Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 29, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 29, 1973 (1/2)
[00.32.00-DEAN tries to explain his position with regard to the personal use of campaign funds in his care-it complicates his position that he has destroyed evidence that supports his own position, that he was not trying to steal the money] Mr. DEAN. If I were not perfectly candid with this committee, it would not be very difficult to manufacture another check. Mr. THOMPSON. I assume you would not do that, Mr. Dean. Mr. DEAN. I would not do that, no, sir. Mr. THOMPSON. I do not think we will even discuss possible further perjury or any activity of that nature. [00.32.20] Mr. SHAFFER. I object to the -word "further," Mr. Chairman. Mr. THOMPSON. That Objection, if the Chair will allow me to comment on it, is well taken. But it was your intent and what -was in your mind at the time, that puzzles me, Mr. Dean. Under ordinary circumstances, I -would say that a man of your dealings, dealing in stock--if I might finish--with personal affairs involving great sums of money, that even in ordinary circumstances, it would be highly unusual for anyone to tear up a check, for any reason. Maybe not. But it would seem that way to me. But under these circumstances, when you knew in your own mind that there might be some question about it, to the extent that you went through these gyrations to set up this trustee account, when you realized there might be some question, that you would destroy the only documentary evidence that might substantiate that testimony. [00.33.33] Mr. DEAN. Well, let me repeat something that I think should be very clear on the record. I at no time thought there was any way in the world that I would not have to account, in full for that, money. Too many people were aware of it. Mr. Howard was aware that it had come to me. Mr. Strachan was aware that it had come, to me. I had told Mr. Fielding that, I had it in my possession. I assume that they had possibly told other people about it, the fact that the money had ended up in my safe. The first occasion that it came to my mind, the point where I thought it ought to be revealed to the Government, -was after I went to my attorney. I -revealed it as it -was. We discussed back at that time that after we made the moves to open up the trustee accounts that really, through inadvertence rather than serious thought, I had destroyed the first check based on an accounting that my attorney had made. He said, tear up the first check and issue me a new check; it will be negotiable able. Now, that is the way the facts are. Mr. THOMPSON. Had you already started preparing your statement that you were going to use here today? Mr. DEAN. No, sir: I was not preparing the statement then. I was trying to go over at that time just my chronology of my knowledge as to the sequence of events. I was having meetings with the prosecutors some of this was just by, you know, trying to give them the facts as I knew them. [00.34.09] Mr. THOMPSON. Maybe I got, the wrong implication or impression a minute ago in response, to a question of Mr. Dash. The impression I got was that you were stating, in effect, that you never would have had to return that money, but you came, forward and did it anyway because nobody -would have known about it, something to that elect. Now you state that, correctly, Mr. Howard knew about it, Mr. Strachan knew about it, you assumed that they had told others about it. So--- [00.35.38] Mr. DEAN. What I am saying is not that no one would have ever known I had taken out, the, money. I could have put, the cash back in. That was not, my intention. When I, in fact, knew that I had handled that money, I felt I ought to state I had handled that money. I raised it with my lawyer, told him what I had done, and that is the, way it occurred. [00.35.59] Mr. THOMPSON. At, the, time, you went to your lawyer. you were, of course, shall we say estranged from the White House? I believe you said you got a different impression when you got back from Camp David. You said you were not going to play the coverup. game any longer and you got a different, impression from Haldeman as to his relationship with YOU and what he thought, about, you, that sort of thing. Did it ever occur to you that they might have access to your safe, or that they might be talking to Mr. Howard, they might be talking to Mr. Strachan, and they could go to the safe at any time? Mr. DEAN. At that, point, they were on their way to California. There was no problem with that, happening. Mr. THOMPSON. So there were, other people At the White House you still assumed were friends at that time? Mr. DEAN. There was only one person who had a combination to that, safe and it would been an extraordinary act, if they had come, in at that point when they were still dealing with me and trying to solicit my testimony as to what it was going to be for suddenly one night my safe to disappear. So I do not think that that Is a fair assumption. [00.37.07]