1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-07-17; Part 4 of 4

who are now all good news is that when you raise money and he's vetted and i saw the members of the art exhibit and i didn't want to operating thank you no sir it was an assignment and so

you didn't have that you would on a thing you know election mr malo when you are mr jones well well you know that's the race among the reelection for a special assignment and i think that will be a special tool well no i

will not be listed also debut in this package of money that he believed you raise in campaign funds the president's campaign will but you want you were raising money that though is the tendency of people and i have been one well yeah i don't know you can see the sounds

that you have the impression that you're raising is fond of campaign purposes mr jeff brown you you won't you know mayor michael donley a memo that we're interested in racing fans who will get this and that oh wow did you have a curiosity as to

why wasn't oh oh say you do them one insight wrapped this is i think a sign that this is some of the houses twenty sixteen eight fire the testimony you gave up on lew's nomination some now view all suspected that there were some connection oh yeah as

i entered the main others speaking in and i don't know who's leaving morning renee thank you and with that they will those are the need to say it was an important assignment the championship have the authority and that i should go to all the statement that mr earle intimate about and this is the reason for the secrecy in fact it involving secrecy procedures

in a gun and the person would be misinterpreted and would jeopardize the end well he did do that they would have now and you'd be right it's b i do and that money that was one of the blind sided home on the suspicion that

they might be some connection between someone in the white house all of the campaign to make a real like that at all now did you have a conversation april but i think nineteen seventy three i thought that you know just before you with the day before he was scheduled for the uncertain and then and now this view that though you have a young well i had nothing to do with them and these models the conversation

in a conversation with jimmy fallon that demand all right good morning i did not he had to do i

know for weeks but he's been and send us a review telephone conversation transparent which apparently recorded hits like just on the sterling course this interview but also adheres

to the record i wanted i think consistent with the first quality of his time and the news was mr daily right i'm fine you know i wonder if there's any objections khamenei

i know right is bleak the sister combat looks over his transcript of the april nineteenth telephone conversation we're going to interrupt are playback public television's coverage of the senate hearings will continue after a pause for station identification on a bridge to coverage of these hearings is provided as a public service by the member stations of pbs of public broadcasting service it's both the

pope

and pike continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select

committee on presidential campaign activities here again correspondent robert macneil we pick up their ears to senator allen asking about a recording of a telephone conversation between john ehrlichman and herbert come back up before we go back to the caucus room like to read you a longer portion of that conduct conversation because it's not right and forth during the hearing about a third of the way through the conversation refers to the only thing he had in june of nineteen seventy two when he saw that is my son was proper and the transcript takes up call that you know that when he when i taught and it was after john dina give me the word and i came in to ask you john is an assignment i have to take on you said yesterday is period move forward and that was all i needed to be sure that i wasn't putting my family in jeopardy elegant show or come back and i would just understand that you're absolute together and that gelatin no question about it hurt but i would never knowingly approach you in any kind of spot

you know when we talked you knew what i was about to do you know let him get the bill for this purpose it was humanitarian effort and it was a defense fund come back to support the family and the thing that was disquieting about this thing with the right was that he said there is a massive campaign evidently underway to invite all lawyers including you heard when i was a little shocked and i guess what i mean to get in you john is assurance that this is not true well i don't normally attempted to argue with all my hunch is that they're trying to get me there trying to corroborate see what they said the dinners that he gets no consideration from them was that can corroborate haldeman and my liability but so is like in just like a glamorous humanitarian and nothing else ehrlichman you know and the point that i'm undoubtedly never express to you that i continually operated on the bases of these representations to me gone back yet it was not in proper

evidence is right come back and it was nothing illegal about it and say he's the house lawyer combat yup exactly and i just couldn't believe you and bob and the president just two good friends to ever put me in the position where i'm putting my family on the line and it's just unbelievable and think about so i just i'll just others led out exactly that way when you know i would have all the president into it if you can help it come back oh no i will not eloquent but i think the point which i will make in the future given a chance you're not under our control and any sort of a slavery sense you would not be called the committee and a core to that i had done on orders and you know one direction and see something that you feel sufficiently important that you were assured it was altogether proper then i would take it on because i always do acknowledge you and bob and the president know that yeah

well as far as propriety is concerned i think were both relying entirely on being come back you up and i made no independent judgment combat young men and i'm sure bob didn't either combat know and just i have the feeling janet i don't lower prices are we greek is it valid and who didn't come back no i mean i still lenders say well you should've known i don't know how you could you could make an inquiry is gone but never their inquiries i made john was due after i talked to john b allen and you found out that i didn't order for combat you said this is something i have to do and ehrlichman yeah and the reason i said that as you know was not from any personal inquiry was on the basis of one of them represented to me combat yeah and then on to provide the defense fund to take care of the families of these fellows who are then open so's indigent combat not been found guilty or

not guilty eloquent and the point being here without attempting to induce them to do a damn thing come back absolutely not and that was never that was exactly right ok how about now can i get in to see tomorrow before i go in there to help and if you want to know ask you come but willie eloquent your comeback women insured and eloquent alaska spoken about your testimony not appreciate it if you would say you've talked to me in california because at that time i was investigating this thing for the president come back and not now allen well i would ask you to lie back now i know eloquent but the point is going back but the testimony was in california eloquent the point is well known your recollection of the facts and so for combat yes i agree and doesn't see i don't think we were

ever seen together out there but at some point i have to say that i've talked to ryan dina magruder and michelin you know a lot of people about this case combat you are eloquent answer would be consistent combat you feel jonathan calling it straight shot here you feel assured as you did when you're out there that there's no culpability here erlichman yes come back another lie about ehrlichman and learn from everything i hear they're not after you combat yes sir ben bergman from everything i hear comeback that were you know goldman interrupts that to get me and out to get bob comeback my god right well jonathan be absolutely clear that there was nothing looking towards any cover up or anything it was strictly for the humanitarian and others want when i talked to i just wanted you to advise me that it was all right on that basis ehrlichman on that basis come back to go forward ehrlichman that it was necessary to come back and that'll be precisely the way at its gardens is now

ok thanks a lot well that's the end of the transcript of the hearings which is red of the conversation which is rather the hearings now back to the hearings themselves as the committee continues question in combat mr rizzi conversation with you we're trying to get it and then they were given all consideration unless all they they can corroborate another one

my reaction well done did it substantially german and they did

and without really getting in the end it was the us except to say you had asked me this available and make it was of history or you know i mean it really worked out he didn't use that and a madman that was saying that john david hall with miso plant though us as one of the greatest thought they wanted to be you know beyond that yeah probably and the music that are you know when your laptop and it was given me that were

and i came in a huge awnings years ago you say this is unusual and that was all that was my family that way and it was a dream and we're going to do there was a conversation in the case on the humanitarian purposes because we were literally

is by i said well i have no more of an attempt on view at all is that they're trying to get to the robbery see what they said is he gets no consideration for them unless they can corroborate and you know if i can just make a claim that it was human error and that is exactly what i understand well as male the white house he's belligerent but i've stated at that

time and so these people have been ordered to go paul and this is a project and responsibility publicly committee to reelect and that i had been asked by these people threw mr daly to do this and i understood it to be a humanitarian and i understood it to be certainly not well low <unk> conversation do you when you had to check all the libyan have to borrow to get your mind that mr adelman wanted was afraid it would not be kept secret unless all this money was raised many people vietnam is a conversation with you about how

this nation and about the names of attitude to anticipate what about the necessity of chickens and yemen yo mama a conviction that thought that this one was not great is that these people might disclose what the connection was between the watergate and some other people no my leg and my testimony is in the modeling that time was that the reason that he asked me to undertake this and the reason that he asked me to and following security procedures that were follow us to make certain that the us could not get into the press be misinterpreted and jeopardize the campaign but you but when somebody

nobody in the white house when they committed re elect the president and the us and then in alabama and now you said that one reason that it was cigarettes it was all that though the name of the moment will not be misinterpreted that isn't there and yet not you suggests they fear that you know this money that they might either speak up and stand out and reveal what the connection was between them and some bars again was to prevent it from getting into the best been misinterpreted and all on the human thing to do i

like that well what there was a misinterpretation you might be placed upon know there's a lot of this money are truly on if they became law at the time we welcome you of an interpretation that was like to be put upon the press except that they need the interpretation that this was money to gobble up the connection between the person and finding pictures of suspected that they're not know and belonging

you know there's somebody in the white house when the committee to reelect prayers at the curator barbara rising the longing in elkhart to that bill the fact that money was paid that the people get bored rather watergate that raises suspicion that they will play the kids out it did not i would not undertaken any assignment or an illegal or i would not can you imagine an interpretation that one of the players i've testified at the mine as to my state of mind that i and my state of mind was prompted by being asked why mr dean and then

literally with that though and if i was him and yet in this phone conversation mr david yes you know at a job or well as far as propriety is concerned i think we both were reliant follow me twenty sixteen and they know and you say he told me that when i taught them and that one is that is that it was about her and to go back and what is that

and what they said to him well now i'm a mistake to be faithful well i'll use data you then like you thought would plummet particularly with a product that sounds like the care that we made an end of them but he didn't indicate that mr chairman of the indignities of political forum will happen to testify that the apple juice as they give you know armored vests for the fact that jon huntsman had made no and no well on

the new album you and me as well i did not know it was a good background or judgment in a new direction for me on the twenty six of july nineteen seventy two i think that and you you were young that's right and his practice of rapacious would pay him his money for the watergate that you will be among low

and i have indicated to you with a chairman that i rely completely on history being an indian that's in a statement says if we rely again i did not know that was my answer in the will but that's what you get that's what he relied on or whatever it was i do it is where do you work almost a month later after i begin

to receive a degree of concern and that's what i want to meet soon as the question if you give them right they wanted to be you said that you went you do he's dead and you say no

nobody's been i did not have any knowledge of as the weather of the time being or whatever is implemented it flat statement categorical statements that was that are being had the authority and that i think political weapon this conversation you do thank you and you mr chairman and as

i indicated no i'm not and i'm going to go for it in the in the in our conversation i did not understand at the time that you had already had independent judgment or not that this is a conversation with kurt go you just have a conversation you know sorry about this if i may remind the chair where this document that the chairman eugene were fronts for wells yesterday we have no time to read and

i'm just looking at your statement again joan rivers of these hearings it's not picture is not but investigate and i think confirms their german it would be far as the ones the occasion for this fall between himself and john ehrlichman which took place in april of this year just in the light of a complex set of that phone conversation which are some of the questions than senator clinton now i mean thirteen investigating murders well you know

well no money was great to be able to keep him to get him to plead guilty get kicked out and i think these questions or an recognize her and around on the farm i wanted one a leading a person who investigated him as their own that's right they will mcavoy before the rest of the house and he is suggesting that the combat entities

we know that and mr bp oil that's right that's right this is weekend edition

and i think that was the comment i was trying to express now yeah yeah that the interview not bob holman exercise independent judgment about the activists and the money was a week of oatmeal or regular thursday night no no you just made a flat

statement what about you in the nineteen nineties that the notion that they could know that the lady of the responsibility for responsibility at all persuading the

protests but to pay i don't know he was he was telling me of his own you know you all of your label that they're jewish president in the band online if you give a polite means that it

does all that two of the therapists a proposition that gm bob hall and now we really afford you know that this population not really thank you

the postings even now when i started out in this one area in mind and i think temporarily and he's author of a new server the place

a transcript of that fascinating telephone conversation as one of the committees appetite for more or more mr kamel after returning from a rogue although there will be still another round of questions for most common i have it's busy you're welcome and you know what mr chairman of the sky reviewed this and remembering the chairman that that this conversation was taking

with it this is combat yes they do well no there's a tape recording represented a political donation thank you

i asked as elizabeth him because you think that the conversation about my information is that you have a proper operating i mean that was the prosecution you're welcome maybe you will i mean come on because at that time i was investigating this thing for the president of human activity and the new but not

now and paul weston back to him what they do you think my understanding is that what i was doing i was in california i had several things i needed to talk about i met with six or seven in san clemente and i was going through and i have indicated to him that i was prepared to cooperate fully with us attorney's office and when we select committee and i would tell bill how did though you had gotten in trouble yes or you know we have an awesome he was investigated saying what a levee as

well so i think that my understanding was that he was conducting investigation for the white house after mr dean simonton yesterday was terminated thank you they do the grand jury all the different uses this might be a man who they'll ask you do musical about the festival and i would appreciate it if you would say you know you've gotten me accountable you are the only question in the us who you talked to say that you would say big government california wrong on monday that this conversation for us we're going to

hear in this as you yeah and you say my god all right will be up there with the political polling it was treatable human basis now and for some people you know in california have like we haven't done like you know and sometimes i wish that mean the people not like unlike in the nation right right and

if you don't like that it's really the way that reasonably conclude that this money was paid millions of the feminism a good news and gets out for many crimes thank you these questions

pick up a few stitches on other federal entities i have one of the ones that leave with mr thompson and by saying that it might come back at what the great big markup are senators like windows both times especially effective your candidate clown question now whether or not the institutional arrangements so the white house had some bearing on what did in fact happen with time but also you're to for example now this movie and say and friends this committee's judgment necessarily so scarred by carbon listening to your testimony very intently

nod to sell a few questions on one occasion percent annual testimony you going to get that someone has the quote really there about putting into motion the watergate burglary something that you described this idiotic than i was an idiotic and monuments to quit all antibiotics i gather from your testimony that you assumed that this was carried out to benefit the reelection campaign of the president of the united states does my assumption correct it's right for those moral obligation well you did not know the identity of the recent press was it now when is being directed you to raise raise funds for

humanitarian purposes and was laid assured by mr ehrlich mm hmm that was the dean wasn't authorized to ask you to rescue career and carry on the school reform raising you must have assumed that these men either because of it and pressing a button on you will press the button is that assumption yes sir and without question you obey the direction of the city and without question because he was as you said they were trusted implicitly by the president of the united states senate testimony about everything that was done in the president's best interests i mean that was

i was supposed to listen to most of the new york and the sea was the bottom portion of the race last night i didn't understand that he was the button pusher i think mr dean was was that received the assignment you approach me senator not in the party of the party and the committee and the white house about the new find is that correct yes sir i was opposed to consider the soul or you know said that the muscular role

was doing what had been requested it and i was supportive concert mr erlichman to be the approach i didn't know that senator cruz did not what did you think when mr erlichman was to be hacked off from home senator i didn't know whether it was someone in authority at the committee to reelect or someone in authority white house i just did not know was it possible that someone in the committee to reelect him or something was that anyone great an endless authority in the committee no question mr haldeman oh

so many and that was it through his mind and that was good enough for me senator i do not know whether ehrlichman knew that it was someone in authority the committee to reelect poor or someone else and listening to testimony without the correct who contend that and as your suggestion to the committee that no candidate for the button pushes was no sir i don't have a candidate for that as a button pusher i have a feeling as i think that expresses the senator that it was someone in authority of the committee to reopen

but i don't know and my final question robert testimonial using words for example you are all there but recently hewitt directed by lee you were directed by them the room to do for example when senator thomas question you too yesterday at four hundred thousand dollars on one person's yes sir and you didn't know for what purpose and you didn't ask what it is that is that are you suggesting this committee that in this assignment this old job was that the messenger yes sir that really would've amounted to be a job was to look at when i was requested to do so by mr palmer won instead

don't have to be me and a prestigious will be used as a messenger by people i'd been in all of this or a monster reserve state senator well

in this film and we're going to do first and you're feeling was just as if you're cooking a stark absolutely ridiculous same way if you're a new attacks by the president's that learn questions and many purposes one hundred as i gather in response insurance question you feel this is who you feel this was a self serving telephone conversation so far

no i said you have to come back to that point on page four and it's repeated again the word i mean your independent judgment mnookin says i'm sure but didn't even more measures refined mr haller you say no and i'm just the feelings on that i don't know this week we got a chair and put his emphasis on the last portion statement but i i'd like to get to the beginning of that we haven't had you know that are hauling didn't have an independent judge i didn't i did not fall why didn't you agree with are like discontinued the conversations that her idea was well

again back on pace and i'm paige sex all again anything now again after pete marra question that did you have any direct knowledge that though mr obama has no knowledge of these matters i did not i i did not know that i'm really proud of this time that they're mr allman was that even though many of my involvement in the role that i played in this is is it you have to get it made a statement to me

in california that he had been approached in the mr hamann i've been approached by mr dean and this event for this the world so that they would come to me and then hear in this tape a conversation and that was the first time that i knew that mr holman had any knowledge of my of my role you really are course the senator i did not know that the president had any knowledge in any way shape or form either of the break a break in or anything redundant is the post june seventeen now then no one last question and i own the tape

thoughtful conversation referring to page six you make of the statement do you feel china calling its straight shot here you feel assured as you did there is no cold water just that question you think i'm correct in assuming that there are some real second thoughts rising years was all this conversation a new report no sir i i wanted to be when i talked to john ehrlichman california it's nice that the curve you have absolutely no culpability in this matter and no one at this meeting the year into the complex situation and it was one of the big an insurance does he know simon

did were out there there's no probability here than in several instances unique a surprise in and in response to information that mr orben give you wrote your what nicotine is doing inside or this phone conversation they're shaking nasr the phone conversation that i hadn't really was triggered when i was this conversation on that on this date of the abyss the taping was triggered when i was in the hotel room with mr o'connor and then my partner mr demarco and we just learned that the there was the helm mr dean said that he would not be the scapegoat and i want to be assured that he would that he would tell me that anyone would tell the whole story and the entire armed

for not mistaken is on our war was on your payroll is not correct that it was senator mccain art supply that hadn't been entrusted the victim a violinist or stands in honor of our middle of kenner in nineteen sixty nine center so these trustee helpful and so were once given to you were in the stands and they were used to go ahead and women and pain with us or that it's good you know mr james no answer

every continent familiar as a very close friend a lot of you ever told many are wary relationship between human possibility being used by mr allman never conversant on the subject in recent times indicated that alleges that you were used to use for who is by the people who knew that the true purpose of this assignment i know now i think we really have difficult

situation for you and i think you are we try to respond to questions maybe but the term we are is we're a little bit feminine and specifically if you do true do you feel you've been used by mr obama an event in that and within that has been used by mr mitchell saying competition through the news once again is there any other individual i mentioned for that you feel within the description that you gave in your response to me that within that has

caught any other individual in authority who have now i would want to do you have any other names aside from those for judgment so that in effect mccain but the worry that you referred to these key individuals that you associate i don't know about would include mr mcgregor i'm not sure it has to be a record whether or not he would be included in that are now again and he didn't know and he would be included and you believe at least four individuals have such knowledge no no for certain as to whether that whether or not they did have a

truth that the knowledge that this was for the purpose there's all this great superhero for twenty nine years the news from all the stress of the new york post them on that the subpoenas while he was on the impression that even though they fall you're welcome twenty nine a meeting in the park

but that you have no doubt about how that perpetrator was it that on that day in laramie the court that they had been rescued except for this and you accept that so we just yes sir them as a complex you got misgivings about the wisdom of got the assignment and used to having things while doing think yes sir and that occurred though the conclusion you won't know that you were in

us to come to a meeting in john mccain's opposite which damage can rent a room and they and what president nestor and denies few in the presence of others who are we accept this assignment raise the spark yes or no i have two questions are you really gets fired they're the strongest motivation for this project was designed to protect the president's position in the campaign that's about right position and they have the

budget deal in that and that context it in the context that we would we want to do it was concerned about what would happen to the president i do it as a lawyer who didn't use that they think that the assumption of a moral obligation to help the defendants would tend to bring closer to reality the tripling of the very thing you were trying to avoid namely the invocation at the president the white house or the crp might have been involved when you did you start to think that this might be the wiser course there are big questions as a lawyer didn't use that to think that the assumption of a moral obligation to help the defendants would tend to maine

closer to reality than training of the very thing you were kind of oh no sir i work as a lawyer when it had been a more potent just a clear away from the breakout of complicity represented by the defendants chose to avoid the implications that have followed because of what was done years thank you on monday a way just what was meant well as we reached a little bit for a transcription of global conversation about will further we have to go mrs romney yep he says and they know i'm going to get there and says i'm unsure about that made you say no i just have been failing job that i don't know if this is the

week we visit and then he says today in minnesota know i mean they're still bones or are different now these are the candidates are this week reid's statement were you referring back to the only know you affect changing the subject and in worrying about what people might do ms belie no that's right this gentle context of how you got involved and we're used to it then you did not notice telephone not being recorded and comebacks and

also the thing you knew about her friend the noodles the presidents of china is a researcher and you say never knew anything improper electrical well it's three union has been stated so about a planet with humanitarian nakano for the now three and discusses the news and there was nothing new about it tiffany windows you say absolutely not that was that was never that was exactly right what we know that there had been taped but you did not is that correct yes sir all

that you stated that you know what i'm going to have no actual event in many ways maybe the poem has become a week and that

means so ends the testimony of herbert come back once the president's personal lawyer who now admits that the money he collected and dispersed for the watergate defendants was in fact a payment for silence law he insisted he didn't know that at the time ironically the testimony adjourned today and the transcript of a secretly taped telephone conversation between comeback and john ehrlichman this april a transcript was reviewed is the committee rings continuing pressure on the white house to release tapes of presidential meetings and telephone conversations relating to watergate the white house says the tapes or white house documents and promises a more complete statement on the topic later last week the white house announced that turning over such documents would violate the doctrine of the separation of powers after today's hearings are over comebacks attorney james o'connor talked

briefly with reporters including amtrak correspondent peter kay it was asked to buy way down his client may be affected by the question mr nettles attorney a question him along similar lines and professor mitchell is under indictment and your client is not indicated that he thought these proceedings are very much a year plan in his client and legal jeopardy you think this kind of questioning sad any action to combat replace him in such jeopardy well i've i would really hesitate to make a legal judgment of that i would say and i'm not saying this to curry favor because the proceedings of aria at the beginning of our relationship with the senate committee were being interviewed and examined with yesterday's mr lenz all of his staff scribble you know and a lot of the senators i must say that proceedings have been fair to my client now as you know we are not

potentially at this point and i'm not speaking a certain it would be presumptuous of love to us because the minds of the special prosecutor's office this date we have not been advised of the most improbable the debate over was just a telephone conversations and the things escalated a much more today is the committee wrote the president to ask how the tapes could be released that happened after committing questioning the secret service officials to have custody of the tapes was cut short by a letter from president nixon did treasury secretary shows technically the boss of the secret service again invoking the doctrine of the separation of powers also this morning press secretary ron ziegler said the tapes would be considered white house documents apparently implying that they could not be released to the committee two of our semi regular outside experts so what's today's session with us john kramer the georgetown university law center and stephen hess former nixon aide now senior fellow at the brookings institution and begin with you have

mustard gas what we learn from today a first there was the reading for the first time an unexpectedly of the transcript of the telephone conversation of april nineteenth between mr erlichman was to come back and that seemed to create a moment of high drama anticipated revelation in fact this was never realized that and the alternate history of this hearing will show this was barely a footnote is that i think that we were living through an acting out the aftermath of yeah today's major development existence of the white house tapes today's testimony by comeback at a very little to our knowledge of the watergate cover up comeback was just one more person who could not they did not choose to implicate the president personally one more person who pleaded absolute trust as the motivation for his actions rather this day was dominated by the offstage jockeying for possession of the key takes president refused to allow the secret service agent to testify the

committee wrote to the white house request in the tapes so what was most interesting to me about this day was not what happened but rather the setting of the scene for what may soon you agree with those tunes and well i think we learn a little bit more than that for example on the struggle over the tapes i think we learn that the committee understands that it is a matter of accommodation and not litigation the time is of the essence as a business case otherwise they would have to go through a content procedure in the committee in the senate and the three levels of court could last year three years and they were before them long be scooped by mr cox so either the president accommodates or they will never get it takes time for this committee here suddenly i think we learn about white house seems to be inhabited by a series of patsies who gets set up by other people on this comeback seems to be the perfect that's taking orders acting under directions disturbing to me because it showed the lawyer us open without any significant independent judgment obama's to come back to it was this it was not going to make any payoffs anymore although that time you know the

rebels and that seems to have an inherited an alfred hitchcock world going to hotels in certain colored suits and making deliveries of four hundred thousand dollars or less and also to see a personal personal lawyer having no contact every minimal contact with his client which again is a rather unusual concept lawyer client relationships and finding a beret upsetting feeling that everybody seems to be sandbagging everybody else and why that everybody setting everybody else up doing his job interviews handbag to drop on him and he kept a conversation you see goldman try to set up combat really as a witness on behalf of ehrlichman and for them was to use that later to relieve himself i think you also see a disturbing indication that men use of warning perjury with respect to land comeback in fact spoke the world cup and says he wants to have combat testify that they spoke in california and not in washington the day before the grand jury convened where's the album isn't here is we do not know what come back testified before the grand jury was not asked if he was asked that specific question very

quickly you think that that above and beyond executive privilege problems legal problems that public pressure will eventually force the white house to prop up these tapes are police department parts of the tapes how can it be with you we resist a life out of the question as its neighbors and i think that ultimately we would have some sort of face saving device that would be a negotiation with each seek away to satisfy their respective demands of two important branches of government that is more pressing now that we know their exists evidence that in fact can end this whole thing if you will as other pressures will be even greater for this sort of agreement compromise and certainly the actions of the urban committee today where senator baucus it in the spirit of reconciliation not tough letter that was sent to the white house and there and it was already too limiting what they were needed to write

other portions of the plate and so forth so i think this is going to workout is a production as them but that it will be worked out and america will eventually find out what's on those hurt not take her i hope it's more than a wish that is the addiction well ok we'll remember your name and that they could you know right now there are probably some plot lines that need to be said about these white house tapes and water refusal to divulge their contents could mean up to now there's been mostly indirect all around a central issue that's of little simply put if the president find a way to keep us you and me and the rest of the american public from finding out what was said to john bain and you're also march thirty nineteen seventy three and on another apartment dave's a ballgame could be over all this talk about executive privilege and separation of powers is great for the historians and political scientists that sounds funny out here in the real

world in my opinion the simple fact is a man named dean says the president of the united states had knowledge of executive clemency offers and hush money pay off the watergate conspirators the president has denied but now we know the whole world knows that they're probably exists a tape recording of that march thirteen conversation as well as others at stake here are possible criminal actions by the president of the united states say nuts to abstract precedents about separation of powers we have a right to hear those tapes if the president is clean and we all know if he's lied to us about it and we'll find that out to them in the course of history will run but if the president refuses to let us ordinary non sophisticated that's hear those tapes you could always be a nasty presumption of guilt that would be grossly unfair to mr nixon and sell it started yesterday and it grew more today and it could continue to grow and grow until it blows mr nixon's house down one way or another in

july robert mcmillan peter gay and jim lehrer thank you and goodnight from washington and you've been watching gavel to gavel videotape coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities this coverage is made possible by grants for special events coverage from the corporation for public broadcasting and the ford foundation and has been a production of unpacked and a vision of a greater washington educational telecommunications association <unk> and then named his ba power