Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 25, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 25, 1973
[00.58.30-Efforts to involve the CIA in the coverup] General Cushman had been the Deputy Director of the CIA at, the time the matter occurred, and when he was asked, he reported that. he had been requested from John Ehrlichman). When Ehrlichman was informed of this, I believe by General Cushman. he denied the fact that he had ever made such a request, and told Cushman that he had never been asked for such assistance. General Cushman prepared a memorandum that indicated that his request had come from either Ehrlichman Colson, or myself. Ehrlichman forwarded a copy of this document to me and asked if I would get this matter taken of, I told him I thought it was somewhat strange that my name was on the memorandum from Cushman in that I had never spoken with Cushman in my life. He then asked me if I did not think it would be better that, Cushman mentioned no one since he, could not remember who it was. I remember suspecting -at, the time, as I do today, that Ehrlichman had had my name inserted in the memorandum as a means of getting me to make, sure that Cushman would have no names in the memorandum at all. I remember calling General Cushman and telling him that I had received from Ehrlichman a copy of his memorandum and that I was somewhat surprised to find my name in it because, this was the first time I had ever spoken with him. He agreed that we had never talked and I said that. Ehrlichman had suggested to me that, if he could not remember who it was, he., Cushman, probably should not mention anyone. A short time later, another memorandum on this subject of who had asked for Hunt to have the assistance of the CIA come forward from. General Cushman and this time no names were mentioned at all. It was after this episode in getting the Cushman statement corrected that I had an occasion to discuss this with Colson. Colson told Me that, he had been present when Ehrlichman had made the. call to Cushman. [01.00.26] 'The other CIA material relating to Hunt's dealings with the CIA emanated from a series of questions that had been asked by the Watergate prosecutors. I recall a discussion with CIA Director Helms and one of his deputies in Ehrlichman's office when they went over the type, of material that they would be providing to the Department of Justice. I subsequently had occasion, -while at the Department of Justice, to talk with Henry Petersen about the CIA material and he showed me a copy of the information the CIA had provided him, and he. told me Mr. Gray had the same material. [01.00.59] I remember that the document had attached to it a number of photographs which had come from a camera--again my text has gotten confused--had come from a Camera, the camera which had been returned by Hunt to the CIA. It is a camera that had been borrowed by Hunt from the CIA. [01.01.25-the most STUPID BURGLARS IN THE WORLD-Gordon LIDDY strikes again!] The pictures which had been processed by the* CIA, included a picture of Liddy standing in front of Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. I informed Ehrlichman about this and that is the reason that he, subsequently requested that I seek to retrieve the documents before the Senate investigators got a copy of the material. I discussed this with Petersen, but he said that they had received a letter in early January of this year from Senator Mansfield regarding the, maintenance of all records relating to the case and that the only thing That he could do would be to extract the, document and leave a card to the effect that the document. had been returned to CIA. I reported this to Ehrlichman and he. told me that he thought that the CIA ought to get all of the material back and that no card should be left. in the file and that national security grounds should be used to withhold release of the information. On February 9, 1973. I spoke with Director Schlesinger of the CIA and asked him. if it. would be possible to retrieve the material that had been sent to the Department of Justice in connection with the Watergate investigation. I told him that I had discussed this with the Department of Justice and they indicated that they would merely leave a card in their files Indicating that, the material had been returned to the CIA. I subsequently had a visit from General Walters in late February at which time he, told me that. the CIA was opposed to retrieving Material and leaving a card indicating that they had so retrieved It because they also had been requested by the Senate not to destroy any material; relating to the case. I told Walters that I did not suggest that the material be, destroyed: rather I thought that national security grounds might justify withholding release of the information to Senate investigators. He said it, simply could not, be, done and I dropped the matter. [00.03.10] As I 'will explain later in a meeting with Mr. Krogh. the fact that this material was in the possession of the Department of Justice meant to me that, it was inevitable that, the burglary of Ellsberg's psychiatrist office would be discovered. I felt that, any, investigation worth its salt -would certainly be able to look at the pictures in the files at the Department of Justice and immediately determine the location and from there discover the fact that there had been a burglary of the office that was in the picture. I would now like to turn to the White House plan for dealing with this committee. [01.03.50] WHITE HOUSE PLAN FOR PERPETUATING THE COVERUP THROUGHOUT THE SENATE WATERGATE INVESTIGATION Even before the Watergate criminal trial in January of this year, there had been press reports and rumors that the Senate planned independent hearings on the Watergate and related matters. The White House Congressional Relations Staff reported that the subject of the Watergate hearings was being discussed in the Senate Democratic, Policy Committee, but they did not know the substance of those discussions. I was aware of the interest of Ehrlichman and Haldeman in the prospects of such hearings because they had discussed It, with me, and Bill Timmons told me they had discussed it, with him.