' 11 The Chairman. . Thank you. . w wu _ Let me iiention just one other thing before we recognize Mr. podd. I didn't want to make these comments in front of the i staff; that is, the committee staff, when you gentlemn were discussing the matter of going over to the committee and reading these documents and evidencing some interest in the work the staff has done. Tt. is important that you do have this kind of concern. | . : | : Members of the staff have been over to. discuss this type of matter with me. Tom Lambeth is here and I am sure, Tom, if you wanted to, would give you information on this situation. - | There is a tremendous morale. problem with our problem. Much of it has to do with the facts and circumstances surrounding other things that have happened with this staff. But over and above it, they have not seen, members of this committee, zo: ert - a 17 | evidence of very much interest in them or the work that they bi 1g | have been doing. | | | | & z 19 They have done an enormous amount of work that this commit+ € 20 tee is not even: aware of. I have. discussed the matter with el both subcommittee chairmen and in order to try and correct “SS 99 the situation, I have asked both of them to set up some meeting rd 4 where other persons. other than the chief counsel would be able to brief you as to the specific areas in which they have done an enormous amount of work and to also try to get some of you REPORTERS BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C. 29024 (202) S5-2345 , " o Ae = a so oo “OO in re Serene ne IRIS Se es ee | - ALDERSGN REPORTING COMPANY. INC. WW 54756 Docld: 32266577 Page 4
12 | to give those individuals. some additional direction in those - e a 2 || areas where they have done this enormous amount of work. And 3 what they have also asked -is that you would perhaps work with 4 | them. and you select ‘an area of investigation of which you are © ° particularly interested and work with that individual or indi- >| 6 viduals and give then the kind of direction that they need. 7 | I think also this will tend. to offset some of the adverse 8 press that we have been getting where individuals, such as the 9 || author that Mr. Fauntroy made. reference. to, can tell New York 10 | Times and the media that they are directing our investigation. | This would tend to help offset.this in the media's mind and the | | | | | 12 | staff would be able to say that you are directing the investiga | . | | | | | 300 7TH STREET, S.W. REPORTERS BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C. 29024 (202) 554-2345 13 | tion as you should. ® 14 Bot Tannenbaum, for instance, is quite exercised over the | 1g || fact that thick booklet which he. and his staff people compiled 16 | which is dealing with the Kennedy investigation and the Warren 17 | Commission and all the witnesses that this committee should be 18 | interviewing, things of that. nature, that no one on the commit~ 19 || tee had been over it at the time he talked to me. — 20 | I know now Bob Edgar has. been over several occasions and 1 [sat there and read those various documents. So this is impor- Ba? m2 | tan. | ® 13 | Mr. Sawyer. Mr. Chairman, do the vote buzzers ring down 24 je that annex? | a5 1 The Chairman. Do they, Tom?‘ i | ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY. INC. HW 54756 DocId:32266577 Page 5
13 Mr. Edgar. Mr. Chairman, we looked into that. ‘They do 1. _ not ring in the rooms’ that I know of. I requested when I was 3 down. there, both times were very early in the morning and were @ . ‘ : not during the perioa of the bells themselves, but there are & ; a number of secretaries and staff people who could keep you 6 tan immediate touch with them. I think there would be time to 5 7 ‘move from that office to the House £loor without any difficulty : | within the 15 minutes. | S 7 | The Chairman. We could do like you do and go down very z | early in the morning. _ | . | : u | Mr. Edgar.. Eight o'clock, 8:30 is a good time. Between = 12 | 8:00 and 10:00. | | Ps : 3 : The Chairman. Mr. Lambeth. . : “| ‘Mr. Lambeth. ‘I would suggest that som ne that comes : 13 | ever probably if they would ask rutsaeen $F in is the = | secrevary of the Director's Office. She culd call one of the : 17. | members’ office and ‘arrange for them to call immediately if ~ 4 - ia there were any kind of vote. Having had the experience of = | walking back and forth for four weeks, I can tell you, you woul S 20 || want to start out for the floor immediately after a buzzer but SS nts believe you could make “it to the floor in time for a vote. be The Chairman. I further want to take this opportunity to e 23 say to the committee that Tom Lambeth who was borrowed from 26 | Richard Preyeer's office for 10 days, and as he has now been eo jon the job four weeks, has just done a. marvelous job, just a f it i ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. . HW 54756 Docld:322766577 Page 6
Real 300 7TH STREET, S.W. REPORTERS BUILDING, WASHTHGTON, D.C, 29024 (202) S$5"-2345 HW 54756 20 21 2 ete Aca eee er ee eee ne cece ae eee re sa re ne A He On Ne ae = ete rae a Ha on ee a | A nr 24 25 14 yeoman's job of keeping - Richie' 's office going, at the same time stabilizing and working with the: people on ‘your committee staff and he is ‘really to be commended. I say it also in sincerity he has helped stabilize that situation. He has helped ‘the morale over there. tremendously. ‘Tom, I want you to know the committee is deeply indebted to you for what you have done and we hope soon to relieve the situation and not keep you at it. Mr. Lambeth. Amen. of that morale situation? Mr. Lambeth. Mr. Chairman, I just say you are obviously is a considerable morale problem there, most. of which I think will be relieved almost immediately with the appointment of a permanent chief counsel. Some.of the problems that are there are those that would be in that kind of organization under the by the uncertainty of leadership. But I think some of this attitude about the committee is nee a ee obviously unreasonable and is a product, I think, of people in their uncertainty saying the committee is not paying atten- tionus, something like that, which obviously, if nothing else, indicates they are aware of how busy the committee is. That SSS eee SL, is the sort of thing I think will be resolved by the appointmen 1 of permanent chief counsel and ‘perhaps a little of this effort H . if ALDERSON REPORTING. COMPANY, INC. Docld: 32266577 Page 7? The Chairman. Was there anything you care to. say in terms very sensitive to what you described as to what is there. ther best of circumstances and they are simply exaggerated, I think, ee ee em ee, a
of going down, there. © — - : 4 | | an @ 2. I really ought to take the opportunity to: say to you, my 3. | prief association with these people has made me have great conf - : dence in almost all of them. They are very able people. They a $j are people that are very dedicated to the job that they have ‘ a. «6 undertaken. I think with a permanent chief counsel they: will s 7 | perform very well. I thank you for your kind words.. zs . . S a The Chairman. Thank you very. much ,. Tom. ) ‘| Now we will move then to that next subject, which is the a : . z 10 | search for a new chief counsel. Chris Dodd, as you know, was & : ‘ = n| appointed as chiarman of a task force to conduct this. search. = | He and this task force has done a tremendous job. They have’ ® g 13 | spent a great deal of time and. effort in trying to: search 2 14 through the various resumes that have come to our attention ca E is | and to contact various individuals who have been recommended a i | E 18 | to us for consideration. And I would like at this time to “ 17 | recognize Mr. Doff for that report. GS | 7 srs folsé 18 | | E "1 7“ © = 20 a1} | %S 7 | ane | . 23 | | | | 25 i | ii i ' ! i ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY. INC. HW 54756 DocId:32266577 Page &
ro) £rs fols ef 16 q Mr. Dodd. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 2 I will try and be brief. Actually, most of the people _who served on the task force are here, but for purposes of the) record and for Charlie Thone who was not on there and Sam who t- = ; ag Re 30M 7TH STREET, S.W. REPORTERS GUELDING, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20024 (202) 554-2345 a was on but because of his slight illness he had was unable to participate--I know he full intended to -- first of all, Mr. Chairman, I want to take this opportunity to thank the members of the task force who showed up hour after hour, day after day, during’ a process where we gometimes began. to wonder if we were ever going to be able to conclude it. | It was really quite impressive to have a group of us there during every interview. There was never a situation where I | was there alone or any one single member of Congress was alone, interviewing a potential chief counsel. The people partici- pated just as fully as possible. For the purposes of the record, of course, that task force did include Mrs. Burke, Floyd Fithian, Bob Edgar, Hal. a a eS rrr _ Sawyer, Stew McKinney, Sam Devine and myself. I think I | included everyone in that task force. Very. briefly, Mr. Chairman, the search committee began TT : 0 Sis es msec eee by reviewing some 111 people, names which had come to us as a & result of your inquiries to various national organizations, tation for assisting other congressional committees in the | { , | contacts with specific people in the country who had a repu- | | | | past in their search for staff, particularly in the area of ALDERS HW 54756 DocId:32266577 Page 9 ON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
HW 54756 e* 2 3 4 . aa) a ! a «6S a, = 7 se 8 e MN Ps} 9 a = 10 2 g zu a, < = 12 o = 13 = (SB i KR = & 15 2 Gs 2 1 “17 5 & 18 ad wn - 19 « e a 2 21 zo 22 23 24 ec oe pec ee eee ec so ree ces ee eT fad ey ree a ee ae ete 8 ee a Se ce ae I Oe rn re 9 cme mer ee ea a a a Se chief counsel, chief administrators. _ Before I move on any further, I. would be negligent at the very least if I dia not also point out we had staff mem~ bers from each one of the members of the task force who worked very, very hard, in fact, an awful lot of work preparing the documentation, seeking out the materials from the Library of Congress, making contact and phene: calls: with all the. people across the country. Our guess is that this total process took somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 manhours over the period of two and a half to three weeks, which is really quite extensive. At any rate, we had a first’ go-round where we contacted o looked at some 64 individuals on paper. From that list of 64 we narrowed down as a group 17 candidates that we thought should be interviewed personally, if they would be so willing. Of that list of 17 that we contacted, six expressed a sincere interest in serving as chief counsel and staff director of ent committee. | | We interviewed all six of them and felt we should go further. From that group we were not satisfied entirely with the individuals that we had had a chance to talk ‘to, SO we . then went back through the same process again, looking at a list of 47 to 50 people, again by contacting various people around the country, various organizations and so forth. 5 From that group of 50 we narrowed it: aown.te another grou ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. DoclId: 39966577 Page 10
‘4 e ° o | z  § ~ L a i $ 7 € f ~ | 3 9 | “40 | ~ 10 S | = a a Fe < co | g e:” = & 14 | gn 4 a & 18: S H 3: &J Co t6 | “ 17 | cS 8 & n = 19 ~~ LJ ¢ | : 21 | Or | Pee 22 | 23! | 24 | | HW 54756 Ww in Docld: 32266577 Page i1 ‘political sensitivity, writing ability and, of course, any ere hr nrrhrata a  S T a a  a SS a SS 18 of some 13 or 14 that we thought would be worth looking at. Prom that group some seven. people agreed and indicated a strong interest in serving on the committee. _ Asa result of those interviews and the: interview of the first group, we came up with two teams, so to speak, and the | reason for it was that ‘we found so many qualified people, as a result of going back over our own work. We found it almost impossible to come up with any one person that all of us completely agreed on. As was agreed previously, prior to the time of starting this process, our intention as a task force was to try and narrow down the group and submit those names we thought would be eminently qualified to you, Mr. Chairman, for the final decision. “We did not feel we should or could make that final ‘determination. In reviewing these people, I must also point out. that we were looking for certain characteristics and qualities in each one of these people. Although these do not necessarily ‘appear in any order of preference, we did consider their | professional standing, their administrative experience, their investigative experience, their prosecutorial experience, integrity, personality, ability to get along with other people gg ae a ee possible information in their own background, professional or. otherwise, which could reflect poorly on this committee's ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
HW 54756 REPORTERS BUTLDING, WASHINGTON, D.C. 29024 (202) 55"-2345 390 7TH STREET, S.U. DoclId: efforts during the next year. and a half, . | From those lists and groups: of people. we talked to, as TI “previously mentioned, we came back with two teams. The two teams we came up with, the first team consisted | of Professor Robert Blakey who was a professor at Cornell ' University, former chief counsel to ) the McClellan Senate Committee, had been there for some four or five years. Prior to that time he had experience in the Justice Department, has written extensively and was a rather impressive individual. Mr. Zagel, ‘Chicago prosecutor, who is presently the Executive Director of the Illinois Crime Commission -~ that may not be the exact title but it is the crine commission. The Chairman. Law Enforcement Commission. | Mr. Dodd. And Attorney General Hightand was the Attorney General of New Jersey, who has been, by the way, the attorney general under four administrations. in that State and has exten sive background and experience as well. Mr. Highland removed himself voluntarily from that first team. He contacted the | ‘Chairman. For reasons of his own, he regretfully declined to be considered in that final group. | The second group consisted of Mr. Jaffe, Professor of Israel from the University of Michigan; and Mr. Schaeffer, former deal of the Notre Dame Latw:School:. Mri. ‘daffe is a U.S. Attorney from New York. At that time,Mr. Chairman, we submitted | te"you those names ro eerie |; ho pores - . . ALDERSON REPORTING COMP : . \ 19966577 Page 12 G MPANY, INC.