Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 7, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 7, 1973
[00.28.35] Senator INOUYE. If Citizen A contributed $1,000 to your committee by check, you would list that, would you not? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir. Senator INOUYE. By name and address? Mr. SLOAN. Not in the pre-April 7 period, Senator, only under the requirements of the new law. Well, we would if we had it, yes, sir. I mean, for internal purposes, we would attempt to have the names and addresses of all these persons. Senator INOUYE. Did you list the cash contributions by name and address? Mr. SLOAN. Yes, sir, not on this report we are talking about here, but all the cash contributors were merged into a composite list of contributors and their addresses were listed on that report. In other words, there was a single record at, the end of the pre-April 7 periods that listed all contributors to the campaign, including those that gave securities, by check and by cash There was a total record listing names and addresses of all our major contributors in that period. Senator INOUYE. April 7 is an important date. I notice from GAO report that after that, you had received $50,000 from an anonymous source which, for some reason, you preferred not to report, required by law, Could you tell us why? Mr. SLOAN. Senator, in the receipt of that money, I did not have the information on the basis to which I could make any report. At the time I left the committee,, I had not made the effort to get that information. I quite frankly was too busy. It was one of the items--there were four others--three others--that I pointed out to officials of the campaign tit the time I left, were items that needed to be resolved. They either had to be returned because indications had been made that the donors wished to remain anonymous and I did not know how to do that, or else we had to get the information. For instance, a $50,000 contribution, to protect, the individual on a gift tax liability, would have to be distributed among a number of committees. We did not know the wishes of the donor in that regard I did not know the name of the donor, I had no way of dealing with that, in a sense I was holding it in escrow until I had that information. Senator INOUYE. And -what moved you to report this, or did you report this? Mr. SLOAN. Excuse me you mean on a final report or a report to the-- Senator INOUYE. Yes, sir. Mr. SLOAN. Senator, at the time I left, this matter was unresolved. I made no report--excuse me, Senator. I internally made reports of this to officials who I presumed were carrying on these responsibility on responsibilities ties after my departure. Senator INOUYE. When did you leave the committee? Mr. SLOAN. July 14, 1972. Senator INOUYE. And after that were You employed? Mr. SLOAN-. -Not for a period of 5 months, Senator. Senator INOUYE. And then were did you work? Mr. SLOAN. I worked for a period from January to March as a consultant at the Finance Committee To Re-Elect the President. Senator INOUYE. It is your testimony to this committee that during the period You served as treasurer of this Committee To Re-Elect the President and during which time you were responsible. for the cash disbursements of amounts totaling about, $I million, you did not, tit any time have a twinge of suspicion as to the use of these funds. Mr. SLOAN. I think anybody has a normal curiosity, Senator, but these procedures had been going on for nearly it period of a year and a half, in many cases it had been indicated it became an operating procedure. I was quite frankly too busy after a certain period of time to pursue curiosity. Senator INOUYE. Did these people ever account to you as to whether the funds -were used or not? Mr. SLOAN. No, sir, they did not. Senator INOUYE. I think the Internal Revenue Service would like to know if the funds were spent, otherwise it would be income would it not? Mr. SLOAN. I would imagine that is correct, Senator. I considered it from the committee standpoint, the point it left my hands, I don't mean a single committee, but the funds of pre-April 7 committees, that, was in fact a final distribution from our standpoint as far as my responsibility to account, for it. Senator INOUYE. You indicated that you authorized and forwarded the sum of $350,000 in cash to Mr. Haldeman. Mr. SLOAN. I do not, know whether he received it. My instructions on that distribution came through Mr. Kalmbach. I understood from conversations with Mr. Kalmbach, he had had conversations with Mr. Bob Haldeman about this matter. Senator INOUYE. Did 'Mr. Kalmbach tell You how the funds were used? Mr. SLOAN. -No, sir, he did not. Senator INOUYE. Did you ever suspect that it, might have gone into one's own pocket? Mr. SLOAN. No, sir. Senator INOUYE. As treasurer you were never curious as to how the funds were used? Mr. SLOAN. As I think I have indicated, Senator, these were funds authorized by higher authority, men who I worked with for periods of 5 or 6 years. They are men I have great trust in, I had no reason to be suspicious at that time of the motivations of any of these individuals. [00.34.08]