Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973
[00.06.59-GURNEY continues to question DEAN about his March 21, 1973 meeting with NIXON. GURNEY wants to suggest that DEAN gave NIXON the only, incomplete, information that NIXON had about the coverup of Watergate] Senator GURNEY. What about the discussion? Mr. DEAN. I told him particularly--what had really happened--let me put this in sequence. One, of the things that, to me was one of the real outrages, that bothered me tremendously, was when Mr. Hunt made his final demand on the White House. He sent, he, apparently had a meeting -with Mr. Colson's lawyer, Mr. Shapiro, and he had also had a meeting, a direct meeting with Mr. Paul O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien--I believe that meeting occurred on the 19th. On the 20th or on the--let us see, what was the weekend before? He had had the meeting on the Friday and O'Brien came to me---- Senator ERVIN. I am going to have to ask the group holding the conference over here to step outside for the conference. It is disturbing the orderly procedure of the hearing. [00.08.01-DEAN says that he wanted to tell NIXON the basic facts of the coverup because HUNT was threatening to implicate the White House and EHRLICHMAN in improper activities, DEAN felt the coverup was in jeopardy] Mr. DEAN. As I was saying, Mr. Hunt met with Mr. 'O'Brien on a Friday and reported to me on the preceding Monday. That report was that Hunt was demanding $72,000 for living expenses and $50,000 for attorney's fees and the message was sent directly to me. I asked Mr. O'Brien, why are they sending it to me? He said, I happened to ask Mr. Hunt the same question. He said, you just send this message to Dean. He said, you tell him that if that money is not forthcoming quickly, because. sentencing is going to occur this week and it is going to take me time me to make arrangements, that I will have a lot of seamy things to say about the things I have done for John Ehrlichman and I will have to start, reconsidering my options, Now, that was what prompted me to raise this again with Dick Moore when I had had a meeting with Moore. I told Moore that I was, you know, this thing--we had talked for many, many months about trying to end this. I thought this to me was just another indication of direct blackmail of the White House. Senator GURNEY. Well, again, if we, can confine ourselves to the meeting of March 21 with the President-that is really what I am getting at. Mr. DEAN. Sir, I am saying that came up in the meeting with the President. Senator GURNEY. And you told him all about that? Mr. DEAN. Yes, I did. Senator GURNEY. And you told him about the raising of the coverup money, Kalmbach, all that activity? Mr. DEAN. I went, over that rather quickly. What I did was I painted a very -broad picture of what I thought was happening and asked him if there were any questions he wanted to ask about that, I would -fill in any details. Senator GURNEY. Did you talk to him about the Magruder -affair, helping to prepare his testimony for the grand jury? Mr. DEAN. I didn't get, into any great detail. I alluded to the fact that I had assisted Magruder in preparing him to go before the grand jury, in his second appearance before the, grand jury, yes, I did. Senator GURNEY. Did yon talk to the President or report to him about the executive clemency offer to Caulfield? Mr. DEAN. No, I didn't--to Caulfield? You mean through Caulfield to McCord? Senator GURNEY. Yes. Mr. DEAN. To the best of my knowledge, that did not come up and we didn't get into that. Senator GURNEY. Did Haldeman come in later at that meeting? Mr. DEAN. The President called Mr. Haldeman to come in. Senator GURNEY. And did you go over the whole thing, pretty much again while Mr. Haldeman was there? Mr. DEAN. No, Sir; I did not. [00.10.30-there was no witness to this meeting-prior to knowledge of the tape recorders!!!] Senator GURNEY. What transpired while Haldeman was there? Mr. DEAN. A decision was made that, Mr. Mitchell should come, down the next day and there was a brief discussion about, that. -From that, we went to a meeting in Haldeman and Ehrlichman's office. Senator GURNEY. That was the only thing that was discussed? Mr. DEAN. That was the sum and substance of Mr. Haldeman's appearance in the President's office. We were alone virtually the entire time and it was at, the very end of the meeting that he came in. Senator GURNEY. Do you remember how long he was there,? Mr. DEAN. I don't. I would not say more than .5 minutes or so, to the best of my recollection. Senator GURNEY. Did you have a, later meeting with the President and Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman? Mr. DEAN. On -what day, sir? Senator GURNEY. That day. Mr. DEAN. Yes, sir. Senator GURNEY. What was discussed at that, meeting? [00.11.40-DEAN discusses meeting with HALDEMAN and EHRLICHMAN as the coverup is close to unraveling, they want to try to give up MITCHELL to save the coverup.] Mr. DEAN. as I say. I went form from the President's office to a subsequent meeting 'with Ehrlichman and Haldeman and the, discussions began to focus on Mitchell coming down and having Mitchell step forward and if Mitchell stepped forward and would account for this thing, then maybe the problems that had followed for the White House after the break-in would be forgotten. And we went to a meeting at the President's office that afternoon to rediscuss that. A number of ideas came up. [00.12.13]