Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973
[00.27.51-DASH continues to interrogate MITCHELL about the developing COVERUP of Watergate] Mr. DASH. -Now, during" the period which is the latter part, of June, July and perhaps August, you did become somewhat aware, not fully aware, of the fact that Mr. Magruder had been very much involved in the so-called Liddy bugging operation of the Democratic National Committee headquarters, and also of the Liddy-Hunt operations you have indicated for the plumbers activities that you have described earlier. Were you not also aware, Mr. Mitchell. of the wiretapping of certain journalists and staff members of Mr. Kissinger after the so-called leaks of the SALT talks? Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Dash, which question do you Want me to answer? Mr. DASH. I think. the first. [00.28.46-MITCHELL gets evasive] Mr. MITCHELL. We are going: from July 1972 back in some place in 1969 and I am not quite sure how you want me to approach it. Mr. DASH. Well. you did become aware during June and July of Mr. Magruder's involvement in die break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters? [00.29.05] Mr. MITCHELL. We had people such as Mr. Liddy and so forth say Yes, that Magruder was involved. Magruder was saying no at one time and maybe yes the other time, and so forth. but -we were aware of the fact that certainly Mr. Magruder had provided the money if nothing else and that during, the latter part of June and the early part of July seemed to be what all the focus was as to how much money Mr. Magruder had provided to Mr. Liddy, Mr. DASH. Well, there came a time when you were aware that Magruder himself had admitted to certain persons, whether Mr. Mardian or Mr. Parkinson, that he had been involved but was going to give a false story about what he had done. [00.29.48-MITCHELL acts real innocent about whether he SUBORNED PERJURY in MAGRUDER'S case] Mr. MITCHELL. Well. I don't want to get Mr. Parkinson in there and I don't know about Mr. Mardian because Mr. Magruder told them two or three different stories, and Mr. Parkinson. and Mr. O'Brien previously Went ahead on the story that they thought was to be the facts. As I understand the sequence of events when this thrashing around was involved, occurred, involving everybody from the President of the United States and the chairman of this committee and everybody on down the line as anybody they could think of to name, Mr. Parkinson. Senator ERVIN. [presiding]. Just a minute. did they accuse this chairman? Mr. MITCHELL. NO. Sir. this committee. I was going to use some other committee. I think -we had better use some other committee. [Laughter.] [00.30.37] The fact of the matter is that to the best of my recollection that Mr. Parkinson got Mr. Magruder and Mr. Porter down to his office and put them in a room and said now "I want You to 'write down what your statement is on this subject matter because it probably Is going to he, used as a deposition before the grand jury or certainly for submission to the Justice Department." So I want to make sure that Mr. O'Brien--that Mr. Parkinson is not involved in this. It got to the point where I had a very. very strong suspicion as to what the involvement was, yes. [00.31.19] Mr. DASH. With that you also had the suspicion, if that is the word you want to use. that Mr. Magruder's story which he was writing down and which he was going to give in a deposition to the grand jury was not a true story. Mr. MITCHELL. Well, this came out later. I didn't know what he was writing down July 15 or whatever it was, it came later. Mr. DASH. There, came a time when you did become aware of that. Mr. MITCHELL. That is right. Mr. DASH. When was that?, Mr. MITCHELL. I would say it was sometime before he went, to the grand Jury, sometime. I don't want to duck your question. on these, wiretaps that happened back in 1969. Mr. DASH. I will come back to that in a second. But you did become aware, by the time he testified on the grand jury that Mr. Magruder was, in fact, testifying to a false story. [00.32.12] Mr. MITCHELL. I became aware or had a belief that it was a false story. Mr. DASH. As a matter of fact, there were a number of meetings that you had with Mr. Dean, Mr. Magruder, Mr. LaRue, and Mr. Mardian, and at least in way part of the. discussion that took place that time, was Mr. Magruder's testimony before the grand jury? Mr. MITCHELL. I would think there would have been More than one meeting on the subject matter, yes. Mr. DASH. I think the calendar would show there Were quite a number of meetings in which you met, Mr. MITCHELL. There were a lot of meetings, with a lot of matters being discussed at that time, Mr. DASH. Also was it true that Mr. Dean began to serve as sort of a liaison between this group that you were meeting with and Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman? Mr. MITCHELL. Well, Mr. Dean was serving as a liaison between the Committee To Re-Elect the President and the White House and I am sure that would have meant Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman. [00.33.08]