Opinion ID: 347528
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Cover-up Unravels

Text: 25 The greatest apparent threat to the conspirators' plans lay in the impending hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Senator Ervin. Dean, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman met at Rancho LaCosta in California in mid-February to plot strategy. They worried most about what the break-in defendants might say before the Committee if granted immunity. Knowing that more demands for money had been made, they decided it was essential that Mitchell meet what they all agreed was his responsibility the providing of funds. A presidential assistant was sent to New York to tell Mitchell the results of the meeting and, once again, to remind him of his responsibility. Tr. 3032-3034. 26 Hunt demanded another $122,000 on March 16, in order to settle his financial affairs before sentencing. Dean relayed this word to Ehrlichman and, at his suggestion, on to Mitchell. Tr. 3086-3090. But Dean decided he had to speak with the President directly about the dangers inherent in guaranteeing the continued flow of money. On March 21, 1973 Dean thus told Nixon that there was a cancer growing on the presidency in the form of the endless hush money demands. He recounted all that he knew about the origin of the break-in and the subsequent payment of hush money. He guessed that future demands would come to another million dollars. Nixon replied that you could get a million dollars. And you could get it in cash. I, I know where it could be gotten. 21 Nixon returned to the Hunt demand several times during the ensuing conversation, and he continued to mention it after Haldeman joined the discussion. Each time he stressed, in the presence of Haldeman and Dean, that Hunt's immediate demands should be handled in order to buy time. Neither Dean nor Haldeman demurred. Tr. 3094-3102, Govt. Ex. 12, Tape Tr. 103, 131, 135-137, 155, 159, 164-167, 189, 196, 205-206. 27 Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean met later that day to discuss possible strategies. They agreed that Mitchell should step forward and take the full blame, thinking the prosecutors and the Senate Committee would thereby be pacified and would press no further. Tr. 3140-3141. 28 Mitchell, meanwhile, was meeting his responsibility. Informed of the Hunt demand by LaRue, he directed LaRue to deliver $75,000 to Hunt's attorney that night. After this delivery Hunt, according to his own testimony at trial, repeatedly perjured himself before the grand jury. Tr. 4276-4290, 6726-6732. 29 The next day, March 22, Mitchell came to Washington and told the others that the Hunt problem was under control. Tr. 3208-3213, 8589-8590, 10280. Nixon, Dean, Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman then took up a discussion that had begun the day before: the best strategy for dealing with the upcoming Senate hearings. Despite the previous day's plans, no one had the fortitude to suggest directly to Mitchell that he take the full blame and go to jail to save the Nixon presidency. Lacking that alternative, they all focused on a plan Nixon had discussed with Dean on March 17 indeed, it had been mentioned as an option for several months. Dean would make a report to the President. It would be quite general and would indicate that no one from the White House was involved. They might deliver it to the Senate Committee, but in any event it would serve as a safeguard for Nixon. Ehrlichman explained that if some corner of this thing comes unstuck, the President could say he relied on the report. 22 Tr. 3213-3221, Govt. Ex. 16, Tape Tr. 273-287. 30 The Dean report was never written, for on March 23 the conspiracy was dealt a heavy blow. McCord, facing sentencing, had written a letter to Judge Sirica breaking the word that the burglar's silence was the result of pressure, that others were involved, and that perjury had been committed. The letter was released to the public at the sentencing hearing that day. Tr. 3253-3254, 3259-3262. Shortly thereafter Magruder, Dean, and LaRue began to talk to the prosecutors. Tr. 3277-3280, 4639-4643, 6732-6733. 31 Throughout the month of April 1973 Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Nixon met frequently at the White House trying to decide how to respond to the new developments. 23 They were faced with two primary problems: how to cope with Dean, who plainly knew a great deal, and how to explain the hush money payments which, they recognized, were now bound to be revealed to the prosecutors and the public. As to the first, after much discussion Nixon asked Ehrlichman to try to bring Dean back on board through veiled assurances of clemency. Govt. Ex. 18, 22, Tape Tr. 389-393, 403-407, 469-476. Dean refused to speak with Ehrlichman, however, and his refusal rekindled the remaining conspirators' interest in a scenario laying the blame for all illegality on Dean. Tr. 3306-3307, Govt. Ex. 24, Tape Tr. 500-504. Haldeman, after spending a few hours reviewing the possibilities, reported that this scenario works out pretty well. 24 It would key on Dean's failure to present the President with the Dean report in late March. Only then, the scenario went, were the President's suspicions fully aroused, and only then did he discover the scope of Dean's involvement. Govt. Ex. 26, Tape Tr. 557-567. 32 This scenario also dealt tentatively with the second problem explaining the hush money. They would state that the money was delivered for humanitarian purposes 25 legal fees and family support and that their sole motivation was to discourage the defendants from talking to the press; they did not seek to keep them from being candid with the prosecutors. But both Haldeman and Ehrlichman wanted to consult their lawyers before relying too heavily on that version of the story. Govt. Ex. 27, 28, Tape Tr. 570, 573-574. 33 When Haldeman was called before the Senate Select Committee in late July and early August 1973, he carried out the scenario laying all blame on Dean. He told the Committee that no one at the White House, except Dean, knew that the payments to the burglars were for hush money before March of 1973. He said Nixon discussed with Dean on March 21 the possible payment of a million dollars to the burglars, but he insisted that Nixon had followed that up by saying it would be wrong. 26 And he claimed that there had been no discussion of Magruder's perjury at the March 21 meeting. Tr. 7483-7489, 7518-7519, Govt. Ex. 100. These statements formed the basis for Counts 7, 8, and 9 of the indictment charging Haldeman with perjury. 18 U.S.C. § 1621 (1970). He was convicted on all three counts. 34 In early May Ehrlichman told the grand jury that he had no recollection of Dean's having told him of Liddy's involvement in the break-in during the first weeks after the burglary. He also testified that he had spoken generally with Kalmbach about Kalmbach's fund-raising efforts, but he denied all recollection of any mention of the purposes the money was to serve, and he claimed no memory of telling Kalmbach to keep the efforts secret. Tr. 7180-7192. For this testimony he was charged in Counts 11 and 12 with making false material declarations, 18 U.S.C. § 1623 (1970), and the jury found him guilty of both offenses. 35 Mitchell too, although he had not been privy to most of the April meetings where scenarios were devised, advanced the cover-up through his testimony before the grand jury and the Senate Committee in the spring and summer of 1973. On April 20 he denied before the grand jury any recollection of having been told of Liddy's confession to LaRue and Mardian. Tr. 7158, 7166-7167. Before the Senate Committee in July he claimed not to have heard of Gemstone as of June 19, 1972, and he denied that there was any mention of destroying documents at the meeting he held that evening with Magruder, Mardian, Dean, and LaRue. Tr. 7177-7180. These statements founded Counts 5 and 6 of the indictment, charging false declarations, 18 U.S.C. § 1623 (1970), and perjury, id. § 1621, respectively. Mitchell was convicted under each.