Reel

Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973 (1/2)

Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973 (1/2)
Clip: 488956_1_1
Year Shot: 1973 (Actual Year)
Audio: Yes
Video: Color
Tape Master: 10424
Original Film: 114005
HD: N/A
Location: .Caucus Room, Russell Senate Office Building
Timecode: -

[00.25.55-ERVIN with gavel, brings hearing to order] Senator ERVIN. The committee will resume. Senator INOUYE. If I may resume reading from the memo. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO ATTACKING DEAN] "It was Dean -who sought out successfully to have the others omit his name from the list of those who -attended meetings on the Liddy plans." This is from the Magruder testimony. Mr. DEAN. I would like to comment on that. The meeting in -which this was discussed was called by Mr. Mitchell. I -was departing a meeting in his office, and he asked me if he could talk to me about these matters. He called Mr. Magruder into the same meeting. They asked me to review my recollection of the meetings. I told him what my recollection was and as I testified Mr. Magruder asked me "How do I handle this before the grand jury?" I said, "Well, I don't know what occurred at the second meeting. I know there was some brief reference in the first meeting to the election laws and that would seem to me a way to explain my presence at the meetings." [00.27.10] Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO ATTACKING DEAN] "It, was Dean who urged Hunt to flee the country two days after the burglary." Mr. DEAN. I believe I testified to that. That., occurred before the meeting commenced in Mr. Ehrlichman's office on the evening of the 19th, when Mr. Ehrlichman asked me where Hunt was. I said I had no idea. Mr. Colson was present also. He asked Mr. Colson a, similar question and got a similar response. At that point. Mr. Ehrlichman told me, to call Liddy and tell Hunt to get out of the, country, which I did. After a subsequent discussion, I called back, after reraising the matter, thinking it, was not something that the White House should be doing, and spoke again with Mr. Liddy and told him that my earlier conversation should be retracted. [00.28.04] Senator INOUYE. Then it. -is your testimony that it was Mr. Ehrlichman who-- Mr. DEAN. That is correct. Senator INOUYE. [continuing] . Proposed the idea? Mr. DEAN. That is correct. Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO] "It, was Dean and Mitchell who prepared Magruder for his perjurious grand jury testimony." Mr. DEAN. I cant speak about Mr. Mitchell's involvement. I know that Mr. Magruder came to my office shortly before he was to appear before the grand jury. As you will recall from my testimony. there were a series of events that preceded that relating 'to the fact, that I had recommended that Magruder be removed or resign from the re-election committee because I thought he was going to have problems. Simultaneously to that, there was a discussion developing which Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman were well aware of, that there was an effort to hold the case, at Mr. Liddy. Senator INOUYE. Did you in fact counsel Mr. Magruder to commit perjury? Mr. DEAN. I did, I did in this regard: I helped him prepare a statement that I knew was false.. Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO] "It was Dean who said of a memorandum Colson had prepared on August 29 stating the facts as he knew them, 'For God's sake, destroy the memo. It impeaches Magruder.' Mr. DEAN. I think the facts speak for themselves on that. I did not destroy the memorandum. In fact, I turned a copy over to this committee. I think I have also explained in my testimony why I did not turn it over to the prosecutors, [00.29.43] Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO] "It was Dean who suggested that Sloan take, the fifth amendment, though Sloan was innocent." Mr. DEAN. It is correct; I did call Mr. Sloan's attorney before he was to appear in Florida before an unrelated matter down there. There had been a number of discussions within the White; House about the fact that Mr. Sloan was going to testify about money that had come, to the. White House. He had sought meetings with a number of people in the White House, I was the only one who would talk -with him. Technically under the law, it appeared that he did have difficulties -with some of the disbursements that had been made that occurred after April 7, which was the effective date of the, new law. And I did call him and ask his attorney if he was prepared to take the fifth amendment and in doing that, suggesting that he might want to pursue that course. Because to me, the fifth amendment doesn't indicate innocence or guilt. [00.30.46]