Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 14, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 14, 1973
[00.58.16] Senator WEICKER. On the, basis of your experiences with Mr. Dean between June 17 and August 16--that is when you actually appeared before, the grand jury? Mr. 'MAGRUDER. Yes, sir. Senator WEICKER. Would you say Mr. Dean was conducting an investigation or a coverup? Mr. MAGRUDER. I think, Senator, there was never an investigation conducted. Senator WEICKER. He was conducting coverup. Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes, sir. Senator WEICKER. Thank you very much, No further questions,. Senator BAKER. I have some, if you don't mind Mr. Chairman. On this Stans thing, really, it is terribly important not only from the standpoint of your testimony and the facts that this committee will find, but it is important, to Mr. Stans, I would rather expect. Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes, sir. Senator BAKER. I want to make sure I understand what you are saying so I can compare it, against the testimony Mr. Stans has given us and compare it in the future against the testimony that Mr. Mitchell will give us. Now, the transcript says that you told Mr. Stans the facts. This is the transcript of your interview before, the majority and minority staff of the committee-. Now, I already asked you if you told Mr. Stans that. you planned, led, and were responsible for the unlawful entry into Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate complex. Did you tell Mr. Stans that? Mr. MAGRUDER. No; we did not. Senator BAKER Did you tell Mr. Stans that you were then planning and intended to implement an untruthful story to try to cover it up. Mr. MAGRUDER. Absolutely not. Senator BAKER. Well, where does that lead? What did you tell Stans? Mr. MAGRUDER. We told him, I think, just what Senator Ervin said, that an operation that we had knowledge of got fouled up, some thing to that effect; that Mr. Liddy, who was as his general counsel, was involved in this operation and that we, would probably have to terminate Mr. Liddy, and that we were having difficulty with Mr. Sloan because Mr. Sloan was not discussing with us in any legitimate terms how much money had been given to Mr. Liddy and it was important us to know how much money was given to Mr. Liddy. And I think that is the, general context. It was a meeting that took no more than 10 minutes, 5 or 10 minutes was a year ago. I think- it is very difficult to recall specifically specific statements made by participants in meetings of this kind. But the general context was because Mr. Stans had come up. I think because Mr. Sloan had said, they are giving me a tough time upstairs can you go up and see what you can do for Me. We, in effect, said, Mr. Stans, will you go down -and assist us with Mr. Sloan, in effect. Senator BAKER. Mr. Magruder, thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Mr. DASH. I just, have, a few questions, Mr. Magruder. you said, and I think the testimony Seems to be that Mr. Dean introduced Mr. Liddy to you. Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes. Mr. DASH. But is it, not, true that, you have also said to us that Mr. Haldeman approved Mr. Liddy's appointment? Mr. MAGRUDER. In that no White House employee was allowed to move over to the Committee To Re-Elect the President without his prior approval, which in a sense was a negative approval. We, let Mr. Strachan know that we, were contemplating hiring Mr. Liddy through Mr. Dean. There were some salary discrepancies and discussions with another assistant of Mr. Haldeman's When that was straightened out, in fact, that led to a memo which I sent to Mr. Haldeman explaining all the individuals who had been hired from the, White House, at, -what salary, and so on. Mr. Liddy is included in that memo. Mr. DASH. So Mr. Haldeman was involved in solving the salary setup? Mr. MAGRUDER. That is correct; yes. Mr. DASH. Now, when -Mr. Liddy told Mr. Mitchell and you after you had gone over the Gemstone file with him. and when Mr. Mitchell said he was dissatisfied. and he said that he was going to correct the errors, did Mr. Mitchell or you say no; don't do it? Mr. MAGRUDER. No. Mr. DASH. Isn't it true, also, Mr. Magruder, THAT you did give Mr. Howard some information that you had received, information from that operation? Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes: in a number of informal discussions with him. I indicated that, we would have information forthcoming and that If he could work with Mr. Strachan who was the conduit, we Would probably be able to provide them. Mr. Colson headed up the group called the--- Mr. DASH. This was Gemstone you were referring to ? Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes: I was referring to Gemstone, but to be fair. to Mr. Howard, I didn't say this was Gemstone information coming from wiretaps, Mr. DASH. Now. did you have any discussion -with Sally Harmony prior to her testimony? Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes. Mr. DASH. 'Could you give us briefly what that, discussion was? Mr. MAGRUDER. It was the type of discussion we had with a number Of employees who were being questioned by the U.S. attorney's office: generally speaking, that we hoped they would do nothing that would affect the President's election type of discussion Other people did discuss With others, Miss Harmony and other people, more detailed facts about this. Mr. DASH. What did she say to you when you said that? Mr. MAGRUDER. She indicated that there would be, no problem with her testimony. Mr. DASH. Did you make that report to Mr. Mitchell? Mr. MAGRUDER. Again, I think there were other individuals who were more directly involved---- [01.04.02--TAPE OUT]