Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973
[00.40.36] Mr. EDMISTEN. Mr. Stans, how did you become chairman of the finance committee? Who encouraged you to take that responsibility? Mr. STANS. A number of people encouraged me to do it, I guess I became chairman by default, and in the absence of another candidate for the job I eventually ended up volunteering to the President early in January 1972. Mr. EDMISTEN. Now, in your statement you mentioned that there was a good deal of difference between the finance committee and the actual campaign committee. Did you not have anything to do at any time with the campaign committee? Mr. STANS, I had nothing of any significance to do with the campaign committee at any time except insofar as I sat as a member of the budget committee. Mr. EDMISTEN, Did you on May 10, 1972, write a memo to the Honorable John N. Mitchell in which you discussed a number of issues regarding the various open budget matters and may I show this memorandum to you? Mr. STANS. You do not need to, I am very familiar with that memorandum. Mr. EDMISTEN. Yes. Mr. STANS. And I certainly did write it. I wrote it under the circumstance I described in my opening statement. I was frustrated, upset, at the level of spending that was projected by the campaign people, and I proposed a number of reductions in the budget. Mr. EDMISTEN. Yes, Now, Now, you pretty well covered the whole area of the campaign in this memo, did you not? For instance, No. I was November Group, No. 2 convention, No. 3 Republican National Committee, No. 4 national campaign budget. You were rather familiar with the Operation of the campaign committee if you were able to write this extensive a memo, I would take it? Mr. STANS. Well, I do not think that is- quite the right way to say it. I was not very familiar at all with the operation of the campaign committee I was only familiar with their objectives its to how much they were going to spend and approximately a dozen categories in which they were going to spend it, and I was objecting to the total am amount that they were going to spend. Mr. EDMISTEN. Mr. Chairman, could we have this one marked, it is a memo from Mr. Stans. Senator IRVIN. Yes, Sir, I understand he has identified it, he, says he wrote it. Mark it appropriately as an exhibit and receive it as such. Mr. EDMISTEN, Mr. Stans what, was Gordon Liddy's position in the campaign? Mr. STANS. Gordon Liddy was general counsel to the campaign committee until around the end of March, and then he became general counsel to the finance committee. Mr. EDMISTEN. And then during his tenure at the finance committee you relied upon his advice a great deal. Mr. STANS. I relied upon his- legal advice a great deal. Mr. EDMISTEN. Right. Did he give you the advice regarding the pre-April 7 contributions and those after? Did you rely upon his, legal advice? Mr. STANS. Yes, as one of the sources of legal advice, I did rely on his. Mr. EDMISTEN, Were You aware that he was receiving cash from. Mr. Bart Porter and Mr. Hugh Sloan" Mr. STANS. Prior to April 7 I was aware that he, had received cash on some occasions-. I was not aware of the amounts in total or on any one occasion and I was not aware that the total was anywhere as large as it was. I thought it consisted of' relatively small amounts of money. I had heard at one point or another that Mr. Liddy was receiving money for use in the primaries. Mr. EDMISTEN. That is the Only reason that you had knowledge of what was brought to your attention? Mr. STANS. It was one of the things that was mentioned at one time or another. Mr. EDMISTEN. I am sure, Mr. Stans, that you are familiar with Mr. Sloan's testimony before this committee that he discussed with you a payment of $83,000 to Mr. Liddy. Now, what is your testimony On that transaction? Mr. STANS. Somewhere around the 6th of' April, Sloan came to me, and said that Gordon Liddy wanted a very substantial amount of money. I don't recall the amount he named and last August, which was much closer to the time, I recalled in testifying in a deposition to the Federal district attorney's office that I thought the amount, was $30,000 but I recalled that only vaguely. In any event I don think the amount is very important. Mr. Sloan said. "Liddy wants a substantial amount of money. Should I give it to him". And I said, "I don't know. I will find out from John Mitchell." [00.45.56]