Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Samuel Dash, attorney. Is it not true, Mr. Dean, that based on the statement you have given this committee that not only did the President express his approval to you on September 15 of your coverup activities leading to an indictment of no one higher than Liddy, but after September 15 the President took an active part in the coverup? Let me very briefly summarize, very briefly, your statements concerning this and please tell me if this is an accurate summary of what you have stated in your long statement. One, after telling the President on September 15 that you could not assure that the coverup would not unravel, it in fact, did begin to unravel in January 1973, when Hunt asked for a promise of Executive clemency. And that you learned from Mr. Ehrlichman in January and from the President himself on March 13, 1973, that the President when apprised of Hunt's pressure authorized giving Hunt assurances concerning Executive clemency. Despite your explicit statement in your meeting, with the President on February 28, 1973, of your culpability for obstruction of justice, the President according to your statement reassured you that you had no legal problems. In your meeting with the President on March 13, when you apprised the President of increasing payoff demands from Mr. Hunt which you estimated would cost as much as $1 million, the President according to your statement, responded that that amount of money would be no problem. And inquired as to how such payment could be made leading to a discussion by you in the presence of the President of laundering money and secret drops. And despite your lengthy explanation to the President when you met with him on March 21 concerning the criminal involvement of various White House and CRP officials including Mr. Haldeman, Mr. Ehrlichman, Mr. Colson, yourself, Mr. Magruder, and the increased demands for payoff money requiring coverup activity on the part of the White House, the President took no affirmative action to end the coverup. And that indeed the President made, according to your statement, specific plans to deal with this Select Committee of the Senate to prevent it from being effective and sought to further the coverup by attempting to have Mr. Mitchell acknowledge his guilt in approving the Liddy plan with the hope that that would satisfy the various investigating bodies. And finally, when you would not continue to participate in the coverup according to your statement, but retained counsel and went to the United States Attorney's office and began to tell what you knew about the Watergate case, the President sought to protect Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman who had been clearly implicated by you and asked that you submit to him a letter of resignation. Is that a fair summarization of your long statement of your meeting you had with the President and the information you had with him? John Dean. Yes, it is.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Samuel Dash, attorney. Why is it you waited until April 15 before you told the prosecutors of your knowledge of the President's involvement? John Dean. I didn't tell them on, it was after April 15 I did. Preceding that time my lawyer and I had first of all discussions about matters of executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, and national security matters. We saw there were legal problems although as far as we had resolved in our own mind that these were not problems as far as preventing the necessary disclosures of the contents of some of these conversations. However I must be very candid, that I was hopeful that the President himself would step forward and tell of his involvement in some of these things.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Samuel Dash, attorney. Now, Mr. Dean, you opened your statement when you began to testify before this committee yesterday, by purporting to soften the blow concerning the President by stating that you do not believe the President realized the full implications of his involvement. Now, if you have told the truth before this committee about what the President said to you on September 15 and what you said to him and as to the subsequent meetings you had with the President, can you honestly believe that the President, as a lawyer and a sophisticated man in politics, was not aware of the full implications of the coverup activities? John Dean. Mr. Dash, I think my opening remarks were more directed at the human side of the situation than the legal side of the situation. That he had, didn't realize the implications as far as what this would mean to people he had worked with for a number of years, people he was very fond of and I wasn t necessarily referring to the full legal implications of some of his activities. Samuel Dash, attorney. Well, do you have a belief as to whether or not he did have knowledge of the implications, the legal implications, of this coverup activity? John Dean. I can t put myself in the President's mind. Samuel Dash, attorney. Based on the facts you have given this committee? John Dean. Based on the facts I have given this committee, I would think the President would certainly have some appreciation of the legal problems involved. Yes, indeed.