Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, July 10, 1973 (1/2)
[00.15.49-GURNEY allows MITCHELL the chance to deny again that he was involved in receiving wiretap information from Watergate] Senator GURNEY. That Is right. And you also testified that your logs showed that you had no meetings with Magruder when no one' else was Present. That Is I wanted to nail down. Would You amplify that again? Mr. MITCHELL. What I am saying is during the period from what is referred to is the first break-in, which was--and of course, you got mixed testimony On whether it took place on the 28th of May or the 30th of May--I did not know when it took place. Mr. Magruder said that 1 to 1 1/2 weeks thereafter, he came in to my office and showed me this material and that I did not like it. therefore. I called Mr. Liddy up and I chewed Mr. Liddy out and told him to get moving. What I am Saying is that my logs do not show a meeting with Mr. Magruder during the May period to the June 17 period in the morning that did not have other people there for other business. Secondly I have testified, which happens to be the fact, that I never Saw or talked to Mr. Liddy from the 2d day of February until the 15th day Of June Of 1972. Senator GURNEY. I recall that, and that lends me to the next question, which I really am getting at which I think Is the important question How were these logs prepared? Who prepared them? How would the committee know, for example, that they are precisely accurate? [00.17.33] Mr. MITCHELL. Well, what had happened. Senator, was that over in the Justice Department, the secretaries that I had over there followed the practice that was always handled in the Justice Department--nobody got in the door without their being recorded and Nobody made a telephone call in or out without them being recorded and it records whether the call came in or out, whether you talked, or where the call was placed. Much to my surprise, I found out later on, after they came over with me to the law office in the Committee To Re-Elect the President, they continued to do the same thing. I did not even know they were doing it until after June 17, when we got talking about a lot of these things and found out that they had continued to do this. [00.18.23] Senator GURNEY. So your secretaries, after you went to the Committee to Re-Elect, were the same that you had in the Justice Department and they always followed this procedure, of reporting everybody who came in and phone calls in and out? Mr. MITCHELL. My secretary, Miss Lee Jablonski, was the one who continued to do that; yes, sir. Senator GURNEY. Going on to this- Mr. MITCHELL. May I also add so that I will be fully responsive to your question about, this meeting, so-called, by Magruder, that I would point out, and I think that it is very persuasive, at least from the, way I look at, it, that when Dean met, Liddy on June 18--in Other words, this -was the first time that anybody had really ever talked to Liddy, according to Mr. Dean's testimony which is in the record--Mr. Liddy complained to Mr. Dean that Magruder was the one that made him go into the, DNC the second time. around, et cetera, et cetera. Now, if Mitchell had called him up to the, office, I am sure Liddy is not stupid enough to try to hide behind Magruder if he had Mitchell to hide behind. Senator GURNEY. Incidentally, on that point, Magruder. pushing Liddy to do this work over at the DNC, do you have any evidence that Magruder in turn was pushed by anybody to push Liddy? Mr. MITCHELL. No; I do not. I tried to answer that before- Senator GURNEY. I know you touched on it. Mr. MITCHELL. Insofar as' I have, -no personal knowledge of it. As I say, the Dean statements and testimony is replete with who called whom and -who was afraid who was going to take over what and so forth. And I have no personal knowledge of it. [00.20.23]