Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
[00.33.46] The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wiggins. Mr. WIGGINS. I thank the chairman for yielding Members of the committee, as we all know--as we all know subparagraph 2 is directed primarily to the area of electronic surveillance for alleged national security purposes. Since that. subject has not been debated before this committee, my motion to strike is to focus our attention on that subject. I would hope to yield to other members on the other side who have thoughts with respect to that. Mr. Chairman, are we operating under the unanimous consent provision? The CHAIRMAN. That is correct; 20, minutes for those in support of the amendment, 20 minutes in opposition. Mr. WIGGINS. All. right I should like to set the focus for this debate concerning electronic surveillance by recalling that these individual wiretaps commenced early in 1969 and continued for approximately 1 year thereafter. We have before us series of specific wiretaps which form the basis Of this allegation of abuse of power by the President. They can be categorized I think into the following four groups: First, the 17 wiretaps which were authorized by the Attorney General and at least the allegation is made by the President that they were instituted in the he interest of national security. In addition to that, we have before us evidence with respect, to three other wiretaps instituted by Mr. Ehrlichman concerning employees in the, White House and, with respect to that, the evidence does not extend to any Presidential involvement or knowledge. Then we have two isolated wiretaps which I will let the gentleman Characterize, ladies and gentlemen, characterize as they wish, We have Donald Nixon, and we have the. -wiretap of Joe Kraft. Now, that covers the evidence with respect to wiretaps before us. The clear, bulk of that evidence involves 17 wiretaps which were commenced in the spring of 1969. I want, to set the focus of the debate, by making one assertion which I believe cannot be contradicted, and that is that the law With respect to wiretaps which are genuinely and honestly in the national interest is that the President does have- that authority. In 1969 he has that authority today. It, is improper to Infer that It is illegal to Install a wiretap which relates to national, security matters. The sole, question is whether in fact, the President had that motive Or whether this was merely a subterfuge to install wiretaps for some other purpose. There being no question that even today, subsequent to the Keith case, that, wiretaps installed by the President for national security purposes are authorized by Congress at least have not been Prohibited by Congress, and have not, been prohibited by any decision Of the U.S. Supreme Court. That being the case, Mr. Chairman, we should focus our attention on the evidence, with respect to the, bona fides of the President in installing, these 17 wiretaps. If they were in fact pursuant to his concern about national security interests, they were, lawful and they cannot be condemned in these proceedings. But if in fact, they were installed for other purposes, then I would concede that they would be, probably unlawful and perhaps should be considered by this committee in an impeachment context Now, back in 1969, this Nation was involved In a war in Southeast Asia. This 'Nation 'was also involved in sensitive negotiations with the Soviet Union with respect to arms limitations. We have had evidentiary materials in abundance, in abundance, ladies and gentlemen, that there were leaks concerning the bargaining position of the United States vis-a-vis the Soviet Union which Caused enormous concern by the President's top advisers and by the President himself; there being no question, no question at all, that Henry Kissinger was greatly concerned about these leaks, and as a result, of those leaks a system of wiretaps On possible sources of that leak, those leaks, were instituted by the President. I am willing to attribute those directly to the White House and directly to the President, those wiretaps were there--what does the Chairman propose to do? Have I used my 5 minutes? [00.39.21]