Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973
[00.36.29-Sen. TALMADGE continues to question MITCHELL about the coverup] Senator TALMADGE. How does a campaign get money outside. the campaign? [Laughter.] Mr. MITCHELL. This has always been a, very interesting question to me. [Laughter.] Because, for this very reason that the more I bear about all these moneys everybody says that, they came, from 1968, 1968, and here I was the campaign manager in 1968 and only won by 600,000 votes and they had all this money in the bank. That was a hell of a thing to do to me. Senator TALMADGE. I agree. Mr. MITCHELL. I regret. it, I resent it. Senator TALMADGE. It wasn't but one campaign, was it, in 1972? Mr. MITCHELL. Well, I am talking about 1968. Senator TALMADGE. Yes, you are talking about leftover campaign money. Mr. MITCHELL. Yes, this is what. I understood. [00.37.18-TALMADGE inquires about the campaign slushfund used to fund the coverup-a shady financial arrangement, and illegal] Senator TALMADGE. But you referred to funds outside the campaign at the disposal of the campaign committee when there was only one and I was wondering how you collected campaign money outside a campaign? Mr. MITCHELL, This -was not collected. this was held except for one item, and I am sure the staff is much more, familiar -with Mr. Stans' record than I am but I think he testified that the $75,000 was made up of $45,000 that, he had in a safe deposit box that came from the 1968 campaign and $30,000 that, had come from some Filipinos -who were to be returned, if I am not, mistaken that is the $75,000 and he did not come to me on it. [00.38.00] Senator TALMADGE. There was a great deal of testimony that this committee has had, as you know, about disbursement, of funds, and we found that over a million dollars was disbursed in cash with no checks to support, it. or anything else. Some cash was bandied around in large amounts, and it. was amazing to me that a man as able a certified public accountant as Mr. Stans -would let money be handled in such a loose fashion. You would concur that you ought not kick around a million dollars in cash without accountability wouldn't You? Mr. MITCHELL. I would subscribe to that wholeheartedly. In fact, I would go down to half a million or a quarter of a million. Senator TALMADGE. OF even $1. Mr. MITCHELL. I agree with that, [00.38.44] Senator TALMADGE. -NOW. you mentioned these Dahlberg and Mexican checks. Mr. Stans testified that you met with him on June 23, 1972, regarding those checks, is that a correct statement? Mr. MITCHELL. yes, sir. If I remember correctly, Mr. Stans and I had lunch on that day and we had a further meeting which has been totally screwed up In the testimony here on the 24th. Senator TALMADGE. Do you want to try to correct it? Mr. MITCHELL. I would be delighted because of the various versions and it was a matter of some concern of this committee because of the implication that Mr. Stans brought into the picture of having information about the Watergate which Is not true. With respect to the 23d, to the best, of my knowledge, it does show that Mr. Stans and I had lunch in my diary. Now the 24th, this is the Sequel of the Mardian-LaRue debriefing or interviewing of Liddy and the information they got from Magruder's involvement with Liddy in the payment of money and it resulted in Mardian going to talk to Magruder and getting this story that it was only $40,000 at the most that I could have given Liddy or whatever the number was $40,000 or $50,000, and this of course, quite contrary to -what 'Mr. Liddy had told Mr. Mardian. [00.40.36] Mardian came up and got his secretary to get Sloan in from his house, into the office, the 24th being ,I Saturday where there was this confrontation and by the way, I would like to interpolate here that this is the only meeting that I ever had with Hugh Sloan at any time after June 17 and it wasn't in connection with his going to the FBI as he has testified to. The meeting took place with Mardian, Magruder, and Sloan, in which Magruder was saying, "Well, it couldn't have been more, than $40,000 or $50,000" and Sloan was saying , "It is much, much more than that. But I won't tell you because I am going to have to talk to Mr. Stans." [00.41.20-MITCHELL explains the "going gets tough" statement to SLOAN] And this is, by the way, where I will also have to put the record straight. Sloan was a pretty low individual on that particular day and it was then that Mardian hit him On the hack to buck him up and I don't want to take credit for this statement, that, was reported by me to be made that when the going gets tough the tough get, going. It, was Senator Muskie -who had said it just a couple of days before it happened. Senator TALMADGE. You did not make any such statement, is that correct? Mr. MITCHELL. I made the statement and I made it in the context. Senator TALMADGE. You did not quote. Senator Muskie as being the author thereof? Mr. MITCHELL. I did indeed in connection with respect, to the nature of the tough campaign he had and the one that we were having. Senator TALMADGE. Were. you saying that for Mr. Sloan's benefit at that particular time? Mr. MITCHELL. I was saying it for the total people there who were in a hell of a knock- down- drag-out donnybrook over what they could not agree on. Now, the sequence is shown by my log that after that meeting Mr. Sloan apparently went back to Mr. Stans, -who had received the information about the Liddy payments the day before, I believe, on June 23, Mr. Stans called me, and Mr. Stans came up and saw me alone. There, was not, any Jeb Magruder and there was not any Mardian in the meeting that, according to Magruder, I asked Mardian to step out so that I could discuss the matter. That -would be the last thing in the world I would do because Mardian was investigating the circumstances at the time. [00.42.48]