Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973
[00.36.32] Mr. DASH. When you said call him, you meant Mr. Mitchell? Mr. SLOAN. Yes , sir. Mr., DASH. And his secretary, who would that be? Mr. SLOAN. Miss Lee Jablonski. What was happening was that Mr. Magruder was meeting with Mr. Mitchell regularly at, the Justice Department with regard to planning for the political side of the campaign. During those meetings, he evidently was discussing financial matters, expenditures, and so forth, and getting clearance from Mr. Mitchell to go ahead and make those expenses. Following the strict instructions I had from Mr. Kalmbach, when Mr. Magruder came back to me and said, this has been approved, I would turn around and call back down to the Justice Department. I understand from Lee Jablonski at that point in time that Mr. Mitchell was getting irritated about being double-teamed on the same issue and issued instructions for Mr. Magruder and I to work out the clearance authority for expenditure. This was resolved in terms of Mr. Magruder saying to me, any time I ask you for money, you Can count On the fact that this has Mr. Mitchell's clearance. Conversely, he indicated to me that anything I said with regard to the finance committee, he would assume that I had Mr. Stans' permission. Although Mr., Stans had not come into the campaign at that point, it Was known he would be assuming the finance chairmanship Mr. DASH. Now, with regard to that $100,000, approximately, that Porter received, do you know of your own knowledge why he received that money? Mr. SLOAN. No, sir, I do not, Mr. DASH. Now, with regard to Mr. Liddy? Mr. SLOAN. Mr. Liddy's situation is very similar to Mr. Porter's situation. Mr. DASH, Talking about Mr. Liddy, who is Mr. Liddy? Mr. SLOAN. Excuse me. Mr. Gordon Liddy was at that period of time, the time he began receiving cash payments, was general counsel to the political committee, the Committee To Re-Elect the President. At a subsequent time, he became general counsel for the Finance Committee To Re-Elect the President. Mr. DASH. I think the chart shows a total amount of $199,000. IS that correct, to the best of your recollection? Mr. SLOAN. To the best of my recollection, yes, sir, Mr. DASH. Could you review very briefly how that money was paid to him and under what circumstances? Mr. Porte Mr. SLOAN, It was a similar type of arrangement. Porter Had blanket authority from Mr. Magruder to come to me and give me a figure of how much cash he would need. He generally, up to that time, he received funds in the same type of increments as 'Mr. Porter received them --generally $10,000 or $15,000 at a time. There came a time when , it came very close to the April 7 date and I am not, positive whether it was before or after and my best recollection would be the chart. He came to me with a budget of' $250,000 He did not, release that, from his hand; he merely showed me the figure. He said, I will be coming to you for substantial cash payment, the first item of which will be $83,000 and I would like to pick that, up in a day or two. He said, in the case of these additional expenditures! distributions beyond what I had given him previously, he indicated that the procedure had changed, that I was to clear each and every distribution from that, point On With Mr. Magruder. I called -Mr. Magruder with regard to this $250,000 budget. He indicated to me that, what Mr. Liddy told me was correct, that I was to go ahead and pay the $83,000 on request, but, that subsequent distributions were to be personally cleared with him by telephone prior to their being made and he wanted at that time to review both the timing and the amount. Confronted with this, I at that point in time took up with Secretary Stans. I went to him. I indicated to him that here was a situation where we had a budget running into the post-April 7 period out of pre-April 7 cash funds. I Said in my judgment, because I had been Sitting on top of the total figures that it Seemed to me that the, cash distributions were becoming massive and that this particular distribution of $83,000 was totally out of line with anything we had done before. At that, point in time, I requested that he reconfirm to me. Mr. Magruder's authority to make these kinds of decisions and he indicated to me that he would take the matter up with Mr. Mitchell. [00.41.40--key quote here] He returned from that meeting with Mr. Mitchell and he confirmed that Mr. Magruder continued to have this authority, that I should pay these funds. and with regard to my question of concern about purpose, he said, "I do not want to know and you don't want. to know." [00.41.57]