Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
[00.42.42] Mr. HOGAN. Would the gentleman yield? Mr. COHEN. I yield to the gentleman from -Maryland. Mr. HOGAN. I thank the gentleman. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman has 1 minute remaining. Mr. HOGAN. I would just like to return to the wiretap matters that I was not able to finish earlier. In addition to the Kraft wiretap having no criminal or national security basis, it was done by a consultant to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, -which makes it, totally illegal. In addition, under normal procedures, the Attorney General reviews the necessity and the propriety of wiretaps on national security matters every 90 days and this practice -was not followed in respect to any of these 17 individual taps that the President authorized and approved. Now, I would like to read from a transcript of the conversation between the President and Dean on February 28, 1973, on wiretaps when they were just talking about the Time Magazine story which revealed the Wiretaps at the White House. The President says: "Sure. And the, and the, and Henry's--he insisted on Lake, you see after working with McGov--uh, uh, for Muskie." And Dean says: "Uh-huh." And the, President, says: "Incidentally, didn't Muskie do anything bad on there? (unintelligible) Henry (unintelligible). At least, I know not because I know that, I know that he asked that it be done, and I assumed that it was. Lake and Halperin, They're both bad." That's the President talking. "But the taps were too." The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. All time has expired. And the question now occurs on the Wiggins amendment to strike subparagraph 3. All those in favor by Of the motion to strike please signify by saying aye. [Chorus of "ayes."] The CHAIRMAN. All those opposed? [CHORUS of "noes."] The CHAIRMAN. The noes appear to have it. The noes have it and the, amendment is not agreed to. I recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Brooks. Mr. BROOKS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in this debate we have neglected a most vital part of this article, that being section 1. 1 think it is very pertinent to this entire activity. It is a, primary area of abuse that has subjected the American People to spying and prying and In the interest of debate, in that all of those members who have an interest in presenting the facts on this matter section 1, and those who are, opposed to it., I have an amendment at the desk to strike section 1 and would so move. The CHAIRMAN. The. clerk will read the amendment. The CLERK. [reading] Amendment by Mr. Brooks, Strike subparagraph I of the Hungate substitute. The CHAIRMAN. And the gentleman from Texas is recognized. accordance with the rule recently adopted by unanimous consent, the gentleman recognizes that there is 20 minutes in opposition to the amendment am] 20 minutes in support of the amendment The gentleman controls the 20 minutes in support of the amendment. Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, I would ask that the time that I would use be deducted from the time of the Opponents of this so that the Proponent of this would not suffer in any way; we will have a full 20 minutes to utilize I will yield to them as they request. The CHAIRMAN'. Without objection, so ordered. Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Nixon's personal involvement efforts to misuse IRS for political purposes in violation of individual civil rights is clearly documented in events that occurred on 157 1972. In the tape. of a meeting between the President, Mr. Haldeman, and Mr. Dean. there is no question that there was some discussion as to how efforts were going to get the IRS to institute audits, investigations of Mr. Nixon's political enemies. Some of the evidence involving Mr. Nixon efforts to misuse the IRS has not been made available to this committee. The transcripts submitted to us do not include last 17 minutes of this meeting with Haldeman and Dean on September 15. And yet Mr. Dean has testified that during that time there. was a specific discussion about the plan to use IRS for these purposes. Judge Sirica has listened to the entire tape and has announced in open court that those 17 minutes do indeed involve conversations relating to the abuse of the IRS. He has since made those 17 minutes available, to Mr. Jaworski but under the restraints put on him by the U.S. court of appeals has been unable to provide them to the Judiciary Committee. And needless to say, Mr. Nixon has not made this portion of the, tape available to us despite his continuing protestation that he intends to cooperate fully with our investigation. Now, we can only use the evidence that we have and that evidence, the September 15, tape, Judge Sirica's announcement, John Dean's testimony, the Johnnie Walters testimony, clearly indicate that there was a definite concerted plan to misuse the Internal Revenue Service for personal and political gain. Now, Mr. Chairman, our constitutional safeguards protecting individuals rights against arbitrary and unrestrained Government power mean very little to a President who Would use the IRS for such distorted fashion. I would 'reserve the balance of my time for those who are opposed or in favor of this proposition. [00.49.01]