Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 7, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 7, 1973
[00.02.00--NPACT letters on black screen--image of page with SENATE RESOLUTION 60--Robert MacNEILL v.o. reading text of resolution--title screen "SENATE HEARINGS ON CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES"--MacNEILL in studio] ***SEE RESTRICTIONS FIELD OF RIGHTS SECTION*** MacNEILL states that the day's hearings ended with new insight into the motivations of men who were willing to disregard the law to carry out the campaign out of loyalty to NIXON. States that viewers will see the unusual spectacle of a man admitting that he voluntarily committed perjury, for which he could still be indicted, as part of the Watergate Coverup. This man was Herbert PORTER, of the Committee to Re-Elect, who paid out some of the funds to Gordon LIDDY. MacNEILL states that his testimony raised a major theme of the hearings, how to ensure the morality of campaigns. [00.03.32--Jim LEHRER] LEHRER states that the fallout from Watergate continues to reach outside the hearings. Clarence KELLY, Kansas City police chief, was nominated to head the FBI, after the previous nominee, Patrick GRAY, was forced to quit because of his handling of the Watergate INVESTIGATION. States that the FBI will continue to be led by acting Attorney General William RUCKELSHAUS until KELLY can be confirmed by the senate, with the BUREAU being without permanent leadership since the death of J. EDGAR HOOVER over a year before. [MacNEILL] MacNEILL states that in the courts, the deposition of former WHITE HOUSE Chief of Staff H.R. HALDEMAN was made public, containing some surprises. HALEDMAN'S deposition stated that White House Counsel John DEAN was never asked formally to investigate WHITE HOUSE involvement in Watergate, and never submitted a report on it [contradiction of the White House's public statements on the matter] MacNEILL states that HALDEMAN'S deposition claims that DEAN did not talk to NIXON about the Watergate matter directly until 1973, confirming DEAN'S statement of surprise in 1972 upon hearing that NIXON had publicly claimed that DEAN was investigating the matter. The deposition also stated that HALDEMAN had control of a $350,000 fund for polling during the campaign. The deposition was part of the Civil litigation by the DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE against the COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT, and was over 200 pages long. [LEHRER] LERHER states that, as viewers will see, Jeb Stuart MAGRUDER is now at the center of the scandal, as the days testimony places MAGRUDER in a central postion in the COVERUP, with Hugh SLOAN giving more damaging testimony, and another former CRP staffer Herb PORTER adding more incrimination of MAGRUDER. SLOAN'S testimony concerning MAGRUDER'S efforts to get SLOAN to lie about the amount of money given to Gordon LIDDY, and PORTER'S story concering MAGRUDER asking PORTER to lie to the FBI, a GRAND JURY, and a trial court, with PORTER going along with the plan because he trusted MAGRUDER personally and in his position of second in command to John MITCHELL in the COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT. [00.05.53--shot of PORTER testifying] PORTER recounts MAGRUDER asking PORTER to corroborate to the FBI a false statement previously made by MAGRUDER about expenditures to LIDDY and others, and continuing to corroborate the PERJURY for the GRAND JURY and the TRIAL of the Watergate defendants. [00.06.52--MacNEILL in studio] MacNEILL states that PORTER would later describe his motivations in going along with the COVERUP, and that his admission of PERJURY before a national audience was a dramatic moment of the hearings thus far. [00.07.04] .