Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 26, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 26, 1974 (1/2)
[00.12.21--Recess declared] [DUKE voiceover says that members had a "working lunch" behind closed doors to work out the impasse, with a further compromise, with DEMOCRATS offering some specifics] The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Brooks. Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for recognizing me and yield my 5 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Maryland. Mr. SARBANES./ I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, there are two points I want to clarify stemming out of the discussion that was held this morning. The first deals with the procedural aspects of this matter with respect to the detailing of the factual material that underlies the article of impeachment. And there I want to make three things very clear. First, the President's counsel has been here throughout the proceedings All of the factual material that the committee has considered, all of the statements of information, all of the summaries were provided to him on a daily basis just as they -were provided to us. So the Contours and the details and the pattern and the interrelationship of the factual matters have been spelled out fully to the President's counsel. Nothing has been concealed from him. Second, this committee once it makes its decision, will have to make a recommendation to the floor of the House of Representatives and at that point what -we bring forth will be supported by a report which will have to detail the underpinning for the action that we have taken. So the material -will again be spelled out there for the benefit Of our Colleagues in the House before they make their decision. Neither at this' point, nor in the House, is the President yet on trial. He is only on trial when the matter reaches ]the Senate. And third, when the matter does reach the Senate the President's counsel is in a position to seek further specification if he deems it necessary, although it is my conviction that his participation here and the further report that will have to be prepared for the Members of the House of Representatives will fully provide him with all of the material necessary to prepare a defense for the trial which will take place in the other body. Now, that is the procedural side of this thing. Let me turn for a moment to some of the substantive things. Time, of course, is not, going to permit me to sketch out all of these matters which underlie the, allegations in this article. But I do to set some of them out so there is some appreciation of the detail that lies behind the charge that is being made against the President the, United States and contained in this article I for the purposes OF, impeachment. Let us look- at the pattern of conduct that began subsequent- to the break-in on June 17. The President professed ignorance of both the involvement of the Committee to Re-Elect the President and White House Involvement in Watergate in the face of discussions of Watergate on or before June 20, with Haldeman, Colson, and Mitchell, persons aware, of such involvement and the President's closest advisors. On the morning of June 20, Haldeman Mitchell Ehrlichman, Kleindienst and Dean met in the, White House in the early morning. Later that morning Haldeman met -with the President. The Chief of Staff met with the President. And his notes indicate that in that conversation with the, President Watergate was discussed. The part of the tape pertaining to the Watergate discussion is the 18 1/2 minutes that are missing and which an expert panel reported to Judge Sirica were manually erased. The President has refused to honor subpenas of this committee seeking conversations with Haldeman and Colson on June 20, On the 22d of June the President made a statement that Mitchell and Ziegler stated the facts accurately -when they said there was no basis for believing involvement. on the 23d of June the President had a meeting with Haldeman, his chief of staff, subsequent to which Haldeman and Ehrlichman met with Helms and Walters and in effect, directed them to indicate to the FBI that the pursuance of the investigation into Mexico should halted because it might encounter CIA activities . The day before, on the 22d of June, Helms had told Gray, the FBI Director, that there -was no CIA involvement and at the June 23 meeting, at that meeting initially Helms and Walters reported to Haldeman and Ehrlichman that there was no such involvement. On the 30th--on the 20th of June, Mitchell apologized to the President because some of his people had gotten out of hand. He regretted that he had not policed the people in his organization. We heard that tape. on the 30th of June there was a conversation with Mitchell in when the, president indicated that they must cut the loss from potential disclosures about CRP involvement in Watergate by having Mitchell resign as campaign director. On the 6th of July. in a conversation with the President., the Director of the FBI Patrick Gray, told the President the Members of 'his staff ware trying to mortally wound him. The President paused for a long time and then said to Pat Gray, you just keep on with your aggressive and thorough investigation. He did not ask Pat Gray then or later what he meant by that, who was involved, who was trying to do it, how they were trying to do it, On August 29th the President issued a statement concerning the. Dean report. He, went before the, American people and said he had asked John Dean to invest investigate gate the matter. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. [00.18.42]