Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III United States Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Senator ERVIN. Counsel call the next witness. Mr. DASH. Mr Baldwin. Please take the witness table. Senator ERVIN. Mr Baldwin, hold up your right hand. Do you swear that the evidence that you shall give to the Senate Select Committee On Presidental Campaign Activities shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Mr. BALDWIN. I do. Senator ERVIN. Now you are accompanied by an attorney. The attornaey will please identify himself for the record, giving your name and your office address. Mr Mirto. I am Robert Mirto and I practive law at 377 Main Street in West Haven, Conetticut. Mr. DASH. Just for the record, Mr Baldwin, will you give your full name and address. Mr. BALDWIN. Yes, sir. It is Alfred C. Baldwin III, 90 Mountain View Terrace, North Haven, Conn. We use a mail address of Hampton, Conn. 06517.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Mr. DASH. Mr. Chairman, I have no questions but I understand that the witness has a short statement to read and then I would like to waive questions and move on. Will you read your statement, Mr. Baldwin? Mr. BALDWIN. Thank you. To make a part of the record my understanding of my status in this total affair, I wish to read the following memorandum into the record at this time. This memorandum was a memorandum prepared by my attorney, Robert Mirto. It is entitled "Memo to the File of Alfred C. Baldwin III." It is written on July 6, 1972, at 4:40 a.m. "On July 5, 1972, Robert C. Mirto, Esq., J. Terrance O'Grady, Esq., attorneys known to the government to be representing Alfred C. Baldwin III, a suspect in the Watergate incident, met with Earl Silbert, Donald Campbell, and Seymour Glanzer, all assistant U.S. attorneys and represented to us to be the assistant U.S. attorneys handling the Watergate incident. A meeting was held at the U.S. district courthouse on the morning of July 5, 1972, at which time it was represented to us by the Government that Baldwin would not be a defendant in the Watergate matter if he cooperated. The Government attorneys stated that if they were satisfied with Baldwin's information he would not be indicted. Negotiations ceased at 12:30 p.m., so that O'Grady and I could talk to Baldwin. At 5:45 p.m., we notified the Government that Baldwin would cooperate. He identified two photographs from a photographic spread and generally told of his Watergate knowledge. He was again told, as we were, he would be a witness, not a defendant. He and O'Grady and I relied on this representation by the Government and plans were made for formal statements in the future. The conference terminated at 7:40 p.m. At the last show up conference were Campbell, Glanzer, Silbert, FBI agents Lanno and McKenna, O'Grady, Baldwin, I and two or three other persons not known to me by name but whom I assumed to be either agents or members of the staff of assistant U.S. attorneys handling the matter. Signed, Robert C. Mirto, dated in the lower left-hand corner, July 6, 1972, 4:36 a.m." Right below on this is an accurate account of the happenings of July 5, 1972, at the U.S. district courthouse room 3600-K and again signed Robert Mirto. Mr. DASH. I have no questions.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Mr. BALDWIN. I have one other thing. I am still relying on that promise today as I testify here and from the beginning of my decision to cooperate on June 25 to now, I have attempted to tell the whole truth of this incident to the Government. I believe that as I do now there is only one Government that I have talked truthful to the U.S. attorney, as I will do to this committee. I do not regret this decision, although my life was at that time shattered. I cannot now find employment and I have been without funds. My family has been disgraced. I believe that since I was working for the former Attorney General and White House officials I would not question to do what I was asked to do. Now, I regret only that decision. Regardless of this, I shall now follow through with my commitment to tell the Government and the American people the truth.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Senator BAKER. Mr. Chairman, would the witness read the first sentence of that statement again? Mr. BALDWIN. To make it part of the record, my understanding of my status in this total affair, I wish to read the following memo into the record. Senator BAKER. Would you continue? Mr. BALDWIN. And then I read the memo, sir. Senator BAKER. Yes, I know you did but you made a statement about the same agreement still obtains. Will you refer to that part of it, read that again for us? Mr. BALDWIN. Yes, sir, I am still relying on that promise today. Senator BAKER. What promise? Mr. BALDWIN. On the promise of the U.S. attorneys that if I cooperated I would be a witness and not a defendant. Senator BAKER. Do you conceve then that you are here as a witness before a committee of the U.S. Senate? Mr. BALDWIN. Yes, sir. Senator BAKER. And any testimony you give us you will in effect, have immunity from prosecution by reason of the "agreement" made by the U.S. attorney. Mr. MIRTO. If I may answer that, Senator, we were not given formal immunity. It was our feeling at the time of the conference with the U.S. attorneys that a promise not to prosecute on which we acted, would be sufficient for our purposes. We do not feel that there is any exposure since Mr. Baldwin has already spoken and testified on the fact which he will testify to today.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Alfred C. Baldwin III
Senator BAKER. Well, I just want it clearly understood that no promise by the U.S. attorney is binding on this member of the committee. Mr. MIRTO. We realize that. We just, our statement, we feel, there is only one Government, and a promise from the U.S. attorney would bar any prosecution by the Government of the United States, that is our position and that is why we read the statement into the record. Senator BAKER. Do you understand my position? Mr. BALDWIN. Yes, I do, Senator. Senator ERVIN. Your position is that since the Government promised that if you would cooperate that they would make you a witness and not a defendant, and that was the reason why you cooperated on the trial and the reason you are still cooperating. Mr. BALDWIN. That is correct, Senator. And I also cooperated with other Senate committee members. Mr. THOMPSON. I would like to defer questioning at the present time, Mr. Chairman. Senator ERVIN. I will waive questions. Senator BAKER. Senator Weicker has had an opportunity, Mr. Chairman, to interview this witness on one or more occasion; he is from Connecticut, and I would recommend, if I may, we defer to him from the outset. Senator ERVIN. I certainly agree with you that would be an advisable course.