John Dean Testifies Before the Senate Select Watergate Committee (1973)

so inform the President of the situation. Meeting of March twenty first. As I have indicated, my purpose in requesting this meeting, particularly with the President, was that I felt it necessary that I give him a full report of all the facts that I knew and explain to him what I believed to be the implications of those facts. It was my particular concern with the fact that the President did not seem to understand the implications of what was going on. For example, when I had earlier told him that I thought I was involved in an obstruction of justice situation, he had argued with me to the contrary after I'd explained it to him. Also, when the matter of money demands had come up previously, he had very nonchalantly told me that that was no problem. I did not know if he realized that he himself could be getting involved in an obstruction of justice by having promised clemency to Hunt. What I had hoped to do in this conversation was to have the President tell me we had to end the matter now. Accordingly I gave considerable thought to how I would present this situation to the president and try to

make as dramatic a presentation as I could to tell him how serious I thought the situation was that the cover up continue. I began by telling the President that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it. I also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. I then gave him what I told him would be a broad overview of the situation and I would come back and fill in details and answer any questions he might have about the matter. I proceeded to tell him how the matter had commencement in late January, early February but that I did not know how the plans had been finally approved. I told him that I had informed Haldeman what was occurring and Haldeman told me that I should have nothing to do with it. I told him that I had learned that there had been pressure from Colson on Magruder but I did not have all the facts as to the degree of the pressure. I told him I did not know if Mitchell had approved the plans but I had been

told that Mitchell had been a recipient of wiretap information and Haldeman had also receive some information through strong. He then proceeded to- I then proceeded to tell him some of the highlights that had occurred during the cover up. I told him that Kalmbach had been used to raise funds to pay these seven individuals for their silence at the instructions of Ehrlichman. Haldeman, Mitchell and I had been the conveyor's, the conveyor of this instruction to Kalmbach. I told him that after this the decision had been made that Magruder was remain at the reelection committee. I had assisted Magruder in preparing his false story for presentation to the grand jury. I told him that cash that had been at the White House had been funneled back to the reelection committee for the purpose of paying the seven individuals to remain silent. I then proceeded to tell him that perjury had been committed and for this cover up to continue would require more perjury and more money. I told him that the demands of the convicted individuals continually increasing and that with sentencing imminent the demands had become specific. I told him

that on Monday the nineteenth I had received a message from one of the reelection committee lawyers who had spoken directly with Hunt and that Hunt had sent a message to me demanding money. I then explained to him that the message that Hunt had been, had told O'Brien the preceding friday to be passed on to me. I told the President I'd ask O'Brien why to Dean and O'Brien would ask Hunt the same question. But Hunt had merely said you just pass this message on to Dean. The message was that Hunt wanted seventy two thousand dollars for living expenses and fifty thousand dollars for attorney's fees and if he did not get the money and get it quickly that he would have a lot of seamy things to say about what he'd done for John Ehrlichman while he was at the White House. If he did not receive the money he would have to reconsider his options. I informed the President that I had passed this message to both Haldeman and Ehrlichman. Ehrlichman asked me if I discussed the matter with Mitchell. I told Ehrlichman that I had not done so and Ehrlichman asked me to do so. I told the President I had called Mitchell pursuing Ehrlichman's request but I had no

idea of what was happening regarding the request. I then told the President that this was just typical of the type of blackmail that the White House would continue to be subjected to and I did not know how to deal with it. I also told the President that I thought that I would be ca- I thought that I would, as a result of my name coming out during the Gray hearings, be called before the grand jury and if I was called to testify before the grand jury or the senate committee I would have to tell the facts the way I knew them. I said I did not know if executive privilege would be applicable to any appearances I might have before the grand jury. I concluded by saying that this is going to take continued perjury and continued support of these innovations to perpetuate the cover up and I did not believe it was possible to so continue it. Rather, I thought it was time for surgery of the cancer itself and that all those involved must stand up and account for themselves and that the President himself get out in front of this matter. I told the President that I did not believe that all seven defendants would maintain their silence forever, in fact, I thought that one or more

would very likely break rank. After I finished I realized I had not really made the President understand because he asked me a few questions and he discussed that it would be an excellent idea if I gave some sort of briefing to the cabinet and that he was very impressed with my knowledge of the circumstances but did not seem to be concerned with their implications. It was after my presentation to the President and during our subsequent conversation the President called Haldeman into the office and the President suggested that we have a meeting with Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman discuss how to deal with the situation. What emerged from that discussion after Haldeman came into the office was that John Mitchell should account for himself for the pre-June seventeenth activities and the president did not seem concerned about the activities which had occurred after June seventeenth. I after I departed the President's office I subsequently went to a meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman to discuss the matter further. The sum and substance of that discussion was the way to handle this now was for Mitchell to step forward and if Mitchell were to step forward we might not be confronted with the

activities of those involved in the White House in the cover up. Accordingly Haldeman as I recall called Mitchell and asked him to come down the next day for a meeting with the President on the Watergate matter. In the late afternoon of march twenty first, Haldeman and Ehrlichman and I had a second meeting with a president. Before entering this meeting I had a brief discussion in the president's outer office of the executive office building suite with Haldeman in which I told him that we now had two options. One is that this thing goes all away and deals with both pre and post activities or the second alternative if the cover up was to proceed we would have to draw the wagons around in a circle around the white house and the white house protect itself. I told Haldeman it had been the White House assistance to the reelection committee that had gotten us into much of this problem and now the only hope would be to protect ourselves from further involvement. [Silence]

The meeting with the President that