All language subtitles for Watergate.S01E03.Things.Fall.Apart.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES_track3_[eng]

- Five people have been
arrested and charged

with breaking into
the headquarters

of the Democratic
National Committee.

- Part of a vast campaign
to undermine the election.

- Well on the way
toward the predicted

landslide re-election.

- The Senate voted
to establish a committee

to investigate alleged
political espionage.

- Federal judge believes the
whole truth did not emerge.

- If we don't end
this cover-up,

it's only gonna
get more complex.

- the Presidency.

And there is no assurance--
- That it won't bust.

- The continued success
of the Watergate cover-up

depended on the burglars
remaining silent,

which in turn depended
on the burglars receiving

light sentences as
non-violent first offenders.

But instead, federal
judge John J. Sirica

threatened them with decades
in prison unless they talked.

It worked, and the first one
to crack was the lead burglar,

James McCord.

- This was supposed to be
the day of sentencing

for the seven
Watergate defendants,

but instead the case
broke wide open again.

Judge John Sirica opened
by saying he had received

a letter from McCord.
Then came the bombshells.

There was political pressure
on the defendants

to plead guilty
and to remain silent.

Perjury occurred
during the trial.

Others involved in the
Watergate operation

were not identified
during the trial.

- "Los Angeles Times" said
McCord named Deputy Campaign

Director Jeb Magruder and
White House lawyer John Dean

as having had
advanced knowledge

of the Watergate operation.

- Why do you think McCord
is coming forth like this?

- I have no idea.
I have no idea.

- No comment at all right now.

- Any report that Mr. Dean
had prior knowledge

of the Watergate matter
is totally false.

- I don't know a damn
thing about Watergate,

and I don't want to.

But where are the
civil libertarians?

A judge gives somebody
a 55-year sentence

in order to make him talk.

Where's the protection
of the Fifth Amendment?

- The poor bastard
didn't even have a gun.

- It was a simple
case of burglary.

First offenders.

People who would
never do it again.

- Trying to make them talk,
it's unbelievable.

Well, anyway, don't you
worry about Watergate.

- What do you think the
political repercussions

will be if things
have been concealed?

- I think the political
repercussions, Bob,

are gonna be a lot worse if
we don't get all the facts

than if we do get
all the facts.

Now, there's where a difference
of opinion obviously exists

between myself, uh,
and other persons.

Uh, I think the nation,
the Republican Party,

the entire political
system is hurt far more

by facts being concealed,
by witnesses being shielded

than by, uh, fellows like
McCord and others coming forth

and laying it all on the line.

- The Senate Committee,
of which Weicker is a member,

met briefly today and decided
that public hearings

would begin in a few weeks
with Watergate defendant

James McCord, the
likely lead-off witness.

Ranking committee members
Sam Ervin and Howard Baker

still want White House aides
implicated by McCord

to follow him on
the witness stand despite

the President's objections.

- Mr. Nixon has said that he
won't let his White House

aides--present or former--
give formal testimony

to the Senate since it's his
view that this would breach

the doctrine of
executive privilege.

- Executive privilege
is a doctrine that several

Presidents have invoked
to prevent the disclosure

of sensitive or embarrassing
communications between

Presidents and their advisors.

But the Senate Watergate
Committee was not impressed.

- That is not
executive privilege.

It's executive poppycock.

- If they are--If they are
totally unwilling to come up

and say--and tell
what they know,

I think they should resign.

I think this to be a far more
preferable tactic than to go

down there and arrest them.

- The best thing I could do
from the Republican Party's

point of view, was to try
to protect the Republican Party

as being distinct and
separate from Richard Nixon.

- I want you to get
the goods on Weicker.

I think we've got to play
a damn tough game on him.

Have they done the checking
on his financial statements?

- Uh, as best we can, yeah.

- Is his income tax
being checked yet?

- Co-conspirator E.
Howard Hunt reappeared

before the Grand Jury.

When prosecutor Earl Silbert
said that Hunt intended

to take the Fifth Amendment
to all questions

about the Watergate,
Sirica granted Hunt immunity

from prosecution and ordered
him under threat of contempt

charges to testify.

- How do we handle the
presidential pardon thing?

Just deny it?

- By now, White House counsel
John Dean realized that Hunt

and McCord would
implicate him directly.

Dean also realized that he was
the only one who had dealt

extensively with the senior
officials behind the cover-up,

all of whom were
continuing to stonewall.

This made Dean
uniquely vulnerable,

but also uniquely
valuable as a witness.

The first one to implicate
senior White House officials--

not to mention Nixon himself--
would get the best deal.

So John Dean's next step
was painful, dangerous,

but obvious.

- I decide I have
to break rank.

I very quickly decided to
hire a criminal lawyer,

Charles Shaffer, who was a--an
experienced former prosecutor,

whip-smart, and we've
got a lot of leverage.

So it was a very
interesting chess match.

- Dean wanted to trade his
information for immunity

from prosecution.

But at first he didn't mention
Nixon because he feared that

Nixon would learn about it.
And he was right.

As soon as Dean went
to the prosecutors,

they told Henry Petersen--

head of the Justice
Department's

criminal division--who
then told Nixon.

- Anything further
you wanna report

before our meeting tomorrow?

- He's gonna plead
not guilty, huh?

- Why don't I
get him in now

and have a
talk with him?

Is that alright with you?

- I wanna be sure
you understand.

We're gonna get to
the bottom of this thing.

- What Nixon really wanted
was to stop Dean from talking

by preventing him
from getting immunity.

But as more and more
people became involved,

Nixon started to lose control.
And he also started to panic.

- The key is that Dean
should not get immunity.

- Well, I couldn't agree more.

- You have total control over
whether Dean gets immunity

through Petersen.

- I don't think so.

- Well, the quid pro quo
for immunity is to reach

one of the three of us.

Or all of us.

If he is not given immunity,

he will have to clam up
and defend himself.

- Well, what will
your action plan be?

- Either suspension...

or firing of Dean,

an explanation of your
reliance on the Dean report...

Its apparent unreliability.

- Dean, what the hell
does he have with regard

to the President?

He talked to me about
the need for $120,000,

clemencies, the rest...

I said, "What's it cost if
you do it for four years?"

He said, "A million."

I sort of laughed and said,

"Well, I guess you
could get that."

- Now, is he holding
that over your head?

- No, no, no, I--I don't think
Dean would get into any

conversation he had
with the President.

- He can't.
Executive privilege.

- Executive privilege, period.

But Dean could put
out something...

With somebody else.

Can Haldeman and Ehrlichman
survive it?

But what does Dean know?

What kind of blackmail
does he have?

- Haldeman and Ehrlichman were
now afraid that Nixon would

sacrifice them,
and so they started

to threaten each other.

- Petersen has said
to me that...

Haldeman and Ehrlichman
should take a leave.

- Petersen is up
to his ass with Dean

in violation of the law.

And you have knowledge
of that, too.

- If I take a leave,
I am gonna very vigorously

defend myself.

One of the first things
I am gonna do...

Is sink Petersen.
- No, the first thing is Dean.

And if you suspend him
or tell him to leave,

you've also gotta
take care of his files.

- I am gonna have
to say that...

Dean was the sole proprietor
of this project,

and he reported
to the President.

Now, I would have
to say that because--

- Dean didn't see me.

Till you said, "I think you
ought to talk to John Dean."

- But, see, uh, I get into a
very funny defensive position

vis-à-vis you
and vis-à-vis him.

- Good evening.

President Nixon in a
hastily arranged meeting

with reporters today conceded
indirectly that administration

aides might be involved
in the Watergate scandal.

- Nixon's real goal was
to warn John Dean

to keep quiet because he
wouldn't be getting immunity.

- I have expressed to
the appropriate authorities

my view that no individual
holding in the past

or at present a position
of major importance

in the administration
should be given

immunity from prosecution.

I condemn any attempts
to cover-up in this case,

no matter who is involved.

- As a backup plan,
in case Dean talked,

the White House also started
to set Dean up as a liar

who was making up stories
to get immunity

and escape punishment.

- Right away you could see
the beginnings and then

the development of an effort
to smear John Dean,

saying, "Well,
you know, this guy

"is a very
questionable character.

Look at his record."

- The President is personally
conducting the latest

investigation and he now
believes that his previous

Watergate investigation
conducted by John Dean

was full of holes.

- They go round
and round and round.

Where they keep coming out is,
"Let's make him a scapegoat."

They don't say it that bluntly,
but it's the essence

of these conversations.

I'm the low guy on the totem
pole in their estimation,

and they thought they could
dump things on me that--

whatever they wanted to dump.

- John Dean was the wrong guy
to play that game with,

because his loyalty was
not to Richard Nixon.

Uh, his loyalty
was to John Dean.

- I had no hesitation
going against them.

You know, they want war?
I'll give them war.

- This morning without
the President's approval,

Dean issued a statement
in which among other things

he declared, "Some may hope
or think that I will become

"a scapegoat in
the Watergate case.

Anyone who believes this,"
Dean added,

"Does not know me,
know the true facts,

nor understand our
system of justice."

- How concerned are
you about Watergate?

Your own situation
regarding Watergate?

- Well, I--I think I shouldn't
comment on that.

- Uh-huh.
- The whole case,

and that I wouldn't
want to do that.

- But were you at all
involved in any--

- No, I've said that
time and time again.

- I have a completely clear
conscience and--and, uh,

I think when the--when
the truth is known,

the facts come out,
we get away from all this

newspaper rumor and all
the television speculation

and all the commentators
and so and get right down

to the facts that I have
nothing to worry about.

- I do.

- People like whom?
Would you care to name any?

- People like
Mr. Dean precisely.

Any others over whom the cloud
of suspicion hangs so heavily.

- It applies to anyone
over whom the cloud

of suspicion hangs.

The President certainly knows
who they are by now, I'm sure.

- The White House is at a near
standstill today because

staff members are in their
offices silent, frightened,

waiting to see what
is going to happen next.

- By this point, Kissinger
had secretly taped

15,000 phone calls.
He later destroyed the tapes.

Others were secretly
taping each other,

planting rumors,
hiring criminal lawyers,

and looking for new jobs.

- I sent Nixon a memo saying
we're gonna have to address it.

These stories
are breaking in the press

and we're saying nothing.

Dean is saying this.

If Dean's not
telling the truth,

we should be standing by
Haldeman and Ehrlichman.

And if he is telling
the truth, um, you know,

something's gotta be done.

And, um, on the 30th, um,
Nixon dropped the hammer.

- Today, in one of the most
difficult decisions

of my Presidency,
I accepted the resignations

of two of my closest associates
in the White House.

Bob Haldeman.
John Ehrlichman.

Two of the finest public
servants it has been

my privilege to know.

I want to stress that in
accepting these resignations

I mean to leave no implication
whatever of personal wrongdoing

on their part.

I want the American people--
I want you--to know beyond

the shadow of a doubt that
during my term as President

justice will be pursued fairly,

fully, and impartially.

No matter who's involved.

- That same day Nixon
also fired John Dean,

Attorney General
Richard Kleindienst,

and FBI Director
L. Patrick Gray,

replacing all of them

with people untainted
by Watergate.

- At that moment,
I thought,

"He's personally
involved."

It's a last
desperate effort.

Hello?

Hope I didn't let you down.

- No, sir. You, uh,
got your points over

and you--you...

Well, now you gotta move on.

You're right where
you oughtta be.

- Well, it's a tough thing,
Bob, with--with you, John,

the rest...

Goddammit, I'm never gonna
discuss this son of a bitch

Watergate thing again.
Never, never, never, never.

Wouldn't you agree?

- Yes, sir.

Well, you've done it now.
You laid out your position.

You've taken your steps.
- Mm-hmm.

- You're a strong man.

And Goddammit, I love you.

I love John.
- Sure.

- All the rest, and
by God, keep faith.

Keep the faith.

Uh, we're gonna win
this son of a bitch.

- Absolutely.

- Well, God bless you, boy.

God bless you.

I love you as, you know...
- Okay.

- Like my brother.

- Well, we go on
and up from here.

- Keep the faith.

- Right.

- Shortly afterwards,
Nixon secretly rehired

Haldeman and Ehrlichman
as White House consultants

and appointed General
Alexander Haig--

previously
Kissinger's deputy--

as the new White House
Chief of Staff.

Haig was happy to join
the cover-up,

but life for Richard Nixon
would never be the same.

And his next crisis came
only ten days later.

Vernon Walters, the Deputy
Director of the CIA,

had written memos called
memcoms documenting

the White House's attempts
to use the CIA

to suppress the investigation.

Haig was able to
confiscate the memos,

but Nixon was
starting to crack.

- Some very fast actions
here this morning.

Walters came in.
He gave me eight memcoms

with a meeting here with
Haldeman and Ehrlichman

and subsequent meetings
with Gray and Dean.

When I read them, I thought
they were quite damaging to us.

These papers can't go anywhere.

We sent them back
to the agency,

told them not to
take any phone calls.

Return here immediately
with every copy.

- Oh, what do these
deal with, Al?

- With Dean's efforts
to get a CIA cover

for the Watergate defendants.

Haldeman and Ehrlichman's
discussion was having

Walters go to the
Director of the FBI

and telling him this
involved national security

and he should quiet down
the investigation.

They told him to
go to Gray, but...

He also quoted
a discussion with you.

Which isn't helpful
for our purposes.

I've got all the memcoms.

These cannot get out.
- Yeah.

- Under any circumstances.
- Right.

As I told you, I was a babe
in the woods when they told me

about this thing.

I frankly thought
it was a CIA thing.

- I know it.

- This was a Dean
plot, period.

I didn't do it.
- No, of course not.

- Suppose I had.
Called him in and said,

"Look, concoct a story
to the CIA

and get Walters..."

Well, Goddammit,
he can't say that. It's...

It's totally privileged.
- Totally privileged.

- And beyond that,
it's not true. It's...

It's terribly
detrimental and...

Let me see if we
can have Bob over,

have him slip into
the EOB office.

- You don't want people
to see him talking to you.

He could come in here easier.

- You're all right,
aren't you?

- Nixon had hired a new
lawyer, J. Fred Buzhardt,

to handle Watergate
at the same time

that he had hired Haig.

Nixon lied to both
of them repeatedly.

They pretended to believe him,

which made for some
bizarre conversations.

- How are you, boy?

Now, what have you got the fill
on this latest flack?

- Yeah, I just, uh,
just talked to Buzhardt.

- The story is...

You didn't know the situation.

And you at no time
ever suggested

to Walters that Walters
should put out a cover story

that it was CIA business.

- I wonder if we ought
to look at Walters' memcom.

Because it will be accurate.

- It will be accurate.
Well...

Al believes it
will be damaging.

I want to be sure
that John does not indicate

that the President directed him
to get Walters to get Gray

to turn this off.

- John would never
indicate that.

- First, it wasn't true.

- What the President
tells us to do is not--

it's not for
public consumption.

- Dean proves to be the guy
concocting the whole

Goddamn story.

It could be terribly
jeopardizing.

Whatever is in this
memcom, we were...

Well, the memcom's
not gonna get out.

It'll be burned first.
- Don't worry.

- But John must not indicate
that the President

said, "Set up a fake
cover with the CIA."

Bob, we never talked
about a fake cover.

You know that.
- Well, that's right.

- Well, I just wonder
whether there are copies

bouncing around.
- He said no.

We've got them.

They're under
executive privilege,

and they'll stay that way.

- I don't want Buzhardt to have
any implication that this

was basically a cover-up.

- I'm not worried
about Buzhardt.

- I want him to believe.
- He believes.

- I think the President
means really believe.

Not just believe him
because he wants to.

- No, I'm not covering
anything up, Al.

This shows you
how naive we were.

- Nixon and Haig temporarily
succeeded in suppressing

the CIA memos,
but federal officials

were now terrified of being
identified with the cover-up.

The result was an avalanche
of new revelations,

starting with the
White House's attacks

on Daniel Ellsberg, who
was on trial in Los Angeles

for leaking the
Pentagon Papers.

- The Watergate scandal took
a bizarre turn in being linked

to the Pentagon Papers case.

- The judge calls us
up to the bench.

He says, "We have here
a report that Ellsberg's

psychiatrist's office--
Lewis Fielding's office--

was broken into by White House
officials two years earlier.

For the first time
in two years,

the judge looks at me
in the eye and says,

"Um, we don't have
to put this out."

Meaning, that you had
a psychoanalyst.

We don't have
to tell the world.

And I said to him,
"Are you kidding?

Put it out."

He reads the statement
to the court,

and it's pandemonium.

Everybody jumps to go to
the few pay phones out there

because Watergate meets
the Pentagon Papers trial.

- That to me was
so astonishing.

Even with all we knew by then,

that these people
would do that.

- How can I be surprised,
just because it breaks the law?

Just because it's against all
constitutional rights of, uh,

defendants and
private citizens?

The message of Watergate--
as I read it--

is the same as the message
of the Pentagon Papers--

that from the eyes of people
who work for the President,

all law stops at
the White House fence.

And they are beyond all law.

- Every day after that,
I could relive forever

because there was a new
revelation every day.

- The man presiding over
the Ellsberg case,

Judge Matthew Byrne,
today confirmed that

Ehrlichman had offered him
the job of FBI Director

one month ago.

- Our judge, Matthew Byrne,
had been offered to be head

of the FBI.

But his chance of becoming
head of the FBI,

if I was acquitted
on all 12 counts,

was zero.

- So I think it's highly
improper that the, uh,

judge met and did
not inform us.

Uh, what's even worse, though,
is what was in the mind

of Mr. Ehrlichman.

- Judge Byrne did not become
Director of the FBI.

Instead, Nixon appointed
William Ruckelshaus,

who had been running the
Environmental Protection

Agency since Nixon
created it in 1970.

- I got the honest statement
from the President

that no matter who was involved
in this matter that there would

be no sparing of anybody
regardless of their position

here or anyplace else.

- I got a call from
Air Force One, uh,

saying the President
wanted to talk to me.

He asked me almost immediately
to become director of the FBI.

And I became Acting Director.

- Ruckelshaus had a crisis
on his very first day,

one caused by Mark Felt.

But Felt underestimated
Ruckelshaus,

which is why Woodward and
Bernstein lost Deep Throat.

- When I arrived
there Monday morning,

there was a letter on my desk
signed by all the special

agents in charge protesting
my appointment as director

of the FBI.

And I subsequently found out
it was prepared by Mark Felt,

was his letter.

He wanted to be the
Director of the FBI.

I was frustrating his desire.

Felt was a liar.
I knew that.

And a leaker.

I confronted him with the
fact that I had been told

he was the source
of those leaks.

He denied it.

He came in and--and,
uh, the next day and laid

his letter of
resignation on my desk.

- But Deep Throat
no longer mattered.

Pressure from the Senate
and public opinion

guaranteed the investigation
would now continue.

Nixon had appointed a highly
reputable official,

Elliot Richardson,
as his new Attorney General.

But even that wasn't
good enough anymore.

- Pressure was building today
on President Nixon to appoint

an independent investigator
into the Watergate case.

- The Senate refused
to confirm Richardson

as Attorney General unless
he agreed to hire

a special prosecutor,
and so he did.

- In nominating me as Attorney
General of the United States,

President Nixon charged me with
responsibility for uncovering

the whole truth about
the Watergate case

and related matters.

I will, if confirmed,
appoint a special prosecutor.

Although he will be in the
Department of Justice

and report to me
and only to me,

his ultimate accountability
is to the American people.

- Richardson
chose Archibald Cox

as special prosecutor.

Cox was a former senior
Justice Department official

and Harvard law professor.

Cox seemed mild-mannered,

but he would prove
to be very tough.

And from now on, FBI
investigators would report

to Cox and to FBI director
William Ruckelshaus,

not to the Justice Department
or the White House.

- Mr. Cox, do you feel that
you've been given enough

authority to be
totally independent

in pursuing this investigation?

- I certainly do.

- What if President Nixon
asked, uh, about the findings

in the process of
your investigation?

What would you tell him?

- Well, I would have to know
exactly what he asked,

but I--I can't
imagine his doing it.

If I thought it would
prejudice the investigation

in any conceivable way,
I would tell him no.

- Soon after Archie had been
named Special Prosecutor,

he was assembling a staff,
and I was asked

to come down and talk
about, uh, a position

at the office.

I was 30 years old
at the time,

and had been in the
U.S. Attorney's Office

for five years.

- I joined the
Department of Justice

in the Organized Crime Section
as a trial lawyer.

I was there for several years
when Watergate happened.

And I was offered a position as
one of the three trial lawyers

on the Watergate prosecution
team, on the main case.

I wasn't quite 30.

I was raised pretty much
to respect the President

and to revere the presidency,
but I had followed

"The Washington Post" coverage,
and as a trial lawyer,

it seemed to me the evidence
was pretty clear that

this was not an
ordinary break-in.

- This is a fascinating chapter
in American history.

If I can actually get to spend
a lot of time on this

and get paid for it,
that's sort of a no-brainer.

- Archibald Cox was a genius
at setting up the office

and at setting a moral tone

that no one else
could have set.

- We basically socialized
in very limited ways,

uh, not beyond our own group.
We didn't talk outside.

And when we mentioned
the President,

we didn't use his name.

We began referring to him
as Le Grand Fromage.

- One mistake and we could
all be--in effect--

politically decapitated.

And so the need to approach
this on a professional

non-partisan way
was essential.

- We just had to live life,
uh, as though we were

under 24/7 surveillance,
which we may well have been.

- I came home one night,
and the back door was ajar.

I called the police.

And they came, and they
actually thought that my phone

had been tapped.

I immediately called the FBI
who sent out a team,

and they actually concluded
that there might have been

a tap put on there that had
been removed at that burglary.

- I spent, uh--well, I was
there about three weeks

virtually every day
working with Cox,

making assignments of the,
uh, FBI, uh, officials

to the investigation itself
and then report back

to Cox on what we'd found.

So I developed a very close
relationship with him,

and saw what he was doing
and thought that he was

being as careful as
he possibly could be.

As the evidence
began to unfold,

as I was reading on a daily
basis interviews that were

being held with--
between the FBI agents

and White House officials, uh,

it kept looking
worse and worse

for the--at least for
the immediate staff

of the President.

- For the moment, the
results of the FBI's work

for the special prosecutor
remained secret.

But the Senate Watergate
hearings were another matter.

The Watergate Committee
took its job seriously.

And starting in May of 1973,
its hearings produced a series

of stunning shocks,
every one of them broadcast

live on national television.

- Good morning.

At this hour a select committee
of the United States Senate

is about to begin public
hearings on something

called Watergate.

We interrupt our regularly
scheduled program

to bring you a special report

on the Senate
Watergate hearings.

- Senate opens what is likely
to become the most

serious investigation
it has ever made,

investigation of the
American political system

and the presidency itself.

- Those hearings were
run on every network.

In the news room,
you would walk through

and there'd be little TV sets
running the hearings.

You'd go down, get in the cab,
and the cab driver

would have the hearings
on in the radio.

You go up to the hill in some
Senate office and the little

TV would have the hearings on.

- People were planning
their days around it.

Uh, they weren't going to work
to watch some of this stuff.

It just captured the country.

- The questions that have
been raised in the wake

of the June 17 break-in strike
at the very under guarding

of our democracy.

And if these allegations
prove to be true,

what they were seeking to steal
was not the jewels, money,

or the property
of American citizens,

but something much
more valuable:

their most precious heritage,

the right to vote
in the free election.

- So the story to come
has its significance...

Not in the acts of men
breaking and entering

and bugging the Watergate.

But in the acts of men

who almost--who
almost--stole America.

- Mr. Robert Odle is to be
the first, uh, witness.

He is the former office
manager of the Committee

for the Re-election
of the President.

- I saw Mr. Liddy,
as I testified at the trial.

- Did he call you or
did you call him?

- No, sir. I did--
nobody called anybody.

I saw him in the hall.
- I see.

- And, uh, he asked me where
the paper shredder was.

- What--What?

The paper shredder.

- All right.

- He later came out and said,
"How do you work it?"

And I said,
"You press the button."

And then later on I saw
him with a pile of papers,

perhaps a foot high.

- And what was he
doing with it?

- He was on his way
into the shredding room.

- The first bombshell came
on just the second day

of the hearings with the
testimony of Watergate burglar

James McCord, whose letter
to Judge Sirica

had first exposed
the cover-up.

- I would like to state that,
uh, my participation

in the Watergate operation
was a mistake

and a very grave mistake,
which I regret.

I'm ready to proceed
with the questions.

- All right, uh, now,
will you tell the committee,

Mr. McCord, why after
a lifetime of work

as a law enforcement officer
without, as you testified,

any blemish on your career,
did you agree with Mr. Liddy

to engage in his
program of burglaries

and illegal wiretapping?

- The Attorney General himself,
Mr. John Mitchell,

at his offices--had considered
and approved the operation...

According to Mr. Liddy.

Secondly, that the counsel
for the President,

Mr. John Dean,
had participated.

- After your arrest that
you have testified to,

did you receive any money?

- Yes, I did.

- Did you have any knowledge,
information, or belief

as to from where
this money came from?

- I was told that it came
from the Committee

to Re-elect the President
by Mrs. Hunt.

- Uh...

Did you receive any pressures,
suggestions from any person

concerning what you should do
about that trial with regard

to your plea, behavior,
or conduct?

- Yes, I did.

- Up to this point, McCord
had testified as expected.

But now, on just the second
day of the Watergate hearings,

McCord had a surprise--
a big surprise.

- Political pressure from the
White House was conveyed to me

in January 1973...

By John Caulfield
to remain silent...

Take executive clemency by
going off to prison quietly...

And I was told
that while there,

I would receive financial aid
and later rehabilitation

and a job.

I was further told in a January
meeting in 1973 with Caulfield

that the President
of the United States

was aware of our meeting...

That the results
of the meeting would be

conveyed to the President,
and that a future--

at a future meeting,
there would likely be

a personal message from
the President himself.

- You appeared, of course,

before the
Senate Select Committee

some weeks ago
for a whole afternoon.

And yet this very important
testimony here

which involves
executive clemency,

including the President
of the United States,

we just learned
about two days ago.

Why the lateness of this?

Why didn't you inform
us before this?

- I believe I stated
the reason:

because it
involved directly,

in my opinion, the President
of the United States.

- What made you think
Mr. Caulfield had a part

in offering executive
clemency to you?

- Because he told me...

That he was conveying a message
from the very top level

of the White House.

- You assumed when
he said "top level"

that meant the President
of the United States.

Is that what you thought?

- I assumed it meant one
of three people, sir.

- All right, name 'em.

- Mr. Haldeman, Mr. Ehrlichman,
or the President.

- This is, I believe,
the first time there has been

publicly sworn testimony
attributing knowledge

of this whole mess--or
at least of the cover-up--

to the President.

- The Caulfield
testimony will be

particularly interesting
this afternoon.

It will be the first, uh,
opportunity of course

to question anybody about
what McCord has said.

- Jack Caulfield had performed
some of the White House's

early dirty tricks.

Later, he helped John Dean
manage the cover-up

and the payoffs to
the Watergate burglars.

- You do know, do you not,
that the President is the only

person in this country who can
grant executive clemency

in a federal criminal matter?

- Yes, sir, I do.

- Did you understand when you
were speaking with Mr. Dean

that Mr. Dean wanted you
to transmit the message

to Mr. McCord that the offer
of executive clemency

was made with proper authority?

- Yes, sir.

But of course I have no and
did not at that time have any

direct knowledge that
the President, uh, had made

such an offer,
endorsed such an offer,

or in any way was involved
in that offer.

- Oh, I understand that.
- Right.

- And you were being asked
to do this because of your

friendly relationship
with Mr. McCord?

- That's correct.

- I've no further questions,
Mr. Chairman.

- Mr. Caulfield, explain
to me why it is...

why it is that you thought you
were doing a great service.

- I place a high
value upon loyalty.

Now, out of the blue...

I'm injected
into this scandal;

I'm being asked by one
of my former superiors...

To deliver a message that I
know to be executive clemency.

I tried to avoid it.

I was not successful.

I was brought back
in again to it,

now being asked to see
Mr. McCord directly.

I did go to see him.

Now I'm becoming further
implicated into this matter.

I had this conversation with
John Dean, who's the counsel

to the President.
I've been there three years.

I know what the relations
are and how they exist.

I make certain judgments based
upon those relationships.

In my mind, I felt
that the President

probably did know about it.

I had to think about that.

And based upon all of tho--
that background,

I believed I was doing
something for the President

of the United States,
and I did it, sir.

- It was--It was shattering
testimony today

from Caulfield.
He knew it was wrong.

And yet he went ahead
and did it.

And he assumed that, uh,
he was being given these

instructions on behalf
of the President.

- Do you think this
is an appropriate moment

for the President to, uh,
start, uh, giving some

statements to the committee?

- I wouldn't touch that one
with a ten-foot pole.

- As you know, the President,
uh, issued a lengthy statement

yesterday in which he said that
at no time did he authorize

any offer of executive
clemency to any

of the Watergate defendants,
nor did he know

of any such offer.

- Buzhardt came back
one time and said,

"Okay, now, here's
the rationale."

All these things were
done out of a concern

for national security.

- And I said, "Fred, I've gone
over all these incidents

"that happened,
you know, with regard

"to the money raising
and the rest of it.

"And I can't find a damn
one that was motivated

by national security."

And he looked at me and said,
"You got a better idea?"

- Well, I think the, uh,
President in his statement,

uh, brought in a new shelter
for secrecy and, uh,

trying to say that he was, uh,
doing a lot of these things

in the name of
internal security.

- And you're not satisfied
with the President's statement?

- I am not.

- Then came Jeb Magruder,
who had worked

for John Mitchell at CREEP.

- Did there come a time when
you had a third and final

meeting with Mr. Mitchell
on the Liddy plan on or about

March 30, 1972?
- Yes.

Mr. Mitchell was on vacation
at Key Biscayne.

Uh, I went down
to Key Biscayne.

Uh, Mr. LaRue was there.

Um, and we met, um, and went
over approximately 30 to some--

30-some decision papers mainly
relating to, uh, direct mail

and advertising, uh, the other
parts of the campaign.

The last topic we
discussed was the, um,

final, uh, proposal
of Mr. Liddy's

which was for
approximately $250,000.

We discussed it and,
uh, Mr. Mitchell agreed

to, um, approve the project.

- When did you first begin
planning the cover-up?

- Oh, I think there was no
question that the cover-up

began that Saturday when we
realized there was a break-in.

I don't think there was ever
any discussion that there

wouldn't be a cover-up.

- John Mitchell tried
denying everything.

But it didn't work very well.

- Could Mr. Magruder have
been in any way mistaken

as to what your position was?

- I would hope not.

- Then how do you
explain, Mr. Mitchell,

Mr. Magruder's sworn testimony
that you, however reluctantly,

approved the quarter
million dollar Liddy plan

in Key Biscayne?

- Mr. Dash, I can't explain
anybody's testimony up here,

except my own.

- Why didn't you throw
Mr. Liddy out of your office?

- Well, I think,
Mr. Dash, in hindsight,

I not only should have thrown
him out of the office,

I should have thrown
him out of the window.

- Well, since you
did neither...

Why--Why didn't you at least
recommend that Mr. Liddy

be fired from his responsible
position at the committee

since obviously he
was presenting to you

an irresponsible program?

- Well, I, in hindsight,
probably should have done

that, too.

- But the most important
witness was John Dean.

Over the objections of
the special prosecutor,

the Senate Watergate Committee
gave Dean full immunity

for everything he covered
in his testimony.

But Dean still
faced one problem.

Senator Howard Baker
was a White House mole,

and the White House
wanted Baker

to attack Dean's credibility.

- Howard Baker was working with
the White House at the outset,

reporting to the White House
on what was going on

internally in the committee.

- They knew that Baker
and Fred Thompson

were working with
the White House.

I fairly early gave
him that information.

- How did you know?

- Because I'd prepared the
talking paper for the President

to meet with Howard Baker.

- John Dean, the former
White House Counsel,

has reported today
ready to testify.

- And in just a moment,
John Dean will move

to center stage.

You see him here with his
wife, uh, at his right.

He was fired by the
President on April 30th.

Since then the country has
been battered by a series

of revelations--
some from Dean,

some from his enemies--with
the intent to either establish

or destroy his credibility.

- It is my honest belief...

That while the President
was involved,

that he did not realize
or appreciate at any time

the implications
of his involvement.

And I think that when
the facts come out,

I hope the President
is forgiven.