Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973 (1/2)
[00.10.25-GURNEY questions MITCHELL about NIXON'S possible concerns about "dirty tricks" in the campaign-softball questions for MITCHELL designed to elicit testimony favorable to NIXON] Senator GURNEY. Well, the general thrust of my question of course, was to find out if the President had any concern about bugging electronic surveillance, or dirty tricks in the upcoming 1972 campaign. I suppose if he had, he ought to have discussed it with you, the No. 1 campaign director? Mr. MITCHELL. No, Senator, I believe that, the conversations went more to the security of the buildings and the personnel than they did electronic surveillance. Obviously, we did have and we discussed from time to time, the necessity of sweeping for a determination of whether there, was electronic surveillance of the sensitive areas within the campaign headquarters. But, of course, as far as the President was concerned, this was always done by the Secret Service and that was not so much a concern on his part as far as he personally was involved, but just to make sure that we did have good security in connection -with our campaign activities. Senator GURNEY. And that, I guess, is one of the reasons why Mr. McCord was on board; is that correct? Mr. MITCHELL. There is no question about that, sir, and no question about, the fact that, there were constant sweeps of the building at 1701 and the installation of in-house television so that they could watch corridors and so forth. Senator GURNEY. Some of these matters I am going to touch on have obviously been touched on before, but I will Try 'only to bring up things, perhaps, that were not mentioned or perhaps should be mentioned a little more fully. [00.12.17] Going to the March meeting at Key Biscayne with Magruder, was LaRue present all the time during these discussions with Magruder? Mr. MITCHELL. That would be my belief, Senator, I know that, Mr. Magruder's testimony is to the contrary, but, I might help if I explain the circumstances. It is rather a large house. It was built as a one-family house and then the fellow who owned it Inherited a mother- and father-in-law to come to live with him, so he built a second wing on it was a, complete operation down there and a large, Florida, room, which had two telephones in the room. So I think Magruder's statement was that LaRue was in and out of the room from time to time, and so forth. Well, if he, -was in and out of the room, he must. have had very weak kidneys, because there were certainly enough telephones in there to take care of without leaving the room. Senator GURNEY. What was LaRue's job at this time with you? Mr. MITCHELL. 'Well, he had been---Fred LaRue had been at the Committee for the Re-Election Of the, President for quite a few months and he was what you, I presume, would call a special assistant, although until we got the place organized over there, they never had any titles, while, I was there, until after I came aboard 'so that, they could be sorted out and put in the proper spots. I believe you would call him a special assistant to me, and he was staying at the house on Key Biscayne with us, so that he was there, not only at the meeting that, I had with Magruder, but also the one that, I had the, previous day or the subsequent day, whichever it was, with Harry Flemming. Senator GURNEY. His mission on that occasion -was to be your right-hand man to help you out, is that the idea? Mr. MITCHELL. I would believe that to be the case,, besides the fact that he is awfully good company and delightful to have around. [00.14.35] Senator GURNEY. Do you recall whether he was present when these electronic plans were discussed by Magruder? Mr. MITCHELL. To the best of my recollection, and I am quite sure that I am correct, that he was present and he did take part In the discussion. Senator GURNEY. Going to this Magruder meeting--- guess I should say alleged meeting in view earlier testimony today-about the Gemstone files, You mentioned that in the morning----- Mr. MITCHELL. Is the Gemstone file supposed to be the same as the Mitchell file? [00.15.10] Senator GURNEY. Well, the Gemstone files, of course, involved information about the bugging-transcripts, things like that. And the testimony of course, previous here was that they had been put In the Mitchell files and they had been brought to your attention by Mr. Magruder You testified this morning that Occurred In the morning, this meeting with Magruder, in which he, discussed the Gemstone files. Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Magruder testified that it happened at the, 8:30 a.m. meeting.