Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
On Sunday, April 15, I went to Mr. Shaffer's office for an all-day meeting. I learned during the day that Ehrlichman had been trying to reach me during the better part of the day but I decided not to return his call. When I returned home about 7:30, the White House operator called me again and said that Ehrlichman had been trying to reach me. I then returned his call. He told me that he was going back to the office to do some work that night and would be in about 8:00 and would like to meet with me very much. I told him I would meet with him. I was quite aware of the reason that Ehrlichman wanted to meet with me, it was because I was sure that he had learned from the President what was going on as a result of the President's meeting with Kleindienst and Petersen and the fact that I had been to the prosecutors had obviously come out.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
As I have noted earlier, I had not at any time discussed Presidential Involvement with the prosecutors so the discussions that Petersen and Kleindienst had with the President obviously focused on the involvement of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Dean, Mitchell, Magruder, Strachan, and others that I had discussed. After Ehrlichman's call, I called Mr. Shaffer and we discussed the wisdom of the meeting. I told him I did not want to meet with Ehrlichman and he agreed. Subsequently I tried to reach Ehrlichman to turn the meeting off but I learned that he was already en route to the office.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
I called Mr. Shaffer back and told him that I thought I ought to meet with the President and I should call Rosemary Woods and have her give a message to the President. He said that he saw no problem with my talking with the President to tell him why I had gone to the prosecutors. I attempted to reach Rosemary Woods but she was out of the city. I then wrote out a message for the President and phoned Mr. Higby and requested that Higby relate the matter to Haldeman, Ehrlichman and on to the President. I have submitted a copy to the Committee of the message I sent to the President at 8:15 Sunday, April 15th, exhibit 44. In short, I told the President that I hoped he did not interpret my going to the prosecutors as an act of disloyalty, that I did not wish to speak with Ehrlichman at this time, that I would meet with him if he wished to discuss the matter with me, and that I thought that he should get his legal advice from Henry Petersen.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Within 45 minutes of sending this message I had a call from the White House operator informing me that, the President wished to meet with me at 9 o'clock. It was shortly after 9 when I arrived at the President's Executive Office Building office. As I was driving into the White House I wondered to myself if the Meeting was a set up. By a set up I mean was the President going to try to smoke out of me what Ehrlichman and Haldeman had obviously been trying to do, been unable to do, and knowing the fact that I would not play games with the President that the information would come out. I decided I couldn t worry about that and I had a duty to explain to the President why I was doing what I had done.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Meeting with the President on April 15th. The President was very cordial when we met. I was somewhat shaken when I went in to meet him because I knew I had taken it upon myself to end the coverup and what I had started was going to cause serious problems for the President. I shall attempt to recall the highlights of the, conversation that transpired on the meeting which occurred about 9 o'clock on April 15th. I told the President that I had gone to the prosecutors. And that I did not believe that this was an act of disloyalty but rather in the end be an act of loyalty. I told him I felt this matter had to end. I informed the President that I told the prosecutors, of my own involvement and the involvement of others. At one point in the conversation I recall the President asking me about Haldeman's knowledge of the Liddy s plans. He asked me if I had told him earlier about the fact that I had met with Haldeman after the second meeting in Mitchell's office and told Haldeman what was going on and my reaction to what was going on. I told the President that I had reported this fact to him earlier. The President then made some reference to Henry Petersen asking about why Haldeman had not turned it off at that point and told me to testify that I had told Haldeman about the meeting in Mitchell's office.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
The President almost from the outset began asking me a number of leading questions, which was somewhat unlike his normal conversational relationships I had had with him, which made me, think that the conversation was being taped and that a record was being made to protect himself. Although I became aware of this because of the nature of the conversation, I decided that I did not know it for a fact and that I had to believe that the President would not tape such a conversation.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Some question came up, by the President, as to whether I had immunity. As best as I can recall, I told him my lawyers had discussed this with the prosecutors but certainly I had no deal with the Government. He told me that he did not want to do anything to hurt my negotiations with the Government. I do not recall commenting on his comment regarding that. I also recall that the conversation turned to the matter of Liddy not talking. He said something about Liddy was waiting for a signal and I told him that possibly he was waiting for a signal from the President. I discussed with him the fact that maybe if Liddy's lawyer met with him that Liddy would begin to open up and I said that I thought that that would be very helpful if Liddy did talk. It was during this part of the conversation that the President picked up the telephone and called Henry Petersen and pretended with Petersen that I was not in the room but that the matter of Liddy's coming forward and talking had arisen during our conversation. The President relayed to Petersen that if Liddy's lawyer wanted to see him to get a signal from the President was willing to do this.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
The President also asked me about Petersen and I told him if anyone could give him good advice Henry Petersen could. The President also asked me if I remembered what day it was in March that I had reported to him on some of the details of the Watergate matter. He said that he thought it was the 21st but was not certain. I said that I could not recall for certain without checking.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
At another point in the conversation the matter of the degree of discussions that I had had with the prosecutors came up and I informed the President that I had had no discussions with the prosecutors relating to conversations I had had with him or in anything in the area of national security. The President told me that I could not talk about national security areas and I should not talk about conversations I had had with him because they were privileged conversations.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
Toward the end of the conversation the President recalled the fact that one point we had discussed the difficulty in raising money and that he had said that $1 million was nothing to raise to pay to maintain the silence of the defendants. He said that he had of course, been joking when he made that comment. As the conversation went on, and it is impossible for me to recall anything other than the high points of it, I became more convinced that the President was seeking to elicit testimony from me and put his perspective on the record and get me to agree to it.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
The most interesting thing that happened during the conversation was, very near the end, he got up out of his chair, went behind the chair to the corner of the Executive Office Building office and in a nearly audible tone said to me he was probably foolish to have discussed Hunt's clemency with Colson. I do not recall that I responded. The conversation ended shortly thereafter.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 25, 1973 - Statement of John Dean.
As I was on my way out of the office after exchanging parting pleasantries, I told the President that I hoped that my going to the prosecutors and telling the truth would not result in impeachment of' the President. He jokingly said, "I certainly hope so also," and he said that it would be handled properly.