Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 25, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 25, 1973
[00.44.32-White House P.R. vs. the facts, DEAN is dragged into the PR game against his wishes] I don't know if the President's statement -was meant to be a very literal play on carefully chosen words or whether he intended to give, it the broad-brush interpretation that it, later received. However, I would have certainly counseled the President against issuing the statement. And, I was very unhappy to have my name associated -with the statement without being consulted whatsoever, and being put out in front on the issue. [00.44.57] The issuing of the so-called "Dean Report" Was the first time I began to think about the fact that I might be being set up in case the Whole thing came crumbling down at a later time. I subsequently discussed this with other individuals-Mr. Moore, 'Mr. Fielding, and Mr. Mitchell--and they assured me, but not unanimously, that I need not worry because, they did not believe that anyone at the White House would do that to me. THE PRESIDENTIALLY DIRECTED COUNTEROFFENSIVE TO THE DEMOCRATIC CIVIL 'SUITS In early September, as the FBI and the Department of Justice investigations began winding down the concern of the White House and the reelection committee shifted to the very active, investigation that, was being pursued by the Democratic -National Committee through its discovery proceedings in its civil lawsuit against the re-election committee. The Democrats were making daily headlines with their lawsuit. Senator ERVIN. I would suggest your voice has dropped and I suggest you talk more directly into the microphone. Mr. DEAN-. I Will Move' closer then. I have several hours and I thought I ought to ease it back a little bit. On or about September 9 or 10, I received a Presidential request from both Haldeman and Colson. [00.47.10] The President felt that the best defense, to the actions being pursued by the Democrats, and the charges and implications that were stemming from the lawsuits being filed by the Democrats, -was our own counteroffensive with our Own series Of lawsuits against, the Democrats. I recall that Colson called me repeatedly and finally reported that he had just come from the President's Office and that the President wanted action on this as quickly as humanly possible. I informed Mr. Colson that I Was working on it but that I wasn't going to suggest filing any lawsuit or taking any action that was not well founded. I had talked with Mitchell, Ken Parkinson. and Paul O'Brien about the matter and Mr. Parkinson informed me that he was working on several potential counteractions I requested that he submit a memorandum to me as soon as possible because there was great interest at the White House in a counterattack, including the interest by the President. On September 11. 1972, Mr. Parkinson submitted his memorandum to me and after the memorandum I redrafted his documents for submission to Haldeman. I have submitted to the committee copies of both Mr. Parkinson's memorandum and the memorandum I submitted to Haldeman. [00.47.32] Mr. DEAN. You will note that my memorandum of September 12, 1972, to Mr. Haldeman has a "P" with a checkmark in the upper right-hand corner. which indicates that the document was forwarded directly to, or reviewed by, the President. I later learned that the President was pleased and wanted a full follow-up on the items in the memorandum The markings on the memo are Mr. Haldeman's Markings. It was also about this time, late July--early September, that I learned during a meeting in Mitchell's office that Mr. Rhoemer McPhee was having private discussions with Judge Richey regarding the civil suit filed by the Democrats. I believe this fact was known to Mr. Mitchell. Mr. LaRue, Paul O'Brien, and Ken Parkinson--and later again by McPhee--that Judge Richey was to be helpful whenever he could. I subsequently talked' with Mr. McPhee. about this, as late as March 2 of this year, when he told me he was going to visit the judge in the judges rose garden over the weekend to discuss an aspect of the case. MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT--SEPTEMBER 15, 1972 [00.48.51] On September 15 the Justice Department announced the handing down of the seven indictments by the Federal grand jury investigating the Watergate. Late that afternoon I received a call requesting me to come to the President's Oval Office. When I arrived at the Oval Office I found Haldeman and the President. The President asked me to sit down. Both men appeared to he in very good spirits and my reception was very warm and cordial. [00.49.23-NIXON gives approval to DEAN'S handling of the coverup] The President then told me that Bob--referring to Haldeman--had kept him posted on my handling of the Watergate case. The President told me I had done a good job and he appreciated how difficult a task it had been and the President was pleased that the case had stopped with Liddy. I responded that I could not take credit because others had done much more difficult things than I had done. As the President discussed the present status of the situation I told him SO all that I had been able to do was to contain the case and assist in keeping, 'it out of the While House. [00.50.00-DEAN warns that the plan will have to change, and may not work forever] I also told him that there was a long way to go before this matter would end and that I certainly could make no assurances that the day Would not come when this matter would start to unravel. Early in our conversation the President said to me that former FBI Director Hoover had told him shortly after he had assumed office in 1969 that his campaign had been bugged in 1968. the President said that at some point we should get the facts out on this and use this to counter the problems that we were encountering. [00.50.34]