Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973
[00.59.01] Senator MONTOYA. Why did you, as administrative assistant. to Magruder, give the Gem file, then, to Mr. Odle to take home when it Was the only really sensitive file in the whole bunch? Mr. REISNER. Well, it is sensitive in retrospect. It, is sensitive in the fact that we, now know it appears to have concerned illegal activities. If that was ordinary intelligence, just, things that Mr. Liddy had been gathering somehow, through his sources or whatever, in a perfectly legal way, it would have been sensitive, but it would not have been any more sensitive than anything else that was taken home. I gave it to Mr. Odle because I was told to give it to Mr. Odle and my relationship with Mr. Odle and his with Mr. Magruder was one of trust. I mean there was no reason not to give it to him. I was just asked to. I am certain I would have taken it home if Mr. Magruder had said it the other way. Senator MONTOYA. Did you on that day do any shredding? Mr. REISNER. No, sir. Senator MONTOYA. Did you on any subsequent day do any shredding? Mr. REISNER. Yes, sir. Senator MONTOYA. Tell us about that. Mr. REISNER. Subsequently, on Monday morning, as I have indicated--on Friday I had been given a document. I presumed it was a document. I had been given an envelope which was marked "sensitive material." When I was given that envelope-- Senator MONTOYA, Who gave you that envelope'? Mr. REISNER. Mr. Liddy. When I was given that envelope by Mr, Liddy, be indicated to me that it was a copy or an extra. It was standard operating procedure for me to get rid of copies. There were five copies made of all the documents that were given to Mr. Mitchell and clearly, that, was not necessary for the files. Many of them were sensitive and I would get rid of them. Now, on that Monday morning following the 17th, I discovered that I had not in fact taken home that copy--I had not given that copy to Mr. Odle as I had been instructed to, Senator MONTOYA. I understood that from your testimony, but the point I am trying to make is did you shred many documents after June 17? Mr. REISNER. Oh, no; not many. It is conceivable that Mr. Magruder might have put something in his out box and said, "destroy"-- just written "destroy" on the thing, or "shred", or something, Senator MONTOYA. Did you, on your own, take and examine files and cull out sensitive documents and shred them? Mr. REISNER. There is a distinction. The distinction is that if it had been an original, it is extremely unlikely that I would have destroyed something that was an original without having Magruder indicate that he did not need it any more. If it was a copy, I am certain I destroyed many copies. Senator MONTOYA. Well, after June 17, did you receive instruction and pursuant to those instructions, if you did receive them, proceed to categorize documents as sensitive or confidential and then proceed to shred them? Mr. REISNER. No, sir. The instructions were, find those sensitive materials that may be in the files and give them to me, which is what I did. Senator MONTOYA. And I think you indicated in the previous testimony that you. wanted to centralize the sensitive documents in one particular file. That you did, too, did you not? Mr. REISNER. What, I did was I culled the files to find things sensitive, gave them to Mr. Magruder. It is conceivable that he Put them all in one file, It is conceivable be might have given them back to me and they might have--I don't think so. I think it was a pretty random selection of materials. Senator MONTOYA. NOW YOU mentioned the easel a few minutes ago. What about the charts that were in Mr. Liddy's or 'Mr. Hunt's room Which were, going to be used at the Attorney General's office? Did you see those charts? Mr. REISNER. No, sir; I did not, see anything that I could------ [01.03.06--TAPE OUT]