Watergate Hearings - Testimony of Herbert Porter, June 7, 1973.
Watergate Hearings - Testimony of Herbert Porter, June 7, 1973.
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 7, 1973. Testimony of Herbert Porter.
Watergate Hearings - Testimony of Herbert Porter, June 7, 1973.
Sam Ervin (D North Carolina). The committee will come to order. Mr. Thompson? Fred Thompson, attorney. Mr. Porter, as I understand it, your statement here this morning is to the effect that you agreed with Mr. Magruder that you would tell the grand jury a false story. Is that correct? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. What I agreed to specifically, Mr. Thompson, was that I would agree initially to corroborate a story that Mr. Magruder was going to tell to the FBI which I felt was in effect, replacing one lawful authorization for another lawful authorization. Fred Thompson, attorney. Well, was it or was it not a false story? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. Yes, that is absolutely correct. It was a false statement. Fred Thompson, attorney. You gave this false statement to the grand jury? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. Yes, Sir. Fred Thompson, attorney. And you gave it at the trial in January? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. Yes, Sir.
Watergate Hearings - Testimony of Herbert Porter, June 7, 1973.
Fred Thompson, attorney. When did you go to the proper authorities and tell them the truth about these matters? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. The appointment was on April 18th at the U.S. Attorney's Office, although the contact had been made earlier than that for the contact to set up an appointment, I mean. Fred Thompson, attorney. When was the contact made? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. I believe the 15th. Fred Thompson, attorney. The 15th. Herbert Porter, CRP aide. Yes, sir. Fred Thompson, attorney. What caused you to go to them and make that contact? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. To answer that question, Mr. Thompson, would in its context, would really cause me to go back to April 9th when Mr. Magruder called me in New York where I was employed and stated that things were not looking too good for him. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, let me just say that things are getting a little hot down here. And I said, Jeb, I don t know what you mean by that. You have always indicated to me that you were not involved in any of these matters. And he said, that is right. I said, I don t want you to go into anything. He said, well, I ll keep you up to date, or keep you up to speed or words to that effect. He called me on Wednesday, on April 11, and said, Bart, if I were you I would call Paul O'Brien, who was one of the lawyers for the committee, and tell him to call Earl Silbert and go down and tell Earl what you know. I said, Jeb, you realize you are asking me to in effect, put one of your feet in a 6 foot-deep hole. He said, yes, I know that but I got you into this and the least I can do is help you get out of it. So I called Mr. O'Brien on the telephone.
Watergate Hearings - Testimony of Herbert Porter, June 7, 1973.
Fred Thompson, attorney. When? Herbert Porter, CRP aide. This was on April 11. And I told him that I had had the conversation with Mr. Magruder. I told him I wanted him to call Mr. Silbert and that I wanted to go talk to Mr. Silbert. Mr. O'Brien's response to me was, now, why do you want to go and do a stupid thing like that for? I said, well, I just do. He said, now, you sound a little rattled, just calm down a little. He said, when are you going to be back down in Washington? I was commuting at the time, my family was here. I said, well, I will be in tomorrow evening, Thursday evening, April 12. He said, well, why don't you come in and see me on Friday, the 13th and we will talk about it? So I did and we, during the afternoon, Mr. O'Brien alternately said, gee, I don't know whether you have a problem here or not. He was very tired. He in fact fell asleep a couple of times during our conversation. [Laughter] I don't say that jokingly. The man was exhausted, in my opinion. So, he said, well, I think maybe we ought to get another opinion here. So he called Mr. Parkinson on the telephone and there was a brief pause and he said, yes, I will tell him that. Parkinson thinks you should tell the truth. I said, yes, that is what I called you about, 2 days ago. He said, well, I really don t know what to tell you. I just, we still need. And he hemmed and hawed.
Watergate Hearings - Testimony of Herbert Porter, June 7, 1973.
Herbert Porter, CRP aide. He then got a phone call from Mr. Magruder, who was over at his attorney's office. They conversed briefly and he said, yes, I will tell Porter that. That s a good idea. So he hung up and he said, you go over and talk to Magruder's lawyer. At this point I did not have any counsel except Mr. Parkinson and Mr. O'Brien. He said, you go over and talk to Magruder's lawyer and see what he thinks you ought to do. So I went over to the office of Mr. James Sharp and spoke briefly with him. I would say no more than 10 minutes.