Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Tape Part 1 Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17, 1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle. Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Robert Odle returns to his seat. Fred Thompson. Mr. Odle referring back to your first chart, which fits the organization that Mr. Mitchell was the director of the committee, and your budget committee, I believe you said that your budget committee was comprised of members from both the finance committee and the committee to re-elect, is that correct? Robert Odle. Yes sir it is. Fred Thompson. What about Mr. Malek, at that present time where was he employed? Robert Odle. Mr. Malek came to the committee on a full time basis July 1 as deputy campaign director. He, in addition to that before exercised some supervisory function over some of the citizens groups and also sat in on budget committee meetings. Fred Thompson. Was he at the White House prior to this time? Robert Odle. Yes. Fred Thompson. Did he sit in on budget committee meetings at some time when he was at the White House? Robert Odle. I believe so.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. Your name is not on, within this box here, but did you in fact attend some of the budget committee meetings? Robert Odle. Yes I did. Fred Thompson. Who presided over these meetings? Robert Odle. I would say the campaign director and the finance chairman jointly. That would have been Mr. Mitchell until up to July 1, Mr. MacGregor thereafter, and the finance chairman Mr. Stans.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. With regards to Mr. Stans was his role limited to raising money or did Mr. Stans also participate in the decisions as to how money would be allocated? Robert Odle. Well I think that Mr. Stans in the budget meetings certainly, certainly kept an eye on where the money was going. He would sometimes challenge expenditures. He would say for example, do we really need to spend this amount of money of television advertising this next week? Yes, he was an active participant in the budget committee meetings. Fred Thompson. He voiced his opinion and took some participation in how the money was being spent, as well as raising the money. Robert Odle. Yes, generally he tried to put a brake on the spending, questioning whether the expenditures in the various categories were needed. Fred Thompson. Were all expenditures approved by him or all major expenditures approved by him? Robert Odle. Well I would say that uh, in the budget committee sessions that his agreement was necessary, before we could allocate a great deal of money say for television advertising for the following week. Yes, the major, those kinds of major decisions. Fred Thompson. How large a sum of money would we have to be talking about before he would normally concern himself? Robert Odle. Sir, I couldn't put a number on it, it would be difficult to do that. It would depend on the kind of thing we were talking about.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. Mr. Odle, in looking at your chart when Mr. Mitchell was director and the one when Mr. MacGregor was director, you say that when Mr. Mitchell was director is it fair to assume for this organizational charged, that he had more, lets say direct control or day to day control over the operations of the committee, than when Mr. MacGregor was director? Robert Odle. From all the outward appearances that there were, I think that Mr. MacGregor shared equally in the role as campaign director as Mr. Mitchell did. Fred Thompson. When Mr. MacGregor took over it appears that the citizens division and the political division were then answerable to Mr. Malek. Then the campaign director, that was not present in Mr. Mitchell situation was it? Robert Odle. No it was not. And what happened there was to take the two groups of national programs, the two kinds of field programs. The citizens programs which we might term horizontal field programs and the political programs the state by state re-elect committees which we might call vertical programs and they were merged under a second deputy campaign director.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. Well would it be accurate to say that all department heads reported directly to Mr. Mitchell? Robert Odle. Uh, I would say that they reported to Mr. Mitchell through one of the two deputy campaign directors generally. In other words, the director of the political division reported to the campaign director through the deputy. The director of the polling operation reported to the campaign director through the deputy.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. So the deputies are part of the division themselves, aren't they? So, would not the division heads themselves in effect report directly to Mr. Mitchell on substantive matters? Robert Odle. Sir, can we clarify who we've got here as to the division heads. If you mean that Mr. MacGregor and Mr. Malek are division heads, yes sir. Fred Thompson. What about Mr. Mardian, what about your political group, Mr. Flemming. Robert Odle. Now which chart are we looking at right now? Fred Thompson. I'm looking at the first chart, Mr. Mitchells chart. Robert Odle. Alright, on the first chart, yes at that point in time, those five men reported to the campaign director directly. Those five political co-coordinators, that was before there was the second deputy. Fred Thompson. And that situation was not present when Mr. MacGregor was campaign director, as I understand. Robert Odle. That is correct. Fred Thompson. So in effect, there was more direct control or more direct relationship between the division heads when Mr. Mitchell was director, according to the chart? Robert Odle. In that sense, yes.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. Normally did all decision memoranda ultimately go through Mr. Mitchell when he was campaign director? Robert Odle. Yes. Fred Thompson. I assume that, of course this chart does not reflect any informal relationships that might have been present between members on the committee. Robert Odle. No, it's an organizational chart.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973 - Testimony of Robert Odle.
Fred Thompson. Mr. Liddy here is under the finance committee, he was at the committee to re-elect I believe previously what December 10? Robert Odle. From sometime in December until approximately April 1st, correct.