Watergate Hearings - John Ehrlichman
Watergate Hearings - John Ehrlichman
(08:51:08) Opens to rousing debate between Committee Chairman SAMUEL ERVIN and Presidential Adviser JOHN EHRLICHMAN and his lawyer over a reading of the Constitution on whether or not Nixon is authorized to have obtained information from break-in and wire tapping of DANIEL ELLSBERG's psychiatrist's office, the first stipulation they argue over is whether White House activity fell under the exception of an attack by a foreign power (08:53:27) Ehrlichman asks how Ervin knows that the break-in to the psychiatrist's office was not over an issue of national security being threatened by a foreign power - Ervin responds to ecstatic long lasting applause: "Because I understand the English language as my mother taught me", Ervin then goes on to rebuff other justification attempts by Ehrlichman's lawyer (08:55:30) Ehrlichman mentions the turning over by Ellsburg of signficant documents to the Russian Embassy and claims this justifies Presidential activities - In response to Ervin's siting the protection rights guaranteed by the forth amendment Ehrlichman says that Nixon's bugging operations fall under an exception that allows such activity if it is in support of national security - Ervin reponds that this exception does not allow for burglary, only interception of wire or verbal information (08:58:00) Ervin confirms Ehrlichman's knowledge of the psychiatry office burlary - Ehrlichman tells the committee what he knew of HOWARD HUNT and GORDON LIDDY's involvement and who gave the orders for it (08:59:35) Ervin tries to corner Ehrlichman in to admitting that he knew that the psychiatry office information retreived was illegally done so on the basis of state law and the Hippocratic oath which demand the respect of doctor patient confidentiality - Ehrlichman slithers around this and claims that even though he was a lawyer he did not know this was a law (09:03:00) Committee Vice Chairman HOWARD BAKER takes over questioning and cracks a joke that he didn't have the courage to interupt Ervin who went over his time allotment, and that Ervin can make a phone transcipt sound like the New Testament, Baker asks if Ehrlichman knew of the covert operation to break into Watergate - the response is cut off by a jump in the footage (09:04:35) Jump in footage - Ehrlichman is again trying to justify the procurement of information from Ellsberg's psychiatrist - Senator HERMAN TALMADGE asks him to confirm that he authorized the break-in as long it was not traceable, Ehrlichman confirms this (09:07:00) Talmadge confirms that as a lawyer Ehrlichman must remember studying an old English law that says "that no matter how humble a man's cottage is that even the King of England cannot enter without his consent" - Ehrlicman answers that this has eroded over the years, to which Talmadge responds with much applause "Not in my country" (09:07:30) Ehrlichman again tries to justify the procurement of psychiatric information as dealing with an issue of national security, he goes on at length about how the CIA uses psychiatric profiling to establish motives for individual's actions: spy or kook?, Ehrlichman goes on to claim that the information obtained in the break-in was done so the CIA could conduct such a profile (09:10:50) Talmadge asks Ehrlichman about a hypothetical situation where documents that do indeed jeopardize the national security are stored in a bank vault, would Ehrlichman rob the bank - Ehrlichman claims this doesn't work as a comparison to which Talmadge responds: "ok, burglarize the bank", this gets a laugh