Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 28, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 28, 1973
[00.13.18-Sen. WEICKER continues to air a great deal of dirt on the White House plans to discredit the ERVIN COMMITTEE.] Senator WEICKER. Well. now, Mr. Dean, I am going to go through a chronology of events because the thing that worries me, I suppose, more than anything else about these hearings is that people say these things happened in 1970, they happened in 1971. they happened in 1972, but it is 1973, and these are matters that were back then, they involve people that existed back then, and so it is now my intention to go through a chronology of something that affects this committee. Already having tried to establish somewhat as to what was being done to the credibility of this particular witness, we have your statement on the La Costa meeting, which is February 10 to 11 of 1973. Around March 26 or March 27, I indicated by press statements that I thought the Watergate conspiracy went beyond those seven persons engaged in the actual break-in. This was done in a, statement to the press outside my office and also in an interview with UPI. That was on the 26th and 27th of March. [00.14.57] Now I intend, Mr., Chairman, to read a taped telephone conversation between Mr. Ehrlichman and Mr. Kleindienst on the 28th of March, taped by Mr. Ehrlichman and in the possession of the committee. Mr. DASH. Senator Weicker, we might identify -it as having been submitted under subpena by Mr. Ehrlichman to this committee. Senator WIECKER. Thank you very much, Mr. Dash. [Reading] EHRLICHMAN. The President wanted me to cover with you. Are you on an outside line? KLEINDIENST I'm at my parents' house. EHRLICHMAN. Oh, fine, OK, so it's a direct line? Number one, he wanted me to ask you those two things that I did yesterday about the grand jury and about Baker. He had me call Pat Gray and have Pat contact Lowell Weicker to ask about this second story that he put out yesterday to the, effect that that he had information about White House involvement, And Weicker told Gray that he was talking there about political sabotage and not about the Watergate. KLEINDIENST. About the Segretti case? EHRLICHMAN. Yeah, and that he was quite vague with Pat as to what he had, KLEINDIENST. I called him also, you know, -after I talked to the President on Monday. EHRLICHMAN. Well, the President's feeling is that it wouldn't be too bad for YOU in your press conferences in the next couple of days to take a swing at that [putting in my own parentheses, that is me. Now I get back on the record] and just say we contacted the Senator because we continue to exercise diligence in this thing and we're determined to track down every lead and it turns out he doesn't have anything--- KLEINDIENST. I would really at this delicate point question the advisability of provoking, you know, a confrontation with Weicker. He is essentially with us, he and Baker get -along good. EHRLICHMAN. Is he? KLEINDIENST. [and as soon as I make this statement I intend to interrupt with my own comment] Baker has had a long talk with him and told him to shut up and said that he would-- [Laughter] [00.17.37] Senator WEICKER. Now, this is serious business, it is not a time for wisecracks, it is a time for everybody to be telling the truth and to be telling it hard, and I don't think there is any question--Howard at times you and I don't agree--but Howard Baker has never in any manner shape, or form, directly or indirectly ever told Senator Weicker to shut up, and I am going to put that one right out on the record. I think that--- [LAUGHTER.] Senator BAKER. It is indeed a serious moment but I cannot overlook the presumptuousness of a man who is five feet seven telling a six-foot-sixer to shut, up. [Laughter.] Senator WEICKER. Thank you. "And I talked with him"--I will just Start over again. "Baker has had a long talk with him," We are now back, this is Kleindienst speaking, talking: "I talked with him on Sunday after he said he didn't have anything but he's kind of an excitable kid and we just might not want to alienate him and I think that if he finds himself in a direct word battle with the White House and me and loses face about it I think in the long run we might need that guy's vote. [00.19.15]