Page Ten
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Saturday, }-u l y 20, 1974
Judiciary unit releases new evidence
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Six
volumes of material released
yesterday by the ouse Judic-
iary Committee contained little
evidence supporting charges
that President Nixon ordered
favorable government decisions
in return for campaign contribu-
tions from the milk industry and
ITT.
But the committee noted that
the White Ilouse had ignored its
subpoenas for 66 days on the
milk and ITT cases, and Demo-
crats have said there is enough
evidence available to include
the two matters in articles of
impeachment the committee
will debate next week.
THE MATERIAI included
tapes of six previously unre-
leased White House conversa-
tions. When they heard the evi-
dence several weeks ago, Re-
publicans and Dlemocrats
agreed there was little to sub-
stantiate charges that the ad-
ministration settled its antitrust
suit against ITT aftet- receiving
pledges of $200,000 to defray
costs of the 1972 Republican Na-
tittinal Convention
While tetspiihcaiis felt there
was little evidence that Nixon
raised milk trice supports in
1971 in return fo a $2 million
campaign pledge, several 13em-
ocrats agreed with Rep. Eliza-
beth Ilt itma swhoi said "we
have a case for brihery here.
Committee Democrats draft-
ed possible impeachment arti-
cles this week that included
both the ITT and milk matters.
The six volumes included two
by James St. Clair, Nixon's
chief Watergate lawyer. St.
Clair maintained that Nixon
played no role in settling the
ITT suit, and that price sup-
ports on raw milk were raised
because of "economic and tra-
ditional political considerations"
-not because of the campaign
pledge.
ONE NEWLY published tran-
script shows Nixon, his speech
punctuated by profanity, order-
ing that his antitrust chief
abandon all efforts to block the
biggest corporate merger in
history. But there was nothing
in the tape linking Nixon's
action to ITT's offer.
The President's demand on
April 19, 1971, that the case be
dropped followed months of
relentless pressure by ITT
executives on numerous high
government officials, and came
on the heels of the firm's offer
to defray convention expenses.
According to the transcript,
Nixon spoke brusquely to
Richard Kleindienst, then dep-
uty attorney general. Nixon or-
dered Kleindienst to tell Rich-
ard McLarens, head of the anti-
trust division, to drop the suit
against itT.
"I WANT something clearly
understood, and, if it is not
understood, McLaren's ass is to
be out within one hour. The
IT&T thing - stay the hell out
of it.
"Is that clear? That's an
order. The order is to leave the
God damn thing alone.
"Now, I've said this, Dick, a
number of times and you fel-
lows apparently don't get the
message over there. I do not
want McLaren to run around
prosecuting people, raising hell
about conglomerates, stirring
things up at this point. Now,
you keep him the hell out of
that. Is that clear?
"Or either he resigns. I'd
rather have him out anyway. I
don't like the son-of-a-bitch."
Kleindienst, later nominated
to succeed John Mitchell as
attorney general, said at his
confirmation hearing the follow-
ing March, "I was not inter-
fered with by anybody at the
White House. I was not impor-
tuned, I was not pressured; I
wais not dirdcted."
ON MAY 16, Kleindienst
pleaded guilty to false testimo-
ny and was given a one-month
suspended sentence.
However, none of the mater-
ial shows Nixon was aware
Kleindienst was ' lying. But
Kleindienst's statements were
covered fully by news media at
the time and caused the White
House such concern that a spe-
cial committee was formed to
make sure the nomination go
through the Senate.
St. Clair argued that: "there
exists no testimonial or docu-
mentary evidence to indicate
that the President had any
part, directly or indirectly, in
the settlement of the ITT an-
titrust cases."
McLaren had lost his attempt
to block ITT'S merger inten-
tions in the lower courts, but
was confident of winning in the
Supreme Court. When Nixon
learned that the next day was
the last day for an appeal to
the high court, he acted swift-
ly.
"I don't know whether ITT is
bad, good or indifferent," he
told Kleindienst. "But there is
not going to be any more anti-
trust actions as long as I am it
this chair . . God damn it,
we're going to stop it."
The 984 pages of evidence
about "The 1971 Milk Price
Support Decision" included
three previously unpublished
transcripts of Nixon conversa-
tions, all on March 23, 1971.
They revealed Nixon engaged
in no direct conversations that
tied the price the support in-
crease to the campaign pledge.
The report said that hours
after Nixon met with milk
producers that day about in-
creasing milk price supports,
White House aide John Ehrlieh-
man attempted to get them to
reaffirm a campaign pledge of
$2 million.
According to testimony by
Herbert Kalmbach, then Nix-
on's private lawyer and cam-
paign fundraiser, Ehrlichman
called him that same afternoon
to set up a meeting for the
following day with Murray Cho-
tiner, a long-time Nixon aide
and then a dairy lawyer.
"It's my best memory that I
was informed there was going
to be an announcement on the
price support the following
day," Kalmbach said in testi-
mony the committee reprinted
from the Senate Watergate
Committee. "And in view of
that, that Mr. Ehrlichman
asked Mr. Chotiner to talk to
me and reaffirm to me that the
milk people would reaffirm their
pledge of $2 million to the 1972
campaign."
According to the committee,
the milk producers made a
pledge of $2 million to Nixon's
re-election Dec. 16 or 17, 1970,
in a letter hand-delivered to the
White House. Two weeks later,
Nixon signed a proclamation
lowering the import quotas on
certain dairy products. In all,
milk cooperatives chipped in
more than $800,000 to his re-
election campaign.
The Agriculture Department
in early March 1971 set the
price support for raw milk at
$4.66 per hundredweight, or
about 79 per cent of parity. Two
days after Nixon's meeting with
the dairy leaders, the depart-
ment reversed itself and set the
support at $4.92, or 85 per cent
of parity.
Be careful with fire:
There are babes
in the woods.
STARTS FRIDAY
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