Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (2/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (2/2)
[01.14.10] The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. and the, gentleman from Texas has 6 1/2 minutes remaining And does the gentleman from New Jersey wish to be recognized? Mr. SANDMAN. I recognize the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Lott, for 3 minutes Mr. LOTT. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. LOTT. Thank you very much, Mr. Sandman. Mr. Chairman, this is certainly an area that can be used to inflame the emotions of the American people, because there are many out there that I know have personally felt that they are harassed by the IRS and they do not feel that they are on anybody's list. But, I think there are some key issues and points that we must stress and keep mind. There, is no evidence of any such misuse in the final anal analysis on the part of the President. The, Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation report should be noted in this conclusion, and I am going to cite some Sections from that report in a minute. Also, almost all of the alleged attempts to misuse IRS come from the person that used the, most influence supposedly within our IRS to get these audits. John Dean is the person that made these points with Johnnie Walters and others. Now, a, lot has been made of this missing 17 minutes of tape, Well, the fact is, we. do not have that 17 minutes and there has already been some contradictions about what is included in those 17 minutes, so I do not think we can base this decision tonight on something that -we do not yet have, and maybe -we will have later on, and maybe we should consider it, But it has been claimed that several individuals in the White House attempted to misuse, the IRS for partisan political purposes. It is clear that such alleged misuse, could only succeed if it were supported by the power and the authority of the President in the final analysis. On looking on all evidence available, it is clear the President did not make that action. and one point I want to emphasize, that Mr. Dennis Made a while ago is that these people have been praised so highly, Mr. Shultz and Mr. Walters and Mr. Thrower, and these people were appointed by the President, just as these aides were, like Dean. Now, let, me quote to YOU some of the sections in the report from the Internal Revenue Committee. "However, in none of these cases has the Committee staff found any evidence that the taxpayer AN-as unfairly treated by the Internal Revenue Service because of political Views and activities." "The staff believes that in three cases there are substantial questions about decisions made by governmental agencies about friends of the White House. But, the, staff does not have evidence that there was any pressure involved. The staff also believes that a number of enemies either were not, audited when the staff believes they should have been or were audited too leniently." And then in Mr. Dean's I response. after questioning by Mr. Railsback back, he says:" "So I don't know if the President got back in it or not. don't know of any audits that. were accomplished." In conclusion, I think that the record clearly shows that while some personnel at the White House may indeed have used improper intentions against the IRS the fact is in the final analysis, no IRS abuse resulted. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. The, gentleman from New Jersey has 3 minutes remaining. Mr. SANDMAN. I reserve and yield to the gentleman from Texas to use Some of his time. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman has 6 1/2 minutes remaining. Mr. BROOKS. I yield 6 minutes, reserving 30 seconds to myself, and 6 minutes I yield to the, gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Walter Flowers. Mr. FLOWERS. And I yield 1 minute of my time to the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Railsback Mr. RAILSBACK. Thanks. Mr. Flowers. Let me just say, let's don't delude ourselves here. There was a conversation, the President was involved. The President knew exactly what John Dean had done on September 11. Not only did he not turn it off, in my Opinion, and according to John Dean's direct testimony, he told him to go back again. Now, some people argue that because nothing was, done that there is no Serious offense. Why wasn't there anything done? Was it because the President of the United States decided to turn it off and register his outrage? Is it because. these investigations did not occur because there, happened to be two rather dedicated public servants, one by the name. of George Shultz and then a rather good IRS Commissioner that would not have, anything to do with it. And I think that Commissioner Walters gave very good advice to Mr. Dean -when he was presented with this list. He testified he told Mr. Dean that compliance with such a request, and I quote : "Would be disastrous for the IRS and for the administration and would make the Watergate affair look like a Sunday School picnic." Mr. FLOWERS. . I thank the gentleman for his comment,. You know, my friends, a fundamental principle of our Government is that equal justice under law is a guarantee of every citizen. To put it another way, we. are a, Government of laws and not of men. This commitment to equal justice was written down in a few places, like in our Constitution, and in our laws, and in some court decisions . But I think just as important are some commitments to this principle that, must be assumed in our society. For instance, the assumption that the sensitive agencies of Government with peculiar power over- each one, of our citizens, like the police power, and the power to tax, will not be abused or misused for political purposes. This is a fundamental source of the, people's confidence in our Government. That the President and his men should have trifled with this source of power seems to me to be sufficiently grave to qualify as a component of an article of impeachment. Can you imagine, the President of the United States saying to an aide, "Do you need any IRS stuff?", Well, what happened on March 13, in the White House? Can you imagine the, President's lawyer, his counsel, his close, subordinates, Saying with impunity, and with apparent approval of the President, "We have a couple of sources over there. that I can go to, I don't have to fool around with Johnnie Walters," who was IRS Commissioner, we can get right in and get what we need." That also happened in the White House. [01.20.46]