Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
[00.39.21] The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman has consumed 5 minutes. Mr. WIGGINS. Let me just finish my sentence, and then I shall yield to Others. Those wiretaps were in each case approved by Mr. Hoover, who -was then FBI Director, and in each case was approved by the Attorney General. I would hope the debate hereafter will focus on the, debate -with respect to the President's intentions with respect to the installation of those taps. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Kastenmeier. is recognized for or 4 minutes. Mr. KASTENMEIER. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Actually, the debate to on this section was really already begun this morning by the gentleman from Maryland. Mr. Hogan. I think this particular section of article II is central to the. whole theme of abuse Of power. As a free country, we have no higher course. than to protect really our people against this sort of abuse of power which can come in a modern age in terms of a police state. What we did as a Congress in fact as a committee, in 1969 to limit the use of electronic surveillance and wiretapping is as follows: In the Omnibus Crime Control Acts of 1968 which came out of this committee 6 Years ago, we Said that if any lawful authority is to conduct wiretapping or, electronic surveillance. it must have a court order except, except. and I shall read. that the power of the President, to take such measures as he deems necessary to protect the -Nation against the following threats, mind you: (1) the actual or potential attack or other hostile acts of a foreign power, (2)) to obtain foreign intelligence information deemed essential to the security of the United States, (3) to protect national security information against, foreign intelligence activities, and lastly, to protect the United States against overthrow by force or other unlawful means or against any other clear or Present danger to the structure or existence of the government. Now there have been a number of classes of wiretaps. some of which have been alluded to by the gentleman from California. Mr. Wiggins, not necessarily in order of time. The one referred to by the gentleman from Maryland back in 1970 by the Secret Service on Donald -Nixon, which I agree, any reasonable man has to assume occurred with the knowledge and consent and by the direction of the President himself. And subsequent wiretaps and bugging, whether in the Watergate case or implicitly in, the Huston plan. or those undertaken for the President by Mr. Ehrlichman in terms of Mr. Liddy, or Mr. Kraft abroad, Or the 17 wiretaps point to a pattern of use of taps which do not conform to the law as posed by this in 1968. And I submit they are not otherwise authorized by any other decision of the court or by law. Let us go back to the very beginning. How did we ever get there in the first place? How did the President happen to start engaging in wiretaps without any court order in such a mirage of activities? As you know, in any event, the procedure was that all taps would go through the Attorney General of the United States for his approval, whether or not these are warrantless wiretaps, and would be recorded, carried out by the FBI and fully recorded. And as the fact was, later in the year 1971, sensitive about these taps, Mr. -Mardian delivered this list of special White House taps to the White House itself in fact to the Oval Office to be secreted in a safe by Mr. Haldeman. In 1969, apparently following a New York Times article- The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman has consumed 5 minutes. Does the gentleman from California wish to yield? [00.44.19]