Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser, aide to Jeb Magruder
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Mr. Reisner, I just want to come back to one point on the questioning that I conducted earlier. You indicated you thought Mr. Clark MacGregor's role as head of the Committee to Re-Elect the President to be a very real one and you made that observation since you were his administrative assistant? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Well, I was trying to, you asked me the question and I was trying to keep my bias as a witness. I think one of the things that Mr. MacGregor did that simply did not happen before was he traveled and he spoke and therefore the role changed. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Right. In other words, in that respect he took a very active part in the Committee To Re-Elect the President?
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Answer me this question, did you tell Mr. MacGregor everything that you have told this committee? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. No, sir. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). As to what transpired before he came over there? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. No, sir, I didn t. Frankly, I have thought about that a good deal, as to whether Mr. MacGregor, I mean at that time and I think throughout this summer, throughout the time after that I had suspicions about the things that I have told this committee. It s not until Mrs. Harmony indicated that she typed the transcripts that, they came from Mr. Liddy and that Mr. Liddy had been convicted that these things all lock up together and the testimony became significant. At that time it would have been a matter of voicing suspicions to Mr. MacGregor and I did not do that. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Did anybody else voice suspicion to Mr. MacGregor? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Absolutely. I think that is important to point out why I didn t do it.
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). The reason I ask this question, you are well aware of the fact that during the course of the summer on more than one occasion Mr. MacGregor indicated there was nothing improper that had happened? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. That s right. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Now, did this give you any pause for concern when you saw these denials taking place? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Absolutely. I think that to be precise, I was in a situation where I thought that I could make assumptions and say I was asked to remove a file which had come from Liddy and that Liddy was being investigated by the grand jury. It looks very suspicious and I certainly had suspicions about that. On the other hand, I had been reassured by Mr. Magruder there was not any involvement here, that the committee was not involved. I listened to Mr. MacGregor ask Mr. Magruder those same questions in Miami at the convention. We spent 4 hours and I listened to that discussion. There wasn t any need for me to raise to him suspicions. I m sure he had them himself. But as to evidence, I don t think at any time did we have any, did I have anything more conclusive.
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Did you have a concern that possibly he might be standing before the press and the Nation making these disavowals without complete knowledge? Would that give you any pause for concern? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Yes, it did. On the other hand, I didn t have complete knowledge. There was no question in my mind that Mr. MacGregor was discussing this with people who knew the facts and the idea that perhaps Mr. MacGregor was being misled by others with whom he was working that concerned me a good deal, yes. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). Concerned you in what way? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Well, for exactly the reason I think you have indicated that to watch a man stand up before the country and say there is no involvement here when you yourself think to yourself, well maybe there isn t and maybe there is. But you know there are so many factors involved in this thing that I wasn t aware of and that I wasn t sure about. I didn t know what the factors were. For me to go to Mr. MacGregor and say I have these suspicions that would have indicated I think, that I had complete lack of faith in what I had been told by Mr. Magruder. And I didn t. I trusted him. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). You had no cause to believe at that time, in other words, that there was something that had gone wrong? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. I had cause to believe that there was something that had gone wrong. But as to what it was that had gone wrong, whether Mr. Liddy had acted on his own, I had no cause, I had no evidence to believe that he had not acted on his own.
Watergate Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 5, 1973. Testimony of Robert Reiser
Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). In any event, neither you nor any other member of the Committee To Re-Elect the President gave Mr. MacGregor a briefing? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Oh, no. That s why I was indicating he was talking, he talked to Mr. Magruder, he talked to Mr. LaRue, he talked to Mr. Mitchell, he talked to, I am certain he attended the 8:15 meetings at the White House. And I am certain he talked to Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Colson and Mr. Ehrlichman. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). But to your own knowledge, none of the information which involved you personally was ever transmitted by you to Mr. MacGregor. Is that correct? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Of my knowledge, no, I do not know whether this information that I have talked about here today was transmitted to Mr. MacGregor, no. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). And so that when you saw the disavowals take place, did it concern you that such disavowals were being made without this type of knowledge, specific to the knowledge you had, never mind anybody else? Robert Reisner, aide to Jeb Magruder. Let s be specific about the knowledge. The knowledge was that I had been asked to remove and give to Mr. Odle a file which seems suspicious in retrospect because I think that it came from Mr. Liddy. As to whether Mr. MacGregor knew I had been asked about that, no. But then there are a lot of other factors concerning that file that would have been even more important than the little bit that I knew about such as the content. Senator Lowell Weicker (R Connecticut). I have no more questions, Mr. Chairman.