dog 52 1 3 10 U 12 13 M4 715 16 MW 1a | 9 20 at 51 then having the people looking for the six. We don't have them here. But just that statement, look at six people who have never been interviewed before whom we have identified with whom we have talked, who give witness to pre-assassina- tion activity, several witnesses about conspiracy against Dr. King's life. | Is ita problem for you to quantify that, saying five? Mr. Lehner. The problem is that some of these witnesses have spoken before to the FBI. The FBI has given in at least two instances, I think, a short investigation of it. Mr. Fauntroy. It is that category. Sartor, his family; there is Beard, McFarren, Zapp, Davis. We can't detail that in the report, but it seems to me that the impression ought to be given and it is a fact that we have identified and are pursuing potential witnesses on that. It may not be necessary to even rearrange this language except to just give a little topic to that. The Chairman. Will you yield for a moment? _ Mr. Fauntroy. Yes. _ . | |The Chairman. . think | you could rework this on page 16. Your second sentence really does not say very much. You say "The information furnished by some of these witnesses has the potential to provide independent corroboration for the infor- mation received by 4 the committee from others of these witnesses." DocId:32265557 Page 54
718 16 AT 18 19 52 To me, this is a rather awkward construction there. You might sort of reshape it in terms of hitting upon what he is talking about; information relating to pre-assassination conspiracy? Mr. Fauntroy. Once you have done that, then I think you can go into questions not answered by our review of available documents and investigation of state, local and federal officials. Under that, it seems to me you could list first the funds question and tie it to the FBI -- I think you have done that -- to the FBI task force report. The passport is | a question, the escape from the penitentiary, the removal of the security surveillance. The radio diversionary announce- ment and the one family member, the question raised by the esr. . These are questions left unanswered that we are pursuing, that they all happen to be related to the question of assis- tance; whether we have assistance both with the fund, pass- port, escape from the penitentiary, and the radio diversion and the one. family member question which Mr. Bell mentioned, and then finally, it seems to me that there ought to >» be a. "paragraph -- and you essentially do’ that -- whéch mentions ' the task force report of the Justice Department and makes reference to the fact that we have already mentionéd the | Justice concern about funds. I think they are concerned about one family Wiember. nn DoclTd: 322765557 Page 545
$3 In the previous report, you said three questions remain from the task force report. One was. the fund; they said it was a mystery, the fund was a mystery. They said one family member and didn't. explain had been ' involved. end LaFrance 7 McCarthy fols. a .Docld:32265557 Page 56
start 55 McCarthy/dog ,; .fols LaFranceS dog 6 continuing. 7 blind | 8 numbering 9 | 10 JW - 15 - 16 au ..18 19 have a topic sentence. that gives us those two areas for which ‘members can scan quickly to ‘fina the basis. for those state- | Feceived « on the: Ring investigation is made up of two parts. 54 Before Dr. King pointed to conspiracy, that could be among the unanswered questions. Mr. Chairman, in short, I am not recommending any speci- fic language at this point because I have not had a chance to do it carefully, but I do note it would be very helpful to ments . The minute they see new and unpursued leads, they will wake up. If you just start reading about Ray willing to testify, they are not going to wake up. ‘The Chairman. Page 15, the third paragraph down, third line we have a tyE0, "bullet. " "On page 17, second paragraph where he said "The committee intends to investigate the source of Ray! s funds in general and of those $20 bills in particular." I would end that sentence with "funds." Mrs. Burke, Mrs. Burke. Mr. Chairman, the first memo that we This is sometime back. One was a series of questions that were ‘raised. The second. memo, I. believe, set forth cities, “Of the things that we have received during this time, those two documents, to. me, raise more question and appear to go into areas that: had not been pursued by most of the writers|, more than anything else. Doclda: 32265557 Page 57
10 VW 12 £13 14 21 - | yy) és . 24 a ° 55 I just wonder if some of those things could not be em- bodied in this report? The kind of things that were raised in those memos, do you have those available now? Mr. Lehner. Let me see if I do. Mrs. Burke. They were in the notebook you put here at one of your early meetings, and it had a list of questions. The Chairman. That was the analysis the staff did of the Justice Department's task force. Mrs. Burke. No, I mean some time ago. Mr. Sprague. Mr. Chairman, it was one of the first committee sessions. \ The Chairman, I remember. Mr. Sprague. We just gave it to Mr. Edgar. Mrs. Burke, We turned them in at that time. Mr. Sprague. We still have them. Mrs. Burke. © I see here, this is it, that Mr. Edgar has. There are many things here I think would move in a direction of bringing before members of the House concrete issues. Tf have not seen this for a long time, so I am not sure of the | details, the kind of things I am thinking about, but one of those -- let me see if I.can find the kind of thing I was | referring to. It is this whole area of questions that have not been answered, Mr. Sprague. Mrs. Burke, I think when we prepared that, | we are not saying there were questions that had not been -Docld: 322765557 Page 48
dog 57 WY 12 23 26 2s eae 56 answered. I think we are suggesting they were questions that would have to be addressed, The answers may have in some instances existed and in others they may not have. We are not sure, | Mrs. Burke. I know what I was trying to think about. The circumstances immediately surrounding the shooting; the location of the room, the determination of what hotel Dr. King would register in, the change of hotel, the change of room; if, in fact, these things did take place. These are a number of questions, and I believe there were a series of questions on Ray's immediate issues, under- standing they have not been pursued. My reaction to this Section was that it was very, very general, and in trying, I could get something I could present to- members that would be persuasive of what I have been trying to do rather than using this approach as to review some of ‘these questions that had been raised in the past. So I would really hope we could bring some of these a little bit more into this section, a little bit more detail, even if it is only questions. I recognize we are at a dis- advantage more on King because you have a body of material, so many writings on the Kennedy assassination; ‘you do not have that in the case of the King assassination. You do not have all the documents that have been reviewed, and all that sort of thing. Docld: 322765557 Page 59
([410(83 Fallows 1463S RG: 233 TAB #: ENTRY: | | i/o | pp-SF-R COPIES/ PPS. /CLASS. BOX: ACCESS RESTRICTED The item identified below has been withdrawn from this file: File Designation Date - . . eee From To eee In the review of this file this item was removed because access to it is restricted. Restrictions on records in the National Archives are stated in general and specific récord group restriction statements which are available for examination. The item identified above has been withdrawn because it contains: JITILON TVNVUCHLIM [ ] Security- Classified Information [x ]. Otherwise Restricted Information ” - 6 = M LK : 08/22/93 Authority Date Withdrawn by NSCA John F, Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-526) NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION NA FORM. 14000 (4-66) Docld:39965557%,. Pade.60,
dog 60 - 15 16 W7 18 19 23 24 _ 35 proposed committee report, as amended, and I think under the . present. 59 investigations. This is really a reemphasis of what Mr. Fauntroy has said with regard to the King investigation. I'am wondering if, at the very beginning on the first page or two, you cannot use that in the introduction as well as in the conclusion. Other than that, I am ready to vote on it. Mr. Devine. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of the rules, it is necessary to have a roll call on that. The reason I make the motion at this time, I am due at I would my office at 4:00 o'clock on an important matter. like to vote for myself and my proxies, if we have a quorum Mr. Dodd. Under the Rules of the House, any time a committee reports ‘out legislation, you have to have a majority present when reporting Out from here, Mr. Devine. If we call the roll and leave it open for a few minutes, I think we can beat the problem. | Mr. Doda’, That is a long count. _ The Chairman. the clerk will call the roll. The Clerk. Mr. Stokes. “the chairman, "aye. The Clerk. Mr. Devine. mr. Devine. aye. The Clerk. Mr. Preyer.
60 response.) Clerk. Mr. Anderson, Devine. Aye, by proxy. Clerk. Mr. Fauntroy. response.) Clerk. Mr. McKinney. Devine. Aye, by proxy. Clerk. Mrs. Burke. - Burke. Aye. Clerk. Mr. Thone. response.) | Clerk. Mr. Dodd. Dodd. Aye. Clerk. Mr. Ford. response.) Clerk. Mr. Fithian. Fithian. Aye. Clerk.~ Mr. Edgar. Edgar. Aye. Chairman. We have to hold until the rest come. Dodd. Mr. Chairman, may we go off the record for a Chairman. Off the record. (Discussion off the record.) og 61 (No > the Mr. The (No The Mr. The Mrs 10 ‘The tT (No 12 The 1B Mr. 14 The 15 (No 16 The A? Mr. 18 The 19 Mr. 20 The an Mr. 7] minute? 23 The 24 25 The Docld: 3272765557 Page 62 Chairman. Back on the record.
61 Mr. Fithian. Mr. Chairman, I move a roll call on the report. The Chairman. The clerk will call the roll again of those members who did not answer to their names. The Clerk. Mr. Preyer. | Mr. Preyer. Aye. The Clerk. Mr’. Fauntroy. Mr. Fauntroy. aye. The Clerk. Mr. Thone. (No response.) The Clerk. Mr. Ford. (No response.) The Chairman. Would you announce the vote. The Clerk. The ‘vote is 10 aye, none nay, two by proxy. The Chairman. Accordingly, the report is adopted, as amended. | | Are you satisfied, Mrs. Burke? Mrs. Burke. Is there going to be someone available -- The Chairman. Mr. Sprague. | , Mr. Sprague. | To respond to Mrs. Burke, the answer is absolutely yes. The two people who are available are Mr. Tanenbaum and Mr. Lehner for any briefing that any member of this committee wants, | or member of Congress, at any time. Mrs. Burke. I- ‘can give you the names of two people, if the appointments can be set up... One is Mr. Danielson. The Docld:32265557 Pate 63
62. other person is Mr. Krebs, Mr. Lloyd, and it could be done if someone could take over a memo to Martha Keys of Kansas. She voted against the first time. She might change her vote. - Mr. Sprague. The only question I have with regard to this is the staff is under instructions from me, and I am under my own instructions of what I think are the instructions of the committee that we do not make and have avoided making any contact on our own with any members of Congress other than the members of this committee and what this committee sets up for us with any members of Congress. a vee If you are saying to us for us to make this contact and set it up, we will do so. What I would frankly prefer is if a member of this committee who wants to do so would just set up the appointments, we will comply with them. The Chairman, Mr. Fithian. Mr. Fithian. Mr. Chairman, this brings me to the point I wanted to make before we break up. a eee cy Starting in about 30 or-45-minu€és, I will be contacting each member to get from them some time, hopefully before 7:00 this evening, in any case by noon tomorrow, a final tally of how we stand on our entire whip count. | "Included in the tally I would hope would be the names of individual members whom we, as members of the committee, believe could or would want to be briefed. At that point then, to make more expeditious use of time, I would like to Docld: 32265557 Page 64
© 23 24 2s 63 arrange taking all the names from every member of the committee who needs briefing. I would like to arrange then a series of maybe three, four, five times. when we might get four or five of the members together so that one briefing would accomplish four or five members at a time until we exhaust the list of those who are persuadable but need some kind of briefing, and that -is one of the purposes of this whip count. | The second purpose is to go back to all members that any individual member here wants to go to with a computerized letter; included in the letter a paragraph or paragraphs that we are devising now and which I would like to have some review by the staff SO that we can go back to the individual members of any member of Congress that any member of this committee wants us to follow up on. We have the capacity to do that with a computerized letter. All it will take is some individual letterhead from your office and the individuals you want us to send the letter to. We will process them and have these ready for signatures of the members of this committee prior to any vote. We will also’ report to you,. Mr. Chairman, as to where we stand on this thing, specifically in ‘terms of count. I just spoke to Mr. Devine. His man has been sick, but he is hoping to have a Republican count ‘sometime tomorrow. fr will get with you no later than tomorrow afternoon. I would Docld:32265557 Page 65°
Tne tears 64 hope all the members of the committee here would make every effort to contact people on their list, because we have to have a hard count by tomorrow at 2:00 in order to put the | rest of the mechanism in motion that we have, Mr. Dodd. If the gentleman would yield, it has got to be before that. We have a whip meeting tomorrow morning at 9:15 in the morning. I would like at that meeting to be able to take our accumulated count, even if we do not have the sponsors, and turn a good portion of that responsibility over to the normal whip operations. That, I think, would increase a our possibility of success. 12 If the leadership of the Congress is pushing this as a 13 whip item, it can be counted in the remaining three or four .14.1) days. If you can give me that information before 9:15 tomorrow, at least what you have -- Ke. Fithian. I will give you what I have up to that :7 | point. I would raise no objection to the regular whip - 18 | system handling this. .I.think it is crucial, from my exper- 19 | tence today, those of us who are members of the committee, .to 20 talk personally to some of these people. 21 There were two members today that I talked with, and all. we really needed was about five or sixminutes of discussion .23 | in which I could simply.tell them, nothing that is really 24 | classified, but just tell them it was my judgment, based on 25 | these things, that this thing ought to go forward, and both Docld: 322765557 Page 66
65 of them made a commitment today to vote for it. We have a very long way to go on this matter. The Chairman. Let me ask for a point of clarification, Mrs. Burke. The briefing that you want is not the executive briefing? “Mrs. Burke. It is going to take almost that with some of them. But let me turn ‘the list of those over to Floyd of those who need briefings. The Chairman. It needs to go all the way. Mr. Sprague. Mr. Chairman, we have not the slightest objection, as long as it is set up with members of the Congress by members of the committee for an executive brief- ing. | 715 The Chairman; But I agree with the procedure of the 16 | staff not contacting any member unless so directed. 1 talked iW to Al yesterday and instructed him to call a couple members. 18] Z assume that was done.’ I know it was done, in one case. 19 Mrs. Burke. ‘These are people who asked for briefings. 20 ‘Bat it could. be done by this method . ‘We will try this first. a) Mr. Sprague. We would be happy to have the executive type, full, complete, and let them know what it is. , 23 Mrs. Burke. ‘In the case of one, he is a whip, and it 24 | might not hurt -- The Chairman. You ought to get to him tonight. ‘The whip Docld: 32265557
10 Ju 12 13 715 16 A7 18 19 23 ~, 24 25 Docld:322765557 P&ge 623 ' tomorrow by noontime, so that we can get it over to the / typewritten copy of the report to the printing office by | 6: 00. p.m. | ‘tomorrow, we can meet that printing deadline of , Monday morning. | r was just allowing a little time ‘tomorrow 66 is leaving us tomorrow. A couple matters. With the committee having voted out this report as amended, when can we anticipate that this report will be ready to file with the House? Mr. Sprague. Mr. Chairman, we should have the type-. written draft of this. with the amendments suggested here to yo printer tomorrow. They told us the printed copies of that would be ready Monday morning. | The Chairman. Mr. Preyer. Mr. Preyer. Does that have to be ready by noon? I know Mr. Anderson made some comments to Mr. Fithian about the budget provision. I was not sure whether tomorrow is clear or what those changes are going to be or whether it is going to involve -- that will take some writing and refiguring of that. : | | I am wondering if we can get that done by noon tomorrow. Mr. Sprague. Mr. Preyer, as long as we can have the in case after it is examined by the Chairman, there is a desire to have some more } changes. We do. have until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. . co . ' The Chairman. With that, you also have a matter of the
12 13 14 - 15 16 AW 18 19 20 a _ 23 24 67 members correcting the transcripts and ordering them to be printed. Have you had someone following through with that? Mr. Sprague. Mr. Chairman, if the members have no amendments or changes to make, we can get them there by 6:00 | Poem. today. They can be printed by Friday morning. | ‘In the event the. members are not in a position to say that yet, as tong as we know by 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, that can be completed by Monday morning as well. The Chairman. I would suggest you have someone follow through with each member to be sure that is compiled right. There were a couple of other matters that I wanted to get into tonight. Don Edwards' letter; did we have the staff prepare a response to that? Mr. Wolf. ves; we have, Mr. Chairman. His letter just wants to make it. ‘Clear that those rules that apply to the committee staff will also apply to the individual staff person ‘on our stafe, designated to be liaison. For example, restrictions on revealing the names of. subpoenaed people, et cetera. . I think just to make that “clear, it would’ require an amendment to ourrules as to what | we are constituting. “The Chairman. Would you Prepare a letter to him in which you advise him that. we ‘appreciate that suggestion and that the matter will be corrected by way of amendment after we are reconstituted, Docld:32265557 Page 69
68 Mr. Wolf. One point on the report to be filed. on my meeting with Mr, Collins, he requested that the Rules __ Committee be given, even if it is only a typed version, of ‘the report Friday morning. If the Chair would like me to provide a typed xerox version which will be, done by that time. The printed copies wilt not be back until Monday morning. ‘The Chairman. “What do you need from us? “Mr. Wolf. - Just your authorization to provide him the “xeroxes of the typed copy - “The Chairman. That is on the budget? 12 Mr. Wolf. No, of the report, 13 ‘the Chiarman. Of the report? 14 Mr. Wolf. Yes. | 15. The Chairman. I see, 16 “ALL right, you have that. ~~~ va AV One other thing. On Bruton and Baish, when we last.:met, we tt yg “you were 1 to “Check out the usual ramifications of. our accept- |. 19, ing the resignation of Mr. Bruton as opposed to our firing | : 20 him, | a | ma Mr. Wolf. ‘That is corréct. iy “mhe c Chairman. And: how it would affect the payroll statu 23 Can. you give us a report on that? x Mr. Wolf. ‘Surely. It is my recommendation that his: 95 | resignation as opposed to firing,. the committee take the Docld: 32265557 Page 70
ase on ©, © latter action. It is very questionable whether or not he was fired at that committee meeting held in your office, I believe, since the procedures of the committee itself were no followed at that time. 7 There appears to be no difference, We have checked with House Administration, for their purposes, for his back pay Claims for any other legal significance to accepting a resig- nation as opposed to > firing. The only possible distinction might. be for an unemploy- ment claim that he would file with the District of Columbia. If his resignation were for just cause, he would still be eligible for unemployment. The Chairman. can we have then -- Mr. Wolf. Because of Mr. Fithian’ S amendment requiring majority of the committee to be present to: terminate staff member, I ‘do not believe a majority is presént, so I do not ' think action can be taken at the current time either on Mr, Bruton or Mrs. Baish, who also should be re-fired, if you will, The Chairman. The only thing is, rT think you should be in communication. with him so he. does not feel we are ignoring his correspondence and advise him that the committee has the matter under consideration and that he should be getting a. reply in just a few days. Explain it to him. Mr. Sprague. Mr. Chairman, I do not agree with Mr. Wolf Docld: 32265557 Page 71 .
15 16 7 18 19 20 a Docld: 32265557 | 71 attention at that informal meeting. We would not be able to say to him that it was done ina duly and legally consti- tuted meeting of this committee. Mr. Fithian. Mr. Chairman, since it was my amendment that put the committee in this position, I would like to state for the record that there was never any intention in that amendment which would preclude anyone from resigning from the staff. - I was talking abour forceable separation from the staff, and that is what the amendment directs itself to. Therefore, there is no. problem with the committee, as far as I can see; n violation of our rules in any way to accept his resignation. rf it is a forced termination, then it would be another matter. | Mr. Sprague. Mr. Chairman, I quite agree ‘with Mr. Fithian. “The only issue is, can the committee accept his resignation as of that same day? The answer is yes. I do / not think we ought to respond to his letter with any opinion -- concerning the firing. He has requested we accept his resignation. ‘I think we merely ought to ‘respond and say we have decided to do so and that our record will reflect that. The: Chairman. There was another item, as I recall, to the $40 office telephone bill which I had the impression, in all probability, they were - legitimate calls. But he was asked ' to do something by way of substantiating, or something of this