Saturday, May 11, 1971:
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tapes implicate Nixon in
blame on underlings, particular-
ly when John Dean warns him
in the March 21 transcript that
to conveniently forget is "chanc-
ing a very high risk for a per-
jury situation."
WHATEVER the case, con-
stitutional experts believe that
it will be impossible to indict
the President criminally until
after a successful impeachment
attempt, a fact borne out by
the Watergate grand jury's de-
cision to turn all their evidence
over to the impeachment coun-
cil rather than indict.
Should the President survive
any legal manuevers against
him, however, there still lies
ahead a vast maze of other
criminal and civil cases in
which presidential transcripts
may play an important role.
The upcoming June trial of
seven White House "plumbers"
charged with the break-in of
_Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's
office, for instance, may rely
heavily on presidential tran-
Be careful with fire:
There are babes
inthe woods.
scripts. It has been is major
d e f e n s e argument that the
break-in was justified by na-
tional security concerns.
THE TRANSCRIPTS, how-
ever, show an angered Presi-
dent saying, "I don't know what
the hell we did that for," when
informed by Dean of the break-
in.
ANOTHER CASE which the
President is going to have to
consider is the current Wounded
Knee case. The defense 'in the
case has subpoenaed any tran-
scripts between the Attorney
G e n e r a I and the President,
claiming that there may be
Page Nine
:rimes
evidepce which would exonerate
the defendants on the tapes.
Should the President either re-
fuse to comply with the sub-
poena or claim that no such
conversations took place, the de-
fense will most likely charge
that the governmsetitt svnxof
back pertinent evidence and
could move for dismissal, pos-
sibly with success.
Whatever the next few months
bring, be 'it impeachment, crim-
inal trials or civil suits, the
mood was best described by the
President during a meeting on
March 13, 1973:
The President: It is never
dull is it?
Dean: No sir.
(Continued on Pagen)8
The President will probably
reply by arguing that as Chief
Executive he was_ the only au-
thority that need know of the
crime, and thereby head off any
charges of misprison.
VhTWO MORE issues arise in
the transcripts which will catuse
the Preisdent no end of diffi-
culty. The first is his advice to
John Dean that if called before
a grand jury, "you can say I
can't recall. I can't give any
answer to that that I can recall"
-phrases which became fright-
eningly familiar during last
summer's S e n a t e Watergate
hearings.
The other is a segment of tape
dated Feb. 28, 1973 in which the
President and John Dean are '
discussing Richard Kleindienst's
upcoming S e n a t e Watergate
committee testimony:
The President: I think you
had better goe over and get in
touch with Dick (Kleindienst).
And say, Dick, you keep it at
your level . . . This is the posi-
tion, Dick, you should take on
this.
THE CONVERSATION con-
tinues for perhaps another hour,
and then the Presyient says, "I
thinkhit istvery idaportant that
you have these talks with our
good friend Kleindienst . . . tell
him we have to get these things
worked out. . . . Remember
this was not done by the White
House, this was done by the
Committee to Re-elect. And Mit-
chell was chairman. Correct?
And Kleindienst owes Mitchell
everything.'
These two examples present
strong evidence that the Presi-
dent was actively involved in
'subordinating perjury-a charge
for which Nixon- has to date
presented no defense.
It could -well be the most
damaging, for these actions im-
plicate the President directly,
and it will be hard to lay the
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