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.
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Mr. Dean, let me be very clear here so we try to put this story together. You are informed earlier in 1972 by Mr. Mardian that he has in his possession the logs of the Kissinger's taps, is that correct? John Dean. That is correct. No, not that he has them, that he had turned them over. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). He had received them and he had turned them over to Mr. Ehrlichman. John Dean. That s right. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Then in 1973 in an interview with Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan indicates to you that the taps were accomplished by the Washington field office of the FBI. That they had a set of the logs and the taps. He had a set of the logs and taps or the logs and the summaries, I beg your pardon, the logs and summaries. John Dean. That Sullivan had them, no. Sullivan told me that he had turned them over to Mardian. Now one or the other, at the time that the Time Magazine inquiry came in there was also an effort to determine how this had leaked and that was very much a part of the conversation I had with Sullivan as to how this could leak. And I recall discussing with Sullivan also who else knew about this. And he told me that he thought that Hoover had told and he mentioned the name of the person and I cannot recall it at this time, and this person in turn had mentioned that he understood to Governor Rockefeller and Governor Rockefeller in turn told Dr. Kissinger. Also in dealing with Mr. Felt I d asked him if he had any idea how it had leaked because there was concern as to what the source of the story was as well as the like.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Did Mr. Sullivan indicate to you that summaries of the logs had gone to several persons in the White House? John Dean. When I was dealing with Sullivan, he didn't seem to know the final disposition of the logs. And we didn't discuss when the logs had gone over to the White House at that time, during the time that they were, the wiretaps were being taken. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Mr. Dean, I am not talking about the final disposition of the logs and summaries but rather where the summaries of the logs went to at the time that they were being done. John Dean. No, sir. Sullivan did not tell me where they had gone, to the best I have no recollection of that and I think I would have remembered it.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). I mean be very careful on this point. He indicated to you that No. 1, according to the testimony that you set down to the best of your recollection that Mr. Hoover disapproved of these particular set of taps, is that correct? John Dean. That is the impression I had. I had been told sometime before, after Mr. Mardian left the Department of Justice and went to the reelection committee, that something had to be done for Bill Sullivan. Now he always worked on an assumption that I knew that Sullivan had done some very Important thing for the White House. I was never clear on exactly what it was that Mr. Sullivan had done that the White House owed him some favor for. But I can recall on repeated occasions this coming up and also it came up with respect to a man by the name of Mr. Brennan and who was with the FBI. I was somewhat on the periphery or this and was never quite clear and the best I can do now is I m just trying to put together the tidbits of knowledge that I did have.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Well, you interviewed Mr. Sullivan yourself as to his involvement in the Kissinger tap situation? John Dean. Yes, I did. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). And I just want to make sure as to what it is that John Dean. I think if you were to talk to Mr. Sullivan he would call I was most interested in how it had leaked. Because Mr. Felt had told me in fact it had happened. I was, of course, aware of the taps occurring because of the information that Mardian had given me and I don t recall exactly when Mardian had told me this. But I was merely collecting a whole series of tidbits of Information, as much information at the White House that did come to me was through tidbits. My immediate focus at the time I was dealing with Sullivan was how in the world we were going to deal with the story that was in Time Magazine. And after I collected the information I was able to collect as to who did know, I called Ehrlichman and told him the facts and he said "Deny it." Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Did he tell you who prepared the summaries of the logs? John Dean. No, sir; he did not.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 26, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Did Mr. Sullivan indicate to move away from the Kissinger taps Mr. Chairman, I think one point that I would like to make clear here is that I have had a rather lengthy discussion with Mr. Sullivan on the subject matter which is being discussed here now. I don t think it would be fair for me to state with the substance of that conversation was, I would much prefer to have it for Mr. Sullivan and I would hope, when we are very close through with this particular witness we will give Mr. Sullivan the opportunity to explain his particular role in this matter. The talk with Mr. Sullivan or in your contacts with him, was he ever requested to prepare a memorandum relative to FBI involvement with other Presidents insofar as the political aspects were concerned? John Dean. Yes, he was. As I mentioned that in my statement, when I had mentioned to the President the fact that I had met with Mr. Sullivan and he had alluded to other activities by the FBI over the preceding years, the President was very interested and asked me to obtain the information from Mr. Sullivan. And several times I asked Mr. Sullivan if he could put this into documentary form. He said he could. He himself typed out a memorandum that contained his best recollections of some of the political uses that have been made of the FBI by preceding administrations. That was originally one of my submissions to the committee and it is a classified document by Mr. Sullivan himself who told me it was going to have to be declassified before it could be turned over. But by the reference to it in my statement I meant to call it to the attention of the committee and the committee is certainly welcome to have that document.