Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973 (2/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 27, 1973 (2/2)
[01.03.49-DEAN responds to the White House Memo accusing DEAN of masterminding the coverup] Mr. DEAN.---I was asked to handle testimony in different ways. Wen I came down from Camp David there was no doubt in my mind that I wasn't going to play the coverup game and I wasn't I going to give them any further information with which they could play the coverup game. Senator INOUYE. Were you In fact, Mr. Dean, preparing your own testimony? Mr. DEAN. I was going through and recalling everything I could remember about the incidents. I had been asked to do that, and if the President had called and asked me for that report-- Senator INOUYE. Did you spend the 6 days preparing testimony for your own use? Mr. DEAN. Let me complete, Senator If the President called me and asked me for that report, I would have sent it, to the President of the United States. There is no doubt about that. That isn't, who was calling and asking me for it, It was Mr. Ehrlichman who was calling me from -California, he wanted any part I had of it, and based on the earlier conversations I had had wasn't about to give it to Mr. Ehrlichman. So I can't say I was preparing my own testimony because I wasn't Preparing my own testimony. I was trying to reconstruct, as I had been asked to do I what I remembered as to what had occurred'. [01.05.01] Senator INOUYE. You have testified on several occasions that you were concerned with the enormity of the problem. If it was so, why did you not on your own present to the President your written report? Mr. DEAN. Well, I thought I had very clearly made, the point to 'the President on the 21st. What I saw occurring after the 21st indicated to me that there was a certain degree of protection going on by Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman. I was never sure that if I had sent the, report the President would ever see it for one thing. Senator INOUYE. As the President's counsel, and you were seeing the President quite often during those days, could you not have personally handed the report to him? [01.05.46] Mr. DEAN. The President was in California, Senator, at the, time. He left shortly after I came down and I had this little, round of activities; -with Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Magruder, and they -were off to California. Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO ATTACKING DEAN'S TESTIMONY] "The failure of Dean's muse while he was on the mountain is understandable since by this time it would have been impossible to write a believable report that would not have been self-indicting. While he was at Camp David, Dean told Ehrlichman's assistant that he was not getting the statement done but was planning his own defense." And this is from Mr. Ehrlichman. Mr. DEAN. That is not true, Senator Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO ATTACKING DEAN'S TESTIMONY] "Haldeman talked with him several times and felt, that Dean was not having much progress in writing his report, but it became clear that he was worrying more about himself.'"' This is from Haldeman. Mr. DEAN. Well, as I say when I came down from Camp David, I don't think it was a question of worrying about, myself as what I was witnessing was Mr. Haldeman and then subsequently Mr. Ehrlichman becoming very concerned about themselves. [01.07.09] Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO ATTACKING DEAN'S TESTIMONY] "On the 25th the President suggested it be announced that Dean would appear before the grand jury." Mr. DEAN. On what. date? Senator INOUYE. On March 25. Mr. DEAN. On March 25, I was at Camp David. The President was in Florida. That was a Sunday as I recall, and I recall no conversation with the President. I have, no knowledge of that at all. That is a new one to -me. [01.07.45] Senator INOUYE. [QUOTING W.H. MEMO ATTACKING DEAN'S TESTIMONY] "On the 26th Dean agreed but said he -would do so only if given immunity." Mr. DEAN. No, sir, I had no conversations with anybody. They were in Florida at that, time. The discussion that morning, if You will recall was that the President came out 'With a statement that he warmly endorsed me, he expressed new confidence or renewed confidence, in me, that he had allegedly spoken directly with me, and had no concern at, all about my prior knowledge of this matter and I do not recall any statement about going before the grand jury being issued when he was giving me this very warm embrace. [01.08.23]