Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974 (1/2)
[00.33.33] The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Michigan. Mr. HUTCHINSON. I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Maraziti. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Maraziti is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. MARAZITI. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, 1 would like to compliment at this time the gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Mezvinsky. He has done what some of the proponents of articles of impeachment have not done. He has inserted specific allegations. I do not agree with his position. but I do agree that the article is precisely and properly drawn. I address myself to paragraph 2. I know that paragraph 2 is an emotional issue and it has more strength on the side of popular interest, but it Is really weak as a ground for impeachment. Let us now analyze this particular I article. On July 25, 1969, that date constitutes the last date when a gift of Presidential papers could be made. March 27, 1969, as has been stated, is the date when the Presidential papers were delivered to the, 'National Archives. This is about 4 months before the cutoff date. There are a number of questions involved here. First, how is title to personal property passed ? There are two methods of transfer. One is by a deed of transfer -and another legal method is by actual delivery of the personal property. "Now. the second' question is, Was title transferred on March 27, 1969? Well, the papers were delivered to the National Archives and in my opinion title was transferred on that date. Now, after that date the President was not able, to repossess his papers. He lost possession. He lost control, And he lost title. A very interesting thing, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee a Government agency has actually ruled to that effect. And I refer to a letter put in evidence dated June 4 1974, from the Archivist and here is; what he says in part, "Long before the onset of the tax controversy"--long before--"It was the position of the General Services Administration, which itself has absolutely no involvement in Federal tax matters, and here is the important part--"that there had been a valid gift of the subject papers to the United States." That is a ruling of an agency of the Government of the United States. Now, if title passed. it is obvious there Is no fraud. But I submit to you that even if there Is. a dispute as to whether title passed, -when the President divested himself of possession of his Presidential papers, in a voluntary way. certainly that is enough to negate fraud. Now, what did the IRS do in this particular situation? I What action did they take? Section 6653 of the Internal Revenue Code is relevant. Well, they checked the return and they found that a tax was due. And they assessed a tax. There are two sections to 6653, section (a) and section (b), Section (a) provides for the assessment of a negligence penalty which was done in this particular case,5 percent. Mr. Sandman indicated section (b) provides for a fraud penalty which the IRS has the, right to assess: 50 percent. Now, here we have the most thorough and complete audit in the history of the IRS, the audit performed on the return of Mr. Nixon, and the IRS, with its thorough investigation, notwithstanding what has been said here and argued, did not assess the fraud penalty. Mr. Chairman I cannot see how this matter can be a ground of impeachment under the Constitution. Mr. Chairman, in your opening remarks you said, and I concurred, We Must be fair to every man. I have tried to be fair to Mr. Nixon and I have tried to persuade the members of this committee to vote against Impeachment, It is apparent that we have not succeeded in this respect. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from New Jersey has expired. The gentleman from Michigan. Mr. MARAZITI. May I have one-half a minute to finish my sentence, please? Mr. HUTCHINSOn I'm sorry, I cannot yield to the gentleman any More time. I have not got a speck of time. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Hutchinson, has consumed 29 minutes and 20 seconds and has 30 minutes and 40 seconds, and the gentleman from Iowa has Consumed 26 minutes and has 34 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Iowa, Mr. MEZVINSKY. Yes. Mr. Chairman. I now yield to Ms. Holtzman from New York, 5 minutes. Ms. HOLTZMAN. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The CHAIRMAN. The gentlelady is recognized. Ms. HOLTZMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have a grave concern about the tax matter that we have seen before this committee, and I would like to clear up the record on one point. There has been a lot of talk that the IRS cleared the President on tax fraud. In fact. the IRS did nothing of the kind. The IRS said that the reason they. could not find tax fraud was because they did not have the testimony under oath of Mr. Ehrlichman, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Ralph Newman, and that without that testimony under oath. they were not able to make a decision one way or the other. But, they did not preclude the possibility that in the future, if these persons did testify under- oath. they could connect the taxpayer with fraud in this instance. So, I do not think that it is fair on the record to say that IRS exonerated the President of tax fraud. They found that because persons close to the President and the members of the President's staff would not testify under oath they were unable to reach a conclusive decision. Mr. WIGGINS. Would the lady answer a question ? [00.40.40]