Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973. Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973. Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973 - Testimony of John Dean.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973. Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). The coverup is the second heading. And of course, the coverup embraces and involves so many things and so many people over such a span of time that it is difficult really to place it in a single category but I would like to try. What did the President know and when did he know it about the coverup? You ve already testified about this, Mr. Dean. And I understand, I believe, the burden of your testimony, the thrust of your testimony, but for the sake of clarity and understanding and organization of this record, tell me briefly based on your personal knowledge, based on circumstantial evidence or based even on hearsay, what the President knew and when he first knew it. John Dean. I would have to start back from personal knowledge and that would be when I had a meeting on September 15th when we discussed what was very clear to me in terms of coverup. We discussed in terms of delaying lawsuits, compliments to me, on my efforts to that point. We discussed timing and trials because we didn't want them to occur before the election. That was direct conversation that I testified to. Now, going back from September 15th, back to the June 17 time. I believe I have testified to countless occasions in which I have I reported information to Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman, made recommendations to them regarding Mr. Magruder. I was aware of the fact that often Mr. Haldeman took notes. I know that Mr. Haldeman met daily with the President. I was quite aware of the fact, that this was one of the most important and virtually the only issue that was really developing at all. And given the normal reporting channels I worked through, it was my assumption without questioning that at this was going in to the President. Now, at what point in time this was that Mr. Haldeman discussed this with the President, I have no idea.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973. Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). If I understand you correctly, you say that based on inference drawn from your knowledge of the White House organization and relationships, you surmised that the President knew of the situation from June 17 until September 15 in some degree, but that you have no personal knowledge of that. John Dean. Well, I am sure of this, that there were press releases put out within a short time after the incident. There must have been discussion in Florida, while they were still in Florida, about how to handle this. Some of the early press releases, as I recall, indicated immediately before I had even talked to anybody or done anything that this was something that didn't involve the White House in any way.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973. Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). But once again, simply searching for an organizational format, these conclusions or inferences on your part are based on your knowledge of the White House organization and not on direct information of any personal kind. John Dean. That is right, spending on almost 3 years at the White House. Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). Which is an important circumstance, and I am not trying to discredit that. I am simply trying to isolate and define the quality of the testimony. John Dean. I understand. Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). I don't mean to say that the quality of its desirability, but the quality of a technical sense. Was it direct information, circumstantial information, was it an inference or a conclusion based on a valid set of circumstances. That is a situation at the White House. Or it is a pure, plain guess. So you have been very helpful in that respect. Let me try to restate it then. From the very first moments after the break in on June 17, 1972, and based on a number of factors, including the fact that press releases issued from, I believe you said Key Biscayne. John Dean. That is correct. Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). Based on your knowledge and understanding of the White House organization and the relationship between Mr. Haldeman and the President, you draw an inference that the President knew something between June 17 and September 15. John Dean. Well, I also am aware of the fact that there were a flurry of telephone calls between Mr. Ehrlichman and Mr. Haldeman as to some of the things I was telling Mr. Ehrlichman in Washington after I did come back on the 19th. And he was calling Mr. Haldeman in Florida, who was still in Florida at that time.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities June 28, 1973. Testimony of John Dean.
Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). In any of this, and I am not trying to construct an edifice that will end up defending the President. I have stated before it is not in my purpose to defend or prosecute the President or any witness, but only for the purpose of establishing the quality and the scope of the testimony. In any event, your personal feelings that the President knew something between June 17 and September 15 is based on category 2. That is circumstantial evidence and inferences based on your knowledge and relationships in the organization. John Dean. Given the events that had occurred over the weekend while I was not there and the events that occurred on Monday and before I met with the Attorney General on either late Monday or Tuesday, whenever I had my First meeting with him, I was deeply concerned initially that this went right to the President or certainly to other persons above myself on the White House staff. Senator Howard Baker (R Tennessee). I understand your concern, and I think it was an understandable concern. But what I am struggling to establish is that concern was based on something other than what you have just testified to. John Dean. As I have testified, you know, I had not talked to the President at this point In time and did not talk to him until September 15th. So all of the knowledge I have between June 17 or June 19 actually, when I came back, and September 15 was through the fact of the things I was reporting to Mr. Haldeman, Mr. Ehrlichman. My awareness of the fact that they were meeting with the President, the fact that Mr. Haldeman often took notes. That is the basis of my knowledge at that point in time.