Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 6, 1973
[00.02.00--In to Hugh SLOAN questioned by Sen. GURNEY about CRP expenditures of the 1972 campaign] Mr. SLOAN. My first meeting with Mr. Raine was, I believe, sometime in February 1972, when he transmitted to Washington on behalf of Mr. Kalmbach several hundred thousand dollars in cash which were represented to me as being a carryover of 1968 funds. I think we had initially set up a separate safe deposit box from the one we already had for those funds. Senator GURNEY. Any of them had access to the lockboxes during the time Mr. Kalmbach was your boss; is that right? Mr. SLOAN. Mr. Stans may have been in place at that point in time, but Mr. Kalmbach was still very active as a fundraiser and at one point in time in March was actively an officer of the committee. Senator GURNEY. Do you know whether Mr. Raine ever made any withdrawals of cash at any time? Mr. SLOAN. I know he has not, because I kept the records and eventually consolidated this all in the safe in the office. I can verify that no money that ever came under my control was ever taken out without my knowledge. Senator GURNEY. And who else had access to the lockboxes? Mr. SLOAN. I think just so there would be other people around, think Jane Dannenhauer, my secretary, would have been a signatory. Eveline Hyde, might have been. I think Judy Hoback, just as a function of having somebody who would be there if Mr. Kalmbach came to town and I was out, just so somebody would be in the office who could act as a second signatory. Senator GURNEY. Any withdrawals of cash from lockboxes were made by you, is that correct? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir. Senator GURNEY. How many were made? Mr. SLOAN. I have forgotten, Senator, precisely when we got the safe. The procedural handling of cash funds was the same throughout. I kept a cash-in and -out book, recording receipts and distributions, so that I kept an ongoing record wherever it happened to be at that particular time. Senator GURNEY. This is a record you later gave to Mr. Stans? Mr. SLOAN. In summary form. In other words, the figures would be aggregated--Mr. Liddy, $199,000--not just the individual occasions. Senator GURNEY. With regard to access to the safes, who had access to the safes? Mr. SLOAN. When it was in. my office, I had the combination. I think- my secretary had it as well. When it, was moved into Arden Chambers' office, only Secretary Stans and I had the combination. Senator GURNEY. . Whom did you have the most contact with in the Committee To Re-Elect the President? Whom did you see most of, have transactions with? Mr. SLOAN. You mean within the political committee in terms of--- Senator GURNEY. Yes. Mr. SLOAN. Probably Rob Odle, because in our internal procedures in approving bills and so forth, he was really the central point for the political committee on where those bills came from. His signature was necessary to approve them; they would come through him and be sent down to myself. I would say he was the principal person I had any regular contact with I obviously saw some of these other people almost day-to-day, but not too of often in the business sense. Senator GURNEY. Did you ever have any contact with Mr. Haldeman? Mr. SLOAN. Not from the time I joined the committee until fairly recently. I have seen him once since I joined the committee. Senator GURNEY. When was that? Mr. SLOAN. I think it, was probably sometime in January, Senator. Senator GURNEY. What was the occasion of that meeting? Mr. SLOAN. I sought him out. At that point I had rejoined the finance committee as a consultant. Since he had gotten me into the campaign, I had made certain decisions. I wanted to, before I left town--and I was making plans to do so--I wanted to advise him essentially on the basis of the information that I had at that time, that I had totally supported the President of the United States and that my leaving the campaign was not intended in any way to reflect on that, but that essentially, I was unwilling to follow' the advice of some of his advisers at this time. I felt that having worked for him, on the way out, I just wanted to let him know what I had done and why I had done it. Senator GURNEY. What is this about following advice of someone? Mr. SLOAN. I had the feeling--I think the term has been used by some of your staff investigators-that, I was considered "off the reservation" as far as the White House and the campaign committee were concerned because of the actions I had taken. I did not know for instance--I knew that, Bob Haldeman had regular access to the President. I felt that any information on me quite probably had never gotten there, and that I felt, that I knew him well and that I just wanted to make one effort to put on the record there how I felt about things and why I had done them. [00.07.26]