Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (2/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (2/2)
[01.19.59] The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, is recognized. Mr. SARBANES. . Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is imperative that every American appreciate that the abuses of power discussed here today, those that we have reviewed in the course of consideration of this article, placed in jeopardy our free society and our constitutional rights And that in the endangered our liberties and our course of this effort, there was also an effort to twist the proper functions of Government agencies so that rather than such agencies being your servants, serving you, there was a grave danger that those agencies -would become your oppressors. Stop and think for a moment, if you will, what it means if the agencies of Government are not administered in an even-handed manner; if people elected to public office, rather than considering it a public trust, believe that they are entitled to use the power of Government not to serve the people but to maintain themselves in person power. It is extraordinarily to assert, as has been asserted on occasion during the course of our discussion that because bad things in the, end did not happen, those who sought to make those bad things happen should not be held responsible. Stop and think for a moment. Those bad things failed ailed to happen, not because those at the top did not seek to make them happen, but because dedicated and committed people in various places in Government refused to be bent and twisted to improper purposes. The, Commissioner of Internal Revenue would not allow, in the end, that agency to be used in a discriminatory fashion against the American people. The FBI Director would not accede to the Huston plan, which for a brief period was approved by the President of the, United States, and which provided for covert mail covers, surreptitious entry, an illegal electronic surveillance, all of which J. Edgar Hoover discovered and it was Hoover in the end who went to the President and insisted that this plan not be implemented. What happened then? They went outside of the agencies of Government; unable to bend the agencies to their purpose, they decided to go outside of Government and develop their own establishment That is what the Plumbers -was. It was not a legitimately constituted law enforcement agency. It was an irregular ad hoc group established to carry out certain activities, and how, was it paid for? In part, it was paid for through money raised privately. We spoke earlier of how a private person was contacted to bring", money to the White House to be furnished to the Plumbers in order, for them to carry out the break-in of the doctor's office, and that the, money was returned to the private person who provided it in following manner: Mr. Colson called up the attorney for one of the milk producer cooperatives and asked him to have the cooperative make a contribution to a political committee called, of all things, People United For Good Government, and a $5,000 contribution was made, by the, milk cooperative to that political committee. That check was cashed, and. the man who provided the original money, in order to carry out the break-in , went to the treasurer of the political committee and recovered his $55000. Now, stop and think of that. You have an irregular group, not part of an established law enforcement agency, and its activities are being funded through money raised privately. Think of the implications of that for all Americans. Mr. Chairman, I submit we came perilously close to losing our basic freedoms. And it is for that reason that we must act affirmatively here tonight. This is a long step forward in restoring the health of our Constitutional system. We' do it, Mr. Chairman, pursuant to that Constitution. We do it with a strong sense of responsibility and a powerful belief in America and in the decency and the honesty of her People. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. [01.25.55] $