after that after that meeting with while i'm in which i felt very good about because he indicated to me years there's no i realize the mistakes were made there's nothing being held against you look but within a very short period that's your question no yes sir it was obvious to me that not only did they not address

the problem of people i think a very strong indication where barr i perhaps didn't understand the attempt to postpone the election but there was certainly no attempt in at that point to take doesn't it i think it has been you get a residual so what matters will use printers with turnout on yesterday's that one is

receiving for like david it would be understandable to the american people that is a considerable period of time the strong opinions which a huge smile and wanted us to go our was a oh i was it was not these matters that discussion is really in the river

bettina specific allegation that individuals i think that it already been addressed in the judicial process and the point of mood did you feel basic purpose of the meeting and was like you want me to support of the administration in finding employment in the future i know certainly is looking into more than the other side of the coin and i want to be sure they would not be active efforts to inhibit my own acts of fear a revolution congregation mr lee

maybe well it's a major reform they located in the same suite was i was in the gaelic is coming in at number of dollars and so i would go get a burden on voters than one occasion i think there is it's a sign that the money for new ideas are on one occasion a gm testimony won't mind the fact that the circumstances were that he must have called me and said i need whatever that the amount was

coming in on sunday or something is a in my files or japanese officers good morning was there any discussion well done and

in those roles and i think it was and so hugh sloan has told the committee that despite his concerns about a cover up he did not believe the white house was involved songs version of events places jeb magruder at the center of efforts to maintain silence about the money that went to g gordon liddy and moments long will go through a final round of questioning at this point we'd like to thank you again for your response to these broadcasts we consider it overwhelming more than seventy thousand letters ninety nine percent of them approving this kind of gavel to gavel coverage most of the comments indicate that people appreciate the opportunity to see the hearings in full and often are working hours we've heard from a

cross section of dealers including an air force sergeant in maine student in puerto rico and an advertising executive in chicago there are some of the opinions we sampled from norman wilson in dallas are going your presentation of the hearings will do more to generate public participation in the political process than anything else the question what price apathy is clearly being answered from sea of crosby and some of the coverage of the facts of why senate hearings is finally making my tv worth owning and from dallas texas western as aside leeper suggestion about expanding this sort of thing to a different committee every week or two so we can help further our understanding of the workings of government that might even shape up some of our legislators of course some of our letters have been critical of this type of coverage for example says earl stanley of parkersburg west virginia thinks it's ridiculous adding what country besides america would want to publicize a scandal in the government while

his frantic effort of the news media just to inform the people about these men who fell flat on their faces or is it for other reasons why we're grateful to everyone who has written and if he would still like to express an opinion we encourage you to do it to your local public television station each division decides for itself in our system whether to carry this kind of programming they'd welcome your cards and letters remember they also depend on your financial support to stay on the air public television's coverage of the senate hearings will continue after this fall's station identification on a bridge to coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service of the member stations of pbs of public broadcasting service the the

point terry and pike continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities

here again correspondent robert mcneil as we return to the hearings former campaign treasurer hugh sloan is about to be questioned by senator joseph montoya mr lau testified yesterday that in iranian figures represented with respect to reimbursement for different individuals memories and reconciliation is that correct this situation

you see thank you people are different fifty thousand fifty thousand dollars bond all this is mine to the best of your recollection after reconciliation

<unk> water usage of state visitors to him the sound of one hundred thousand dollars as nasty were you familiar with the activities in terms of what i do now i have what information do you do in this committee reporter turned over forty five thousand dollars of those funds to mr libby which produced the aggregate figure that was used in the trial of the funds that were made available this money

was used for the campaign there was a story about a student named mr brill there's a convoluted the last year of glee from this report illustrates do on the record and this patrol forum for a notch or spice right where whatever those activities were you wear any other extended activities besides those two instances in this particular category to lower your stated that a report on finances was given them as just dance on one or two occasions did not in terms of the parties as individuals if they told you oh i mean you question some of his residents to the border and

at one time and a matter of just dance which are not yet surrogate and there you also get this matter up with disabilities that correct an air mr gooden told you in turn that day you were not to question the requests a job out there to make a displacement as they were requested it was the correct answer and then did you fly on there any reporters do which were doing this money and just as important or more do you provide any copies are many reports for the white house no i wasn't in any of the reports out as i understand it and i think this happen not in terms of the beat that we put together as a reconciliation agreement seventh period by category for instance of

all the two hundred fifty thousand dollars my category one of a hundred thousand category two and so forth well you can write a category one category to what they can get information that you really years that's five but we're more definition and that up to include or securities i then the lion's den hits at these reports and reflected the disbursements april seventh two <unk> border and to the others follow i'm renee montagne which without quite categorically was made available the white house or near the white house no one who received a

reporter on the disbursements besides <unk> fans fb fb