Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 29, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 29, 1973 (1/2)
[00.16.59-MacNEILL in studio] MacNEILL states that these precedents for involving the President in the congressional investigation, there will be a short break. [PBS network ID-title screen "SENATE HEARINGS ON CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES"] [00.20.30-MacNEILL] MacNEILL states that the committee will resume with a debate over what it is empowered to investigate. [00.20.44-ERVIN] Senator ERVIN. Senator Inouye. Senator INOUYE. Thank- you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Dean, I have a few questions I would like to follow up on. In your colloquy with Senator Baker on the meeting of April 14, at which time, you have testified that you had a discussion with the President--- Mr. DEAN. April 15, Senator? Senator INOUYE. April 15? Mr. DEAN. Yes. Senator INOUYE. On the matter of immunity? Mr. DEAN. That is correct. [00.21.11] Senator INOUYE. You have indicated that the President told you that he will make, no effort to interfere in your negotiations with the Government. Mr. DEAN. He made that very clear to me, Senator And I might say that that was one of the things that led me to issue the statement that I did regarding my unwillingness to be a scapegoat in this matter. [00.21.35] Senator INOUYE. Do you think at that time the President was aware that you had evidence that might incriminate him? Mr. DEAN. I am sure, he was aware of the conversations we have had and [00.21.44-DEAN suggests he thinks the conversations were TAPED] as I have indicated to the, committee, because of the nature of the conversation, because of subsequent events, I had reason to believe that that conversation was being taped. The subsequent events that gave me further confirmation of that were the fact that the prosecutors indicated the President had indicated to Mr. Petersen that he had taped my conversation or allegedly taped my conversation and that I had said that I had immunity in exchange for the testimony of Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman. [00.22.21-INOUYE returns to the subject of the ENEMIES LIST] Senator INOUYE. This is my final question relating to the matter of friends and enemies. First, may I touch upon the matter of friends. You indicated earlier that the White House was looking into a tax matter involving a very, involving a person very close to the President, and I believe you indicated that he -was guilty up to his teeth. Mr. DEAN. That is correct. Senator INOUYE. Was this matter at that moment in the hands of the, Criminal Investigation Division? Mr. DEAN. When it was first brought to my attention it was still at the Internal Revenue Service. I was asked to see what I could do about it. I called and spoke with Mr. Walters on this case and told him what the concern was. I then--he told me at that point in time, he said-well, let me back up just a moment. The individual involved had said that he thought he was being harassed by the agents of the Internal Revenue Service. I raised this with Mr. Walters and he said, he assured me, that could not be the case after he looked into it. He said there is a very strong case against this individual, and that ultimately it is going to be transferred to the Tax Division at the Department of Justice for further analysis. I merely asked to be kept advised of the status of the case because I felt the President may want to know because this was an individual the President saw with great regularity and I got questions on it with considerable regularity. [00.24.03]