Original subtitles

- 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.