4
Page Nine
Thusday, May 5, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thusday, May 5, ~977 THE MICH(GAN DAILY Page Nine
Nixon addresses Watergate issues
(Continued from Page 1)
and Nixon called the interview-
er "attorney for the prosecu-
tion."
THAT IS exactly the way,
Frost's staff had characterized
his interrogation of Nixon at a
rented house near San Clem-
ente, Calif. One researcher said
the interview was designed as
a substitute for the trial Nixon
never had.
Nixon recalled that when he
asked for the resignation of his
top aides, H. R. Haldeman and
John Ehrlichman in late April
1973, he considered resigning
too. But, he said, he stayed in
office because of his concerns
about approaches to China and
the Soviet Union and the Viet-
nam peace agreement.
"I just didn't make mistakes
in this period," Nixon said,
adding that with the pressures
of investigations by Congress
and Watergate prosecutors "I
said' things that were not true."
FOR THAT, he said, he has
deep regret.
"It snowballed. And, it was
my fault. I'm not blaming any-
body else," he added. "I'm
simply saying to you that as
Voter fraud memo
far as I'm concerned, I not only
regret it; I indicated my own
beliefs in this matter when I
resigned. People didn't think it
was enough to admit mistakes,
fine. If they want me to get
down and grovel on the floor,
no. Never."
Nixon said he might have
won in a Senate impeachment
trial, but that would have left
the country without a full-time
president. It was the same re-
frain he sounded when he an,
nounced his resignation, saying
then that he had lost his politi-
cal base.
"I have impeached myself,
[urned
y. Gen.
Executive privilege is the
claim based on the constitutional
separation of powers that the
executive branch has used to
withhold information t'rom Con-
gress. The claim is usually cited
to protect presidential com-
mmications.
HE SAID that in the Novem-
ber 1976 election, well oVer 60
million eligible persons did not
-vote.
that speaks for itself," he said.
"By resigning, that was a vol-
untary impeachment . . . you're
wanting me to say that I par-
ticipated in an illegal cover-up?
No."
MUCH OF THE Frost inter-
view concerned the meeting
Nixon had with the counsel to
the president, John Dean, in the
Oval Office on March 21, 1973-
the day when Dean laid out for
him the deep cover-up involve-
ment, of Nixon's top aide in the
now-famed "cancer on the pres-
idency" speech.
Said Nixon:
"During that period, I wlll ad-
mit, that I started acting as
lawyer for their defense. I will
admit that acting as lawyer for
their defense, I was not prose-
cuting the case.
"I CAME to the edge, and
under the circumstances, I
would have to sgy that a rea-
sonable person could call that
a cover-up. I didn't intend it as
a cover-up. Let me say, if I in-
tended to cover-up, believe me,
I'd have done it.
"You know how I could have
done it? So easily. I could have
done it immediately after the
election simply by giving clem-
ency to everybody and the
whole thing would have gone
away.
"I couldn't do that because I
said 'Clemency was wrong."
Nixon told of his meeting at
(Camp David, Md., with Halde-
man and Ehrlichman in late
April 1973 when he asked for
their resig'satiions. He said that
he- cried then, for-the first time
since President Dwight Eisen-
hower died.
NIXON DIDN'T mention that
he offered the two men the use
of a $2011000 fund, held by his
friend Bebe Rebozo, for any
legal problems they faced. Ehr-
lichman testified to that at his
trial.
Nixongrecalled his meeting
with congressional leaders just
before he announced his own
resignation. He said Rep. Les
Arends, an Illinois Republican,
was shaking and sobbing,balong
with half the other people in the
room.
"Just can't stand seeing some-
body else cry, and that ended
it for me," Nixon said. "I sort
of cracked up; started to cry;
pushed my chair b~ack, and then
L blnrted it ant, and Isaid: 'I'm
sorry. I ist hope I haven't let
you down.' That said it all. I
had.
"i let down my friends. I let
down the coduntry. I let down
our system of government and
the dreams of all those young
people that ought to get into
government but think it's all too
corrupt and the rest .
WASHINGTON (T) - Deputy
Atty. Gen. Peter Flaherty de-
cided yesterday to let Congress
have a J u s t i c e Department
memorandum warning of a pos-
sible increase in fraudulent vot-
ing under the administration's
election-day registration bill.
He had refused at a Senate
Rules Committe hearing earlier
in the day to turn over a copy
of the memorandum. He said, in
answer to a question, that he
was invoking executive privi-
lege.
LATER, HOWEVER, a Jus-
tice Department spokesman said
that only the President can in-
voke executive privilege and
that President Carter had not
given Flaherty permission to do
Mark Sheehan, a department
public inforamtion officer, told
a reporter that Flaherty subse-
quently decided to send the
Senate committee a copy of the
memorandum. He said a copy
also would be given to a House
committee that is considering
the legislation.-
Sheehan said Flaherty had
wanted an opportunity to read
the memo before making it
available to Congress, and now
has done so.
AT THE SENATE hearing,
Flaherty testiifed that it was
an internal memo that he had
never seem and, before agreeing
to let the committee have it, he
wanted to discuss it with Atty.
Gen. Griffin Bell.
The voting bill was among the
electoral proposals submitted to
Congress by President Carter,
on March 22. It would permit
persons to register on election
day at a polling place and then
vote in presidential and congres-
sional elections.
The memorandum prepared
by the Justice Department's
criminal division was disclosed
at a hearing of the Senate panel.
SEN. ROBERT Griffin (R-
Mich.) said he had not seen the
memo but was informed it de-
clared the Carter administra-
tion bill would be "an invitation
to. fraud".. - Just what he -and
other GOP opponenrs of the'-leg-
islation contend.
Questioned by Griffin about
the memo, Flaherty said he had
never heard of it. However, in
response to an injury by Griffin,
a lawyer in the criminal divi-
sion, Craig Donsanto, acknowl-
edged he had a copy with him.
Griffin said he and other com-
mittee members would like to
see it so they could have the
benefit of the department's re-
search. Flaherty refused to let
Donsanto give it to the com-
mittee.
"ARE YOU claiming execu-
tive privilege," Griffin asked.
"Yes, sir," Flaherty replied.
BLODY CAESA jj
RE!
thtwas Dagtona'.
Reemertgor
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and
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4 Quarts of CLAMA TO
1 bottle of Vodka
Season if you like (tabasco,
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rTT
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