Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973
[00.59.06-GURNEY continues questioning, trying to discredit DEAN over the FBI files of the Watergate investigation] Senator GURNEY. Did anybody else look at the files? Mr. DEAN. The only other occasion I recall anybody else looking at the files is when Mr. Dick Moore who was Special Counsel to the President was instructed by Mr. Ehrlichman to prepare himself to deal with the leaking stories on the Segretti related matters and at that time Mr. Moore was given those documents to look at, and worked with those documents as they related to Segretti, Kalmbach, and Chapin, and Mr. Strachan. Senator GURNEY, Didn't Mr. Chapin and Mr. Strachan look at them, too ? [00.59.44-DEAN responds to GURNEY'S accusation, exposing it as a red herring] Mr. DEAN. No, sir, they did not. I never showed them to any witness. In fact I was requested, and I told the people who had been interviewed that I didn't think it was something I could show them, and I would generally just talk in general about it. I do recall when they were reinterviewed by the FBI the FBI themselves showed them their original 302's [01.00.08-The FBI file issue nearly expanded, GURNEY is reduced to arguing that DEAN'S conduct wasn't very nice.] Senator GURNEY. Don't you think it -was a serious breach of faith to show these 302 files to other people., a breach of faith to Mr. Gray? Mr. DEAN. Yes. I think it can be interpreted that way, Senator GURNEY. Let's go to the matter of the Hunt material that was turned over to Mr. Gray. Now, as I understand it some material was turned over to the FBI but certain materials were held out; is that, correct? Mr. DEAN. That is correct. Senator GURNEY. What were they? [01.00.45-DEAN describes again picking incriminating materials out of HUNT'S safe, GURNEY missing the obvious point that the materials extracted incriminated HALDEMAN and EHRLICHMAN, not DEAN.] Mr. DEAN. Well, I tried in my statement to catalog what -I can recall that I saw amongst those. documents This was a combined effort to extract this material by Mr. Fielding and myself. Sometimes when Mr. Fielding was going through it he would make reference to something and at one point in time I decided we ought to extract all of these documents and put them in one place, and Mr. Fielding did that for me and put them in envelopes and they were subsequently stored in my safe until the time they were turned over to Mr. Gray. So I cannot--- Senator GURNEY. I thought you testified that you carried some of these around in the trunk of your car? Mr. DEAN. No, sir, that was not, those -were not documents. That was the briefcase that was found in Mr. Hunt's safe. That was a rather large, oh, like so. Senator GURNEY. Wasn't that, the material that was turned over to Gray? Mr. DEAN. No, sir, it was not. Senator GURNEY. What was turned over to Gray ? Mr. DEAN, Two envelopes containing sensitive political documents. Senator GURNEY. And what--that was turned over at a meeting in Mr. Ehrlichman's office, is that right? Mr. DEAN. That is correct. Senator GURNEY. And you were, present and Mr. Gray was present. [01.02.00-DEAN reminds GURNEY about his statement that the withholding of HUNT'S materials was at EHRLICHMAN'S urging] Mr. DEAN. That is correct. You will recall I had been instructed to "deep-six" and shred documents. I had to come up in my own mind with a persuasive argument for Mr. Ehrlichman as to why not to "deep-six" and destroy documents. I decided the best, way to persuade him was to tell him that there was a chance that the men who had drilled the safe had seen it, that the Secret Service agent who was present at the time of the drilling had seen it, that Mr. Fielding and Mr. Kehrli had been there and had seen it, and, of course, Mr. Fielding had gone, through all of the documents and for -all those people, to be, quizzed by the FBI would result in an awful lot of lying. Senator GURNEY. Was it, your suggestion to turn those papers over to Mr. Gray? Mr. DEAN, Yes, it was because I told Mr.--- Senator GURNEY. Why did you suggest this? Mr. DEAN. I told Mr. Ehrlichman that if I were ever asked I wanted to be able to testify that, I turned everything over to the FBI and subsequently when that came up and they were getting more Specific with that I told---- Senator GURNEY. What was the conversation in the office at the time the documents were turned over to Mr. Gray?, Mr. DEAN. Well I it was a very brief conversation and, as, I say, my encounter during that was very short. I had preceded Mr. Gray, as I recall the sequence, to Mr. Ehrlichman's office. Mr. Ehrlichman informed me he was going to meet with him and said, "Bring the documents over." I brought the documents over and laid them on a coffee table in Mr. Ehrlichman's office. Senator GURNEY. Didn't you and Ehrlichman agree to set up the meeting? Mr. DEAN. I have the impression Mr. Ehrlichman was going to Meet with Mr. Gray on something else. That it was not specifically on this subject. Senator GURNEY. I thought You said You suggested to Mr. Ehrlichman that you have a meeting with Gray to turn the documents over to him. Mr. DEAN. I suggested we turn them directly over to Mr. Gray, and Mr. Ehrlichman, and after I turned the rest, of the material over and I was still holding this I thought we ought to get the remainder over, called--that happened on a Thursday or Friday, over the weekend. I said--there is a delay here-and called Ehrlichman on Monday and he said, "I am meeting with Mr. Gray this evening, why don't you bring documents over then," something of that nature. Senator GURNEY. 'NOW then, what transpired when they were turned over? Mr. DEAN. As I said, I took the documents and had a very brief discussion with Ehrlichman. I laid them on the coffee table in Ehrlichman's office. Mr. Gray was called up from the reception area, came in and Mr. Ehrlichman made the initial--initially raised the matter----- [01.04.28-TAPE OUT]