Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973
[00.17.31-Sam DASH interrogates MITCHELL about the Watergate Breakin] Mr. DASH. You do not recall then, any statement by Mr. Liddy to you indicating that the O'Brien microphone was not working and he would -have to fix it? Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Dash, the only statement that, I have had with Mr. Liddy and the only conversation from the 4th of February until this very day was one single meeting that shows in my log on June 15, 1972, where Mr. Liddy was brought into my office by Mr. Van Shumway the Public Information Officer, to discuss with me a letter that Mr. Liddy had written on Mr. Stans' request to the Washington Post having to do with some charges that had been made by the General Accounting Office dealing with the Corrupt Practices Act and Mr. Shumway did not want that letter to go to the Post without my approval. I looked at the letter and gave. it the approval -and that was the end of it. That was the only conversation I had with Mr. Liddy so it could not possibly be as you were inferring. [00.18.39] Mr. DASH. Without seeking at all to challenge, Mr. Mitchell, your testimony, would it not be true since You referred to the log or what may or may not appear in -the log if a. name does appear in the log it is perhaps likely that such a person did meet with you during that time but does it actually mean if a name does not appear that such a person never entered your office? Mr. MITCHELL. I believe that to be absolutely true, Mr. Dash. If you go back and look at that log you will find that, the aide that I had sitting in the next office to me when he came into see me that was logged. When my daughter called on the telephone or when my wife called on the telephone-by the way, my wife called a lot more often than my daughter [laughter] but regardless of who it was that called and who came into the office that was logged in that particular circumstance. [01.19.36-DASH asks whether it was MITCHELL who ordered LIDDY to execute a second break-in at WATERGATE] Mr. DASH. Well, even though you may not have followed all the testimony, Mr. Mitchell, are you -aware that some time earlier at the beginning of these hearings that, Mr. McCord in his early testimony before, this committee gave some corroborating evidence, although hearsay -as it was, to the effect that Liddy told him that the reason they had to go into the DNC on June 17 was because you, Mr. Mitchell, were unhappy about the false or the ineffective working operation Of the O'Brien bug. Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Dash, that fits right in with Mr. McCord's testimony as the only reason he did anything of this was because he thought he had the approval of the Attorney General of the United States and the counselor to the President that -at just fits right in with it. But the fact of the matter is that I never saw or talked to Mr. Liddy from the 4th of February until the 15th of June. [00.20.36] Mr. DASH. All right, now. Mitchell, where and when did you first learn of the break-in of the Democratic National headquarters that took place on June 17, 1972? Mr. MITCHELL. Well, I was in California for the weekend on an extensive round of activities and. to the best of my recollection, Mr. Dash. it was on Saturday morning. I am not sure who the individual was who told me, We were, I was moving with Governor Reagan from a hotel to a place where there was a series of political meetings, to the best, of my recollection. when I arrived there I was advised of it. There was considerable concern about the matter because I was holding a press conference out there. and we did not know what the circumstances were, I believe that by that time that they had--Mr. McCord, his name had surfaced or Mrs. McCord had called somebody at the committee about it, and obviously there was an involvement in the Committee To Re-Elect the President Mr. DASH. What. if anything,. did you do, while still in California? Mr. MITCHELL. While in California? I did a number of things. First of all, I continued to carry out the schedule that I had there which was quite extensive for 2 days. I asked The people, particularly Mr. Mardian who was there, to get as much information about it as he could. I put out a statement to The effect that, I do not know whether it went out there or after we came back, to the effect that we did not understand this, that Mr. McCord was one of our employees, he also had a separate consulting firm, that it was basically an attempt to carry on the extensive schedule that I had which, of course, is in the book that you are well aware about and. at the same Time, Trying, to get information as to what had happened lack in the District of Columbia. [00.22.47]