Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 29, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 29, 1973 (1/2)
[00.17.46-DEAN discusses his knowledge of attempts by HALDEMAN to get operatives to find compromising information for leverage against Sen. ERVIN.] Mr. DEAN. Mr. Dent is a former special counsel to the President. His Principal area of activity was in the political area with regard to Southern States. I believe he is from the chairman's State. He has departed from the White, Rouge, staff and is in the private practice of law. He was on the White House staff for a number of years. I believe, he was in the, 1969 campaign, and he operates his law practice in both North Carolina and Washington, D.C. [00.18.22] Senator INOUYE. Was this type. of activity part of the job description? Mr. DEAN. Part of his job description? I believe the activity that is referred to occurred after Mr. Dent had departed from the White House staff. Senator INOUYE. Are, you aware if this activity did, in fact, occur? Mr. DEAN. No, sir. I have no firsthand knowledge, of that, the, only recollection I have of any effort, to get any information on the, chairman came to me when I had. after returning from Florida--from the La Costa meetings I went, as I recall, on the 12th to Florida and spent a Week down there. [00.19.03-the WATERGATE was taken away from the general Press group at the White House] When I returned back, I wanted to reconfirm With Baroody, the attack group which is a group of media-oriented people who had formerly operated under Mr. Colson would no longer--would stay out of the Watergate area, that they would not have this on their morning agenda, and it was also In connection with this meeting that, the President was asking that a speech be prepared to counteroffensive the general thrust of these hearings by laying out the number of demonstrations he had been subject to and the fact these, had been paid for by Democrats and the like. [00.19.44] I can recall Mr. Baroody and I also discussing other areas of counteroffensive and the like. It was that time that he told me, either that night or the next night that he -was meeting with some people from North Carolina and they thought they may have some interesting information on the Senator. Senator INOUYE. Were any other members of this committee subjected to special treatment? One member has suggested that he has been subjected to special treatment. Were other members subjected to special treatment? Mr. DEAN. Not to my knowledge. I -was not involved in that particular activity; no sir. Senator INOUYE. Did you ever discuss special treatment? Mr. DEAN. It very well could have come up at La Costa as to---- Senator INOUYE. I am testing your power of recollection. Mr. DEAN. Yes, sir. Senator INOUYE. It happened just recently; what can you recall, sir? Mr. DEAN. With regard to other members of the committee? [00.20.51-Sen. INOUYE tries to dig deeper into the strategy hatched to deal with the ERVIN committee, probing for evidence of attempts to influence, impede, or tamper] Senator INOUYE. Yes, sir; because I can't imagine meeting for 12 hours and just deciding that Senator so and so is an attorney, he practiced for 10 years, he was born in 1934. Mr. DEAN. No, sir; that was a very brief part of the meeting in the early morning on the first day in which there was a great disappointment at the fact that the White House had not had more influence on deciding who would be a member of the committee from the Republican side certainly, and I -would hope, and I would assume if they could have had any influence on the totality of the appointment of the committee they would have been very happy but they had at least hoped to have an influence on the appointment and selection of the minority members. I think that is -very clearly reflected in this document that I have submitted to the committee from Mr. Haldeman. [00.21.39] Senator INOUYE. Did you discuss the possibility of digging up dirt on any one of the members here? Mr. DEAN. We hadn't gotten around to that at that point, Senator. I said we had not gotten to that point yet. Senator INOUYE. When did you get to that point, sir? Mr. DEAN. I am trying to recall specifically, I think it -was just to familiarize--when I -was reading from the Congressional Directory, a number of the members of the committee were men I did not know. I had prior dealings -with the chairman, I had had prior dealings with Senator Gurney, I had had prior dealings -with Senator Weicker. They were the only members of the committee I knew. Mr. Timmons -had given his assessment to Mr. Haldeman and this was just a, general session at this point as to the composition of the committee, the general philosophy and makeup of the committee. [00.22.51]