Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 14, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 14, 1973
[00.02.00--in to title screen "SENATE HEARINGS ON CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES"] [00.03.57--MacNEILL] MacNEILL states that after testifying that he did order the GEMSTONE files destroyed, MAGRUDER will address the role of John DEAN in the Watergate and the COVERUP. [00.04.16--DASH] Mr. DASH. Now, as to Mr. Dean's participation, by the way, in these meetings, was Mr. Dean operating on his own, or what was your Understanding of Mr. Dean's role at these meetings? Mr. MAGRUDER. Mr. Dean was the person who had worked with us on many of these legal matters. He had brought Mr. Liddy to the meeting. he was a close associate of ours through Mr. Mitchell and, of course, all of us knew Mr. Dean very well. And he was one person from the, White House who worked with us very closely. It was very natural for Mr. Dean in this situation to be part of our meetings at this point in time because of his association and of his background. Mr. DASH. And would he, from your understanding, be representing any White House interest at these meetings? Mr. MAGRUDER. I think you would really have, to ask Mr. Dean that question. Mr. DASH. Now, did you instruct Mr. Reisner to destroy any other files? Mr. MAGRUDER. As I recall, I asked. Mr. Reisner to cull through my files, pull out. any sensitive material that could be embarrassing to us. There was the suit that was placed against, us by the Democratic National Committee that asked for immediate disclosure. As I recall, we all indicated that we should remove any documents that could 'be damaging, whether they related at all to the Watergate or not. [00.05.30] Mr. DASH. Mr. Sloan has testified before the committee, Mr. Magruder, that, shortly after your return and after the break-in, that you asked him to perjure himself concerning the, amount of money that Mr. Sloan had given Mr. Liddy. Could you state your own recollection of that discussion with Mr. Sloan? Mr. MAGRUDER. Well, the, first, discussion--we had two meetings on Monday. The first, meeting was when I determined from him that the money was our money, and we, discussed that in his office.. And he came up to my office, and in attempting to allay his concerns or help him. in some sense give some advice, I think, we talked about what would he do about the money. My understanding of the new election law indicated that he would be personally liable for cash funds that were not reported. These were, not, reported funds. So I indicated at that meeting that, I thought he had 'a problem and might have to do something about it. He said, you mean commit perjury? I said you might have to do something like that to solve your problem and very honestly, was doing that in good faith to Mr. Sloan to assist him at, that time. Now, later we met, three times, twice that week and once after returned from his vacation. That was on the subject of how much money had been allocated to Mr. Liddy. Now. I, in thinking Of about 7 months from the time, we, authorized the funds, -to the time of the November election. I thought that Mr. Liddy should have received somewhere between $100,000 and $125,000, approximately. That was my guesstimate. Mr. Porter indicated that He had distributed about $20,000 Or $30,000 to Liddy, so I assumed that Mr. Sloan probably distributed Somewhere under $100,000. Now, I will fully admit that I had hoped that the figure was as, low as possible, and we all hoped that it -was low, Mr. Sloan would not tell me what the figure was. He refused to tell me the figure. He said, I cannot tell you the figure. I Said, just tell me, what. it IS; so We can work On the solution of this problem, If we do not know how much you gave Mr. Liddy, how can we determine what the money went for? On the third meeting, he and I went out and had a couple of drinks and he still would not discuss the facts of this sit situation with me. I did not at that, time or In any of those meetings ask him to do, anything relating to money other than tell me what the figure was and that I hoped it, was a low figure. And I certainly did hope it was a low figure. But I had no problem accepting a higher figure, because I thought we could work something out relating to any figure within reasonable limits. I think the. real problem was that he knew it was $199,000 and I was aghast at that figure. because there was no way Mr. Liddy should have received that much money in that, short period of time. It was only 2 1/2 months since its; approval. [00.08.23]