Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974 (1/2)
[00.08.50] Mr. HUNGATE. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And all I know about this is what I read in the papers. On January 21, 1974, I placed in the record a statement that: Much controversy has arisen over President Nixon's tax write-off on his official Papers, and his assertion that the late President Lyndon Johnson gave him the idea. I think my colleagues will be interested in this editorial from the Houston Post regarding President Johnson's Papers, "In view of President Nixon's reference to the late President Lyndon Johnson as having given him the idea for taking a tax write-off on official papers, it is interesting to notice President Johnson's own record. LBJ is thought to have taken a tax deduction for $200,000 out of a total of 31 million papers. They dealt with his life up to the time he entered the Senate. Ralph Newman Chairman of the Chicago Public Library, who has worked for every President since Herbert Hoover, appraised the LBJ papers as he later did the Nixon papers. He set it value of $20 to $40 million on the papers. But President Johnson bequeathed all the papers of his Senate years, his Vice Presidency and his Presidency to the LBJ Library without asking any tax advantage for his estate." I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. WIGGINS. Would the gentleman yield for a, question? Mr. BROOKS. I have 1 minute and one-half left, and gentleman, ladies, I would like to point out something about, the President's knowledge. The record is replete With evidence, ample evidence, that Mr. Nixon did involve himself in the renovations at Key Biscayne and San Clemente both those made at his own expense and those made at public expense. At. Key Biscayne we paid $65,000 for a fence because of the President's personal involvement in the design, not because the Secret Service required it. During hearings before the House Government Activities Subcommittee, the following discussion took place between me, and the Secret Service agent, Earl Moore. [quoting] Mr, MOORE. After the initial drawing or design was presented, I think I passed along to GSA a comment from Mr. Rebozo that the First Family. the President and First Lady, would prefer something more conventional, probably something similar to the White House fence. And I think as a result, the GSA copied the White House fence. Mr. BROOKS. Did the Secret Service, request that the fence be a replica of the White House fence? Mr. MOORE. 'NO, sir. We only wanted to get a fence up there. [end quoted section] Now. in testimony before this committee, Mr. Butterfield was asked to what extent the President gave attention to detail. He responded that Mr. -Nixon was very interested in the grounds at Key Biscayne, Camp David, San Clemente, the house the cottage, and the grounds. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman has consumed 10 minutes. Mr. WIGGINS. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman. In the discussion, art- we going to be confined to evidentiary materials before the committee, or are the members free to call upon other materials known to them only? The CHAIRMAN. the gentleman is advised that during this time of debate members are to discuss the matters before them, which is the matter of possible impeachable offenses as it relates to the article before them, Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, if I could, would the gentleman yield for clarifiication? Mr. WIGGINS. Sure. Mr. BROOKS. The source of this information was furnished to the committee and is a part of the committee, records and was made available to Mr. Jenner and Mr. Doar and to the committee if they wanted to read them, Mr. WIGGINS. Well, I appreciate that. Mr. MEZVINSKY. Mr. Chairman? Mr. WIGGINS. I think we are going to have some more new information shortly. Mr. MEZVINSKY. I am going to take I minute to make a comment concerning the matter of fraud I think It has to be shown and brought to the attention of this committee that we heard an expert witness who had been the head of the Criminal Tax Fraud Division of the Department of Justice. He was responsible for drafting the manual on the matter of fraud. He told us that considering the facts that we. have had presented to I including the taxpayer's failure to answer the questions submitted to him by the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, he said, and I quote: [quoting] If no satisfactory response was forthcoming, it would be my Judgment that in the case of an ordinary taxpayer on the facts as we know them in this instance, the case would be referred out for presentation to a Grand Jury for prosecution. [00.13.46]