Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
[00.37.41] Mr. SEIBERLING. Will the gentleman yield'? Will the gentleman yield? Mr. WIGGINS. Of course, if I have time. Mr. SEIBERLING. I -would like to ask the gentleman if his amendment would cover a situation such as we have testimony on. where the President would give instructions, sometimes saying "Now, I want you to get this done, but I don't care how you do it, don't bother me with the details." Would that be sufficient to cover the instructions under the gentleman's amendment? Mr. WIGGINS. Well, I think the instructions are subject to interpretation. I know the incident to which the gentleman refers, and I could not conceive that the President was by that instruction authorizing doing of an illegal act. So long as the act is consistent with a reasonable interpretation of his policy and direction, I have no quarrel with attributing that conduct to the President. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from California, Has expired. I recognize the gentleman from Texas. Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman. an, I oppose the gentleman motion. The specific act included within the scope of this article involved an awesome, array of impeachable offenses against the U.S. Constitution and the American people. The evidence that we have gathered clearly establishes that Richard M. Nixon and his agents sought and obtained confidential tax information from the Internal Revenue Service, in a manner unauthorized by law and for unlawful purposes. Specifically he and his subordinates made repeated attempts to influence the selection of citizens to be targeted for audit and other special action by the Internal Revenue Service. In a sworn affidavit to this committee, Johnnie Walters, former IRS Commissioner. stated that in the summer of 1972 John Ehrlichman requested the, IRS to check out the income. tax returns of Democratic National Committeeman Lawrence O'Brien. The IRS checked O'Brien's returns and conveyed the relevant information to Ehrlichman through then Secretary of the Treasury Shultz. Ehrlichman was not satisfied and because of his demands. O'Brien was Interviewed on August 17, 1972. The IRS furnished a copy of the O'Brien conference report to Secretary Shultz. A short, time, later Shultz informed Walters that Ehrlichman was still not satisfied. Walters told Shultz that there -was nothing else the IRS could do. On August 21, 1972, in a joint telephone call to Ehrlichman by Secretary Shultz, Walters and his assistant IRS Commissioner Roger Barth, Ehrlichman was told that O'Brien's returns were closed, that there was nothing further for IRS to do. Ehrlichman then told Walters, "and I wanted them to turn up something and send him to jail before the election and unfortunately it didn't," Ehrlichman told Walters, and I would repeat that that is not that--right quote. I turned to the wrong page. What Ehrlichman said on page 235 was, indicating disappointment, "and he said to me I am god-damned tired of your foot dragging tactics." And then when Ehrlichman was so interested in the IRS status of O'Brien's operation in testimony before the Watergate committee, Ehrlichman arrogantly stated the reason that-I previously stated. He wanted something turned up before the. election. Unfortunately it didn't materialize. On September 11, 1972, John Dean gave Walters a list of Democratic Presidential nominee staff members and campaign contributors , instructing the IRS to begin investigations or examinations of the People named on the list. Walters testified that he advised Dean that compliance with the request would be disastrous for the IRS and for' the, administration, and that he would recommend to Shultz that the IRS do nothing with the request. Four days later, Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Nixon met and discussed among other things Dean's working through the IRS. Our transcript of these September 15 meeting had -the following exchange: [quoting] HALDEMAN. Between times, he is doing, he is moving ruthlessly on the Investigation of McGovern people, Kennedy stuff, and all that, too, I just don't. know how much progress he is making because I-- PRESIDENT. The problem is that's kind of hard to find. HALDEMAN. Chuck--Chuck has gone through, you know, has worked on the list and Dean's working the thing through IRS and, uh, in some cases I think some other (unintelligible) things he has turned out to be tougher than I thought he would which is what--- PRESIDENT. Yeah. [end quoted section] [00.43.01]