Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973 (1/2)
[00.02.00--in to Maurice STANS testifying about receiving campaign contributions] Mr. STANS......the general counsel suggested that he take the check and convert it into cash. The treasurer gave him the check Now, again, I can report what the treasurer has said, that he did not get the proceeds of the check back until some time in "May. He received them in full and they were deposited in a bank account on May 25. Now, as to those two transactions and several others in a similar category we treated that as cash on hand on April 7 and reported it in the report of the media Committee To Re-Elect the President, in the, amount of $50,000, and that exact amount of $350,000 was deposited in that committee's bank account, on May 25. We, felt that we had complied with every requirement of the law as to the handling and reporting of That money; we had accounted for it fully. The General Accounting Office subsequently cited our committee for a, possible violation of the law in failing to report the $25,000. But the Department of Justice, in a letter some months later, concluded that there was no violation of the law in the handling of that transaction. Mr. EDMISTEN. Mr. Stans, when was the, first time that, you learned that these checks had cleared through a bank account? Mr. STANS. -It was well after the Watergate event of June 17, Mr. EDMISTEN. Now, shortly after that, did you have any discussion with Mr. John Mitchell or anyone at the White House concerning any of these checks during the week following? Mr. STANS. I don't recall any specific conversation with John Mitchell, but do recall a conversation with Fred LaRue and subsequently with Robert Mardian. Mr. EDMISTEN. What did you talk about? Mr. STANS. As I recall it, it, was the morning of the 23d of June, which was 6 days after the Watergate affair. I received a phone call from Fred LaRue, saying,, "Do you know Kenneth Dahlberg?" And I said, "I certainly do." He said, his contribution ended up in a bank account of one of the fellows who was arrested. I said, Dahlberg didn't make a contribution." He said, "Well, it is his check." So he came down and we discussed it and concluded that, in Some Manner or other, Dahlberg's cheek must have reached the bank account of Bernard Barker. We called Dahlberg and discussed It with him, got him to Washington on that same day. mot with him, and he met with LaRue and I think with Mardian,. and got all the facts of the transaction in hand. It, was clear that neither Dahlberg nor I nor Hugh Sloan had anything to do with the checks, that check or the Mexican checks, entering the, Barker bank account. They could only have gotten there through the bands of our general counsel, Gordon Liddy, who had. taken them into his custody, Mr. EDMISTEN. Mr. Stans, I am going to skip along, I don't want to encroach on the committee. At one time did you approve Or consent to giving Mr. Fred LaRue $80,000? Mr. STANS. I did. Would you like to know the background of that? Mr. EDMISTEN. Yes. When was that? Mr. STANS. The same day of June 23, Mr. Sloan had balanced out his cash account, something which I had asked him to do as early as April 10 but which he couldn't do because he was waiting for the return of the proceeds of the various checks we were discussing. He showed a balance of $81,000 of cash on hand and expressed some concern about it because he was going on vacation and under the tense situation that was building up he didn't want to hold the cash in his custody. We discussed it and concluded that the funds were of a nature which did not classify them as funds of the current committees, that they were more properly funds of earlier committees, that they were not part of what we had to account, for in an audit by the General Accounting Office, and that we should get legal advice. [00.07.15]