1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-13; Part 1 of 3

the pain jane kauer and in the senate of the united states and the solution to establish a select committee senate investigation and study in which illegal improper or unethical activities we engaged in by any person's acting individually or in combination with others in the presidential election of nineteen seventy two or any campaign counters or other activity related to it from washington and what brings you gobbled a double videotape coverage of today's hearing of the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities here is in fact senior correspondent robert mcneil reading for the first time today hot partisan political feelings erupted at the senate

watergate hearing some indication of how the temperature will rise as the parade of witnesses rosen eminence and notoriety the witness all day today was the most prominent so far murray stands the former commerce secretary raise the money for mr nixon's reelection was just gangs was subjected to some of the toughest questioning yet seen in four weeks of hearings now for those of you who may be planning to tune out shortly to catch the president's address on that on the economy there's no need to do so we will stop or replay of the hearings in about thirty minutes to run the president's speech live and then come back the hearings were you always find another word as robin said this was the first day of real heat between committee members and it rose out of senator ervin's vigorous pursued mr spends on several plots including a telephone conversation with president last august i do i mean

during his reelection that's usually the top of president biden suggested to him that he come out then they keep living with what happened ms jenna president have far more resources than i did it was known that the white house was conscious of the problem i had no knowledge that thea was common knowledge at the time i had nothing to tell the president that one of the unusual quote i'm david greene mr chairman i have no reason to suspect that that time and until march or either that there was anybody involved in this matter beyond north korea and libya one of the beauties of having these hearings

on television in their entirety in on matters of judgment of controversy arrived we can all take a look and make your own judgments senator edward kennedy the republican committee member from florida got very upset about senator ervin's question and a master stands and said so the color harassment and said he didn't appreciate it one bet democrat north carolina than defended himself and all it added up to electrify moment and the committee's proceedings regardless of opinions on who's right or to draw after a lover peter carey as senator howard baker call the fight from his point of view there was stealing think that ren attention phil situation that not only has its impact in effect on witnesses but it obviously has an impact on the committees are long tedious

proceedings source on the wind i simply think that it's important to have the time to keep a broader overview of what we're about and renew our dedication to their evenhanded assembly out investigation of campaign politics in nineteen seventy three which was very nature includes an inquiry and all of the campaigns republican and democratic first question pleased that the chairman very promptly and very quickly agreed that on this matter of the application of the nineteen twenty five law before april seventh nineteen seventy two that we ought to examine the custom president of republicans and democrats in that perspective i expect that the committee will surely issue a subpoena to do just that osman an upper witness today baffled or at least frustrated some members of the committee the irving former secretary of commerce with membership in the accounting hall of fame and a reputation as a stickler for detail persistently maintained that he did not have knowledge of what millions of dollars in campaign money was

spent on that he knew nothing of espionage sabotage or any cover up that his finance committee had no say in policy decisions of the campaign committee says senators found some about a little hard to believe but they never really doubted him two experienced observer watched today's proceedings with is there david often who is a former assistant us attorney in the wash and us attorney's office currently a criminal trial lawyer and a professor of law at georgetown university here in washington he's been joined by herve alexander who's executive director of the citizens research foundation and as such considered by most to be one of the country's leading experts on the whole area of campaign financing and spending joanna like to ask each one of you from your own specialty point of view well what advice to give the viewers to return to what to look for not being that you did secretary stands as a superbly prepared witness he has done his

homework and his attorneys have done their homework and he is very familiar with the testimony of mr sloan and other witnesses and i think viewers will observe that he constantly makes reference to it but secondly frankly and candidly i think the questioning of mr stands at the outset is somewhat ineffective by both sen corker changed but there will be a marked difference when senator bernie sanders <unk> as arab powers particularly viewers can watch was under intense over things at least pick up and the question becomes far more effective and finally i think viewers might wanna keep in mind because a secretary stands does make refers to the fact that he made many acts and many decisions on the advice of counsel that the fact that an attorney has advised you to do something if the particular thing the attorney has advised him to do is illegal the fact you receive legal advise is not a defense to be illegal bob alexander what your boss routinely i was struck by the

extent to which there was discussion of cash for many years there has been reference to use of cash in political campaigns but now we have a great deal of documentation and efforts apparently will be made in the congress to restrict the use of cash i am also i'm interested in the extent of accountability and responsibility in campaign financing that is a moral accountability to the public for the use of money cash as well as other forms of money and accountability and responsibility to the contributors to the people who get over part of their income for the conduct of these campaigns okay thank you john and we'll be back with both of them at the close of tonight's reply to discuss these and other subjects in more detail as we've been doing each evening we've broken down the testimony on an hour by hour basis and here is tonight's died

in the first hour murray stands reveals that he learned that seventy five thousand dollars he gave to her big comeback was to pay legal fees for the watergate defendants yasser characterizes his conversation with president nixon sometime in august as a pep talk measures he never discussed issues and our number three strands are still testified that senator urban dominates the hearing he asks why stands destroyed records of cash contributions pursuing spends he asked to breaking up large contributions was an attempt to defeat the fervor that will give tax and the fourth guy stands testifies that he never brought up the watergate matter with the president because he had nothing to tell you yes that when hugh sloan returned from a white house meeting where grievances he did not criticize in the fifth and final our stance makes a closing statement

in which he criticizes the mire of unrelenting publicity that have been leveled many of the large contributors to the republican campaign now to the hearings themselves as senator and brings the committee who were not you just usually the major unresolved i mean that was one

thousand dollars for expenses i was the chairman of the finance committee and again in this time the law requires israel so the

money three hundred and fifty thousand seventeen january of this year and family