Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 26, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 26, 1974 (1/2)
[00.15.20] The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Utah Mr. Owens. is recognized for 5 minutes Mr. OWENS. Mr. Chairman, I am going to yield my 5 Minutes; to the gentleman from California to continue that, litany of Watergate activities that he was half halfway through. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from California recognized for 5 Minutes. Mr. WALDIE. We will continue with this story of intrigue and high drama in high Government circles. As you recall, we last left, our group of people with the President, With the President less than a -week after the break-in announcing to the public facts acts that, in fact, he knew were not true. When he confirmed the statements of Mr. Ziegler and Mr. Mitchell that there were no Committee for the Re-Election of the President people or no White House people involved in that incident, there were, and he knew it. And that was the first publicly surfaced act of coverup -on the part, of the, President. But, very shortly thereafter the, President continued the coverup, a coverup that was necessary to protect that which all were most concerned about, the fact that he might it lose the election in 1972 if the", American people, understood that the White House was involved in Surreptitious entry. and illegal surveillance for political intelligence and all that litany of White House horrors. So on June, 23 another problem had arisen and that was keep those, folk quiet who had been arrested. the five that had been arrested that, night, Saturday night, June 17 as well as the two who were across the street in a roomful of electronic surveillance, Hunt and Liddy. It took money. It took money to keep them quiet, and if you did not pay them money they would tell. And if they told, everything would fall apart, and the election of the, President might be jeopardized. The first $10,000 of money we saw was delivered the night of the burglary when Mr. Hunt went back to the White House. if you will, into his safe, and took out $10,000 in cash, the only deal in cash in this operation, and delivered it on behalf of the burlglars to keep them quiet Then, Dean is operating to bring about the coverup, not to investigate, not to report, but to implement the coverup. And Dean goes to John Mitchell of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President in the period June 23, June 26, somewhere in that area and says Mr. Mitchell how about you folks putting up the money to bail these people out and to pay their attorneys' fees? And Mr. Mitchell say don't want anything of it. That's your problem. It s you young fellows over in the, White House that brought this idiot scheme to the fore by your Plumbers, by your Hunt and your Liddy, by your break-in of the Fielding' office. It was not the. Committee for the Re-Election of the President. It was Haldeman and Ehrlichman operating on behalf of the President and the Committee for the Re-Election of the President wouldn't finance any more of the coverup. So then Dean goes to the CIA, if you will, and he says to the CIA ,look, isnt there some way you fellows--you don't have to account to Congress or to anybody and they don't for anything but particularly they don't for money--can't you fellows in the CIA put up enough money to take care of the follows that were working on behalf Of the President. He said it was a national security mission and the CIA gets all turned on usually for national security missions but they didn't in this caste, and they said no, we are not going to Put up money for burglars, no matter for whom they were working and they didn't. So then he went back to Ehrlichman in the White House, and he said I really need the money desperately, these follows are about to blow, and he says I need to talk to someone who can raise big money,. and he went and was referred to the President's personal lawyer, Mr. Kalmbach, and the President's personal fund raiser. Now, surely it stretches credibility beyond endurance to believe that the President's personal lawyer, the President's personal fund raiser, would be enlisted in this illegal scheme of raising money with out having first gotten approval from the President. And I believe the inferences are abundantly clear that the President .granted approval on the part of Ehrlichman's Ehrlichman to refer Dean to Kalmbach came in that night, the 28th of June, mind you, 17th of June is when the break-in happened and this is 11 days later. That night he came in and raised $75,000 by nightfall and got that into the hands of the people that were buying the silence of the burglars. Now, that takes us up to the end of June when the next act in our drama unfolds, June 30. They call in John Mitchell and they say John, we've got to get you out of the limelight because the press has asked you questions because you are the chairman of my reelection campaign and you know too much, John. And John knew "everything. There was not anything John Mitchell did not know at that time about the break-in of the Democratic National Committee. And so they concocted a story, and it was concocted, we have the information on that conversation, and that story was that John and Martha were having trouble, which they probably were, and therefore, that would be the excuse by which he Would allege the necessity resignation But, it was, mind you, and so portrayed, as an excuse. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Utah has expired. [00.21.36]