Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Returning now to the contents of Mr. Hunt's safe. It was mid-morning on Tuesday June 20th when the GSA men brought several cartons to my office which contained the contents of Mr. Hunt's safe. I had learned earlier that morning from Mr. Fielding that the boxes had been secured in Kehrli's office overnight. Fielding also reported that they had found a handgun in the safe which Kehrli had disengaged, a large briefcase containing electronic equipment, and a number of documents some of which were classified. I told Fielding I would like his assistance later that day in going through the material.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
During the afternoon of the 20th, Fielding and I began going through the cartons of Hunt's material. I remember looking in the briefcase which contained electronic equipment. I frankly I do not know what it was it contained, but it contained loose wires, chapsticks for your lips with wires coming out of them, instruction sheets for walkie-talkies, and as I recall, there were also some antennas in there. We then began sorting the documents. The bulk of the papers were classified cables from the State Department relating to the early years of the war in Vietnam. These were separated out from the rest of the papers. The other papers I assumed related to Hunt's work at the White House. Also, there were personal papers. I will attempt to the best of my recollection to describe the papers and documents that were found in the safe. I must point out however that I personally did not look at all the documents or read all the documents rather it was a combined effort by Fielding and myself to determine what was in Hunt's safe.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
First, among his personal papers were copies of his submissions for his per diem pay as a consultant, a few travel vouchers and an envelope containing materials of a personal nature relating to his wife. Among the papers that I assumed related to his work at the White House were numerous memoranda to Chuck Colson regarding Hunt's assessment of the Plumbers Unit operation and critical of Mr. Krogh's handling of matters, a number of materials relating to Mr. Daniel Ellsberg such as news clippings and a psychological study of Ellsberg which apparently had been prepared by someone who had never actually met or talked with Mr. Ellsberg, a bogus cable that is other cables spliced together into one cable regarding the involvement of persons in the Kennedy administration in the fall of the Diem regime in Vietnam, a memorandum regarding some discussion about the bogus cable with Colson and Mr. William Lambert, some materials relating to an investigation Hunt had conducted for Colson at Chappaquiddick, some materials relating to the Pentagon Papers and a paperback book containing the published Pentagon Papers.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Upon examining the contents of the safe, I recall that Fielding and I discussed our concern about the public impact some of these documents might have if they became public, particularly in an election year. I requested that Fielding remove the politically sensitive documents from the others which he did. The classified State Department cables were too bulky for my own safe so I called David Young and requested that he store them for me in his office as I assumed at that time that they would probably be returned to the State Department. I told Young when he came to pick up the materials that they had come from Hunt's safe and he should store them, all together, until I told him what to do with them. Accordingly, Mr. Young took the State Department documents to his office. The large briefcase was stored in a locked closet in my office suite and the politically sensitive documents and Hunt's personal papers were placed in a safe in my office. The remaining materials were left in the cartons on the floor in my office.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
I subsequently met with Ehrlichman to inform him of the contents of Hunt's safe. I gave him a description of the electronic equipment and told him about the bogus cable, the materials relating to Ellsberg and the other politically sensitive documents. I remember well his instructions. He told me to shred the documents and "deep six" the briefcase. I asked him what he meant by "deep six." He leaned back in his chair and said: "You drive, across the river on your way home at night, don't you?" I said, Yes. He said, "Well, when you cross over the bridge on your way home, just toss the briefcase into the river." I felt very much on the spot, so I told him in a joking manner that I would bring the materials over to him and he could take care of them because he also crossed the river on his way home at night. He said, no thank you, and I left his office and returned to my office.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
After leaving Ehrlichman's office I thought about what he had told me to do and was very troubled. I raised it with Fielding and he shared my feelings that it would be an incredible action to destroy potential evidence. I think Mr. Fielding appreciated my quandary, when Ehrlichman said do something he expected it to be done. I decided to think it over. I did take the briefcase out of my office because the closet that it was being stored in was being used by the secretaries in the office and I did not have an available safe to hold the large briefcase. I was also giving serious consideration to Ehrlichman's instructions. Accordingly, I placed the briefcase in the trunk of my car where it remained until I returned it to the office after I had reached a decision that I could not follow Ehrlichman's instructions. I will explain in a few minutes how I handled the material in Hunt's safe, but before doing so I would like to continue with the sequence of events.