Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch United States Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Mr. DASH. All right. Let us move now to the next area of complaint. That is Mr. McCord's indication or implication of you that you participated in having him exposed to the pressures to accept an offer of Executive clemency. Mr. ALCH. Yes, sir. Mr. DASH. Now, it is true, is it not, that you might have also been not aware of pressures from other sources or from Mr. Hunt or of any contacts from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President or the White House, concerning Executive clemency, and therefore, might not have been aware of all that might have been going on concerning the CIA? Mr. ALCH. That is true. I may not have been aware of it because I had no knowledge of that if it, in fact, happened.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Mr. DASH. Now, were you, for example, aware that Mr. Hunt may have been in frequent contact with the Committee for the Re-Election of the President officials or White House officials? Mr. ALCH. I was not. I rarely saw Mr. Hunt and, as you know, when the trial started and his plea of guilty was accepted by Chief Judge Sirica, he was out of it. Mr. DASH. It is true, though, is it not, that you did go to the office of Mr. Bittman, Mr. Hunt's lawyer, with Mr. McCord on January 8, the first day of the trial? Mr. ALCH. Yes, sir. Mr. DASH. Then you had a private meeting with Mr. Bittman while Mr. McCord was in another part of the office? Mr. ALCH. I had a meeting with Mr. Bittman, a discussion with Mr. Bittman. I hesitate to call it a private meeting because, as I explained yesterday, we walked into the office, came into the library of the office where other lawyers were seated. Mr. Bittman was not there. I walked back to his office to see if he was there. He was. Mr. DASH. Was anybody else in the office? Mr. ALCH. No, sir. Mr. DASH. So you were alone with Mr. Bittman? Mr. ALCH. Yes, sir.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Mr. DASH. In your statement you acknowledge that Mr. McCord was incensed, and I think in your words "paranoid," because he believed other defendants, including Bittman's client Hunt, were trying to make him the fall guy. Did you think or did you not think that you were only adding to his concern by meeting with Mr. Bittman alone, not in Mr. McCord's presence? Mr. ALCH. No, because I had told Mr. McCord why I was going to Mr. Bittman's office instead of immediately going back to my hotel where it was arranged that each day after trial he, I and local counsel would meet to discuss what had happened that day and was going to happen the next day. I told him why I wanted to speak with Mr. Bittman. I wanted to find out the ramifications of the proposed change of plea by Mr. Bittman's client, Mr. Hunt, which I felt could possibly be the predicate for a motion for a mistrial which I eventually filed.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Mr. DASH. How long did that meeting with Bittman last? Mr. ALCH. Approximately 15 minutes at the most, maybe less. Mr. DASH. And after that meeting or at the conclusion of it I understand from your statement that Mr. Bittman told you to tell Mr. McCord that he would receive a telephone call from a friend that night? Mr. ALCH. That is correct. Mr. DASH. Did you ask Mr. Bittman who would call your client or what the message would be? Mr. ALCH. I did not. Mr. DASH. Why not? Mr. ALCH. I felt it was of no importance to me. I surmised in my mind that this call was in connection with Mr. McCord's fears that his codefendants were plotting against him. If I had to guess that who I thought was going to call I thought it may have come from Mr. Bittman's client, Mr. Hunt. In any event, the remark was made as I was walking out of the office and I had said OK, went back to the library and relayed that message to Mr. McCord. Mr. DASH. You did relay that message to Mr. McCord that he would get a call that night? Mr. ALCH. No, not that night. I just-said "Mr. Bittman said you would be getting a call from a friend," and I also told Mr. McCord, I said, "I went in there and told him at your request you are feeling that you were being ganged up on, so to speak, by your codefendants and Mr. Bittman said you will be getting a call from a friend."
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Gerald Alch
Mr. DASH. Now, this committee has already received evidence, actually just prior to your testimony, that a call, in fact was made and was received by Mr. McCord; and that it originated from Mr. Dean in the White House to Mr. John Caulfield, to Tony Ulasewicz and set the stage for a meeting on the George Washington Parkway between Caulfield and McCord in which Caulfield extended an offer of Executive clemency to McCord "from the highest levels of the White House." That testimony has come before the committee. Mr. ALCH. Yes, sir. Mr. DASH. Did you know of that call or that meeting? Mr. ALCH. I did not.