Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973
[00.47.26] Mr. DASH. And do you know, to your knowledge, what the purpose of that disbursement was? Mr. SLOAN. I have sort of a peripheral knowledge from being there at the time, it was turned over. My understanding was that this period we had situation arose out, of the fact, during the pre-April 7 asked everything thing, all funds received in the States be turned in to the national committee. Evidently in the case of Maryland an arrangement was made, presumably between Secretary Stans and whoever the other principals were, that they were going to have a dinner for, I believe, Vice President Agnew at a later date which they knew about and, yes, they would be willing to turn all money in at this point but they would expect a loan back as seed money for this dinner and that that money would come back to us again in terms of receipts from the dinner. Mr. DASH. -NOW, who is Mr. Hitt, who is the next person listed on the chart? Mr, SLOAN. Mr. Bob Hitt, this would be in 1971, was the administrative assistant to Rogers 'Morton at the Department of the Interior. Mr, DASH. And the chart, indicates that he received a cash disbursement. from you of $25,000; is that correct? Mr. SLOAN. Yes sir. Mr. DASH. To your knowledge, do you know what that disbursement was for? Mr. SLOAN. I am not positive that, I knew precisely at the time I gave, it to him but certainly in the period of attempts to get it back it was clearly indicated that those funds had been requested for the purpose of aiding in the special election for the congressional seat vacated by Rogers Morton when he assumed the secretaryship of Interior. Mr. DASH. Just briefly, would you go down the rest of the names On the. list and give a brief statement, to your knowledge, if you do !mow what the amount was for? Mr, SLOAN. Mr. Lon Nofsiger, at, that time was probably the executive director of the California Committee for the Re-Election of the President. I am not positive that it Was in cash but it is likely that it, was-- I had no knowledge at, the time of the purpose. This would be hearsay and I have heard rumors since then from people in the campaign. This was used for some purpose with regard to the Wallace Primary. Mr. Stone I assume, is Mr. Clement Stone. That request really was from Mr. Bob, Bob Athey, who was his political assistant. As I understand the circumstances there, Mr. Stone had made 8 very large contribution to the President's campaign in the pre-April 7 period. Evidently he had indicated in the period of time where the arrangements for" this were made, at which I was not present, that he intended in making his total contribution to the national level that this would be his complete contribution for all political activities in the 1972 election year. So what this amounted to was a request from Mr. Athey for a return of a certain portion of his contribution to be used, I believe, in Illinois for a bipartisan vote-fraud committee. He had evidently made a commitment of $15,000 to that committee. In that case I am not sure, as well as the case of Mr. Nofsiger, whether that was check or cash. Mr. Robert Dole at that point in time was the chairman of the Republican National Committee. I do not recall how this request was made. I remember within the committee it was disputed. The funds, as I understood them, were to pay for a trip of his to Vietnam, internally within the staff, we could not understand why we would be paying for Mr. Dole's trip. Mr. DASH. I think the other were miscellaneous amounts and I think for the purposes of this time we do not need a full explanation of those but would you provide the committee, I think you have the list, the specific accounting, if you have it, of the others. Now, what I would like to do, Mr. Sloan, is move ahead to the period of June 17, 1972, which was the date of the break-in of the Democratic national headquarters, Where were you at that time? Mr. SLOAN, At the time of the break-in? Mr. DASH. Yes, sir. Mr. SLOAN. I believe the break-in was in the very early hours of the morning. On the date that the news of the break-in came out, which was the 17th I was at my office in the campaign committee. Mr. DASH. Now, did anything occur on that date with regard to Mr. Liddy and you? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir. Mr. DASH. Please tell the committee what, if anything, happened? Mr. SLOAN. I am Dot sure precisely of the timing Of this but I believe it was as I came into the committee that morning, which would have been probably 9:30, quarter to 10, somewhere in that, range, I believe I ran into Mr. Liddy outside of his office, I stopped him whether merely to say good morning or whether I had a specific question of him, I really cannot recall. He was obviously in a hurry. He was essentially heading down the hall. At that, point in time he." made the statement to me, to the best of my recollection, that: "My boys got caught last night-, I made a mistake; I used somebody from here, Which I told them I would never do; I am afraid I am going to lose my job." [00.53.29]