Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 28, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 28, 1973 (1/2)
[00.56.34-Sen. INOUYE continues to pose to DEAN questions submitted by the WHITE HOUSE, which challenge DEAN'S testimony and insinuate that DEAN was the central figure in the Watergate and the Coverup] Senator INOUYE. Then your testimony, your answer to the question, did you have authority from anyone else to make much an offer is, no. Mr. 'DEAN. That is correct. Senator INOUYE. And was it on your own initiative, the, answer is yes? Mr. DEAN. Yes. Senator INOUYE. Mr. Dean, did I understand you to testify earlier that, you had led Mr. Caulfield to believe you were assisting him in obtaining approval and funding for what he called Operation Sandwedge but that in fact you let Operation Sandwedge die a natural death ? Mr. DEAN. I wasn't encouraging Caulfield. Mr. Caulfield was anxious for my assistance. I told him that I would talk to Mr. Mitchell about it, which I did. Mr. Mitchell virtually rejected it out of hand. In an effort to save a man's feelings who had spent a great deal of time, he had involved a number of other good friends of his own who had major positions and had taken time off to work on the project, rather than come, back and bluntly say, "You have been shot out of the water" and it had been disapproved, I realized that through a period of time he would realize the plan was going nowhere and it did die a natural death. [00.57.54-the WHITE HOUSE questions to DEAN try to find inconsistencies in DEAN'S testimony with regard to intelligence activities. DEAN had claimed to be ignorant of such activities] Senator INOUYE. I call your attention to Exhibit No. 34-12 which is a memorandum for the Attorney General from John Dean, dated January 12, 1972, and I call your attention to the -first sentence of the second paragraph, which says: Operation Sandwedge will be in need of refunding at the end Of this month, so the time is quite appropriate for such a review. Mr. Dean, if you let Operation Sandwedge die a natural death, why did you state, to Mr. 'Mitchell that it would be in need of refunding at the end of January? Mr. DEAN. Well, as I testified to this committee, after the November 21 meeting that Mr. Caulfield had had with Mr. Mitchell, he continued to do various investigative assignments. He was doing an investigative assignment with Mr. McCloskey; Mr. Mitchell -was interested in that. He continued to call what had formerly been just his relationship with Mr. Ulasewicz Operation Sandwedge. Mr. Ehrlichman had raised with me the fact that he thought Mr. Ulasewicz could be of assistance, he would like to keep him around and that Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Caulfield should decide what Mr. Ulasewicz's future should be. This is the result of the label that, Mitchell understood all of Caulfield's operations and I think he, had a misimpression that, dating back to somewhere in 1969, I think Mr. Mitchell assumed that everything had been called Operation Sandwedge. At least, in my conversations with him, that, is the way he, reeferred to it. So rather than go into a lengthy explanation when I was communicating with him on this matter, I merely called it, Operation Sandwedge. [00.59.54-The WHITE HOUSE questions to DEAN try to suggest that DEAN was in fact very knowledgeable and active in intelligence operations against demonstrators] Senator INOUYE. Mr. Dean, you have depicted all others in the White House as excessively preoccupied with political intelligence, use, of covert methods and security, and yourself as a restraining influence on these preoccupations. Yet. your background of responsibilities at the Justice Department, seems to suggest that your experience in these, very types of activities might have contributed to your being invited to join the White House staff. What, precisely, were your duties in connection with demonstrations while, you were at the Justice Department? [01.00.32-DEAN states that he was a restraining influence on the wishes of others at the White House to crack down on demonstrators] Mr. DEAN. Well, I would like to address myself to the first, part of the question before I answer the second part of the, question regarding being a restraining Influence. I do believe I was a restraining influence at the White House to many wild and crazy schemes. I have testified to some of them, some of them I have not testified to. Many Of the memorandums that came into my office became a joke, in fact, some of the things that were being suggested I think if you talk to some of the other members of my staff or if your investigators would like to talk to them, they would tell you some of the, things that we would automatically just file--just like the political enemies project. Many of these just. went right into the file and never anything further; until extreme pressure was put on me to do something did I ever do anything. So I do feel I had some restraining influence. I did not have a disposition or a like for this type of activity. [01.01.34]