Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973 (2/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 12, 1973 (2/2)
[01.09.23] Senator MONTOYA. Well, you attended quite a few budget meetings with your budget committee to determine how the, money would be spent. This did not deal with contributions. Mr. STANS. No; it, did not; it dealt, with the spending of the campaign Senator MONTOYA. Now, did you discuss at these budget meetings the big expenditures that were being doled out to certain individuals such as Mr. Liddy? Mr. STANS. Senator, from the time I came, the expenditures so far as I know, were not big, were not large., except on the one occasion when Mr. Sloan came too me and said that, Liddy wanted a fairly I substantial amount, of money, and I went to John Mitchell and determined that Magruder had the authority to tell Sloan to make payments to Liddy. I was not aware of large amounts of payments. Senator MONTOYA. Did '.Mr. Mitchell at that meeting tell you what this money was going to be used for-, the money that, was going to be disbursed I to Mr. Liddy? Mr. STANS. No; Mr. Mitchell and I did not discuss an amount of money. We discussed only the principle of whether Mr. Magruder had the authority to direct Sloan to make payments. Mr. Magruder said he did not, know what it was about-- I mean, excuse me, Mr. Mitchell said he did not know what it was about, that it was 'Magruder's responsibility. Senator MONTOYA. Did you make any reports about the state of the finances and also the state of disbursements to anyone in the White, House while you were with the finance committee as chairman? .Mr. STANS. I made no reports of any kind on cash transactions, if that is the nature of your question. Senator MONTOYA. No disbursements--total disbursements--cash or otherwise. Mr. STANS. Total disbursements? I had several conferences with Mr. Haldeman on the subject because I was, as I said earlier, very Much concerned, almost irate, about the level of spending in this campaign. I thought originally that, in the President's position, he Could he be reelected for $25 or $30 million. And when they came to me -With budgets of $40 million which were incomplete and higher amounts I objected very strenuously I insisted that, there was overkill in the, budgets in the sense that they were spending money for massive amounts of direct, mail, massive amounts of telephoning, amounts of advertising that, just, were duplicating each other. And with that feeling of frustration, which was pretty constant every time we had a meeting, I went to Haldeman a couple of times and asked whether he couldn't get some help for me from the President in holding down the level of spending--not in term-, of any One Category, but just let's ran this campaign with less money. I don't know what Mr. Haldeman did. I didn't see any significant consequences as a result of those several meetings. Senator MONTOYA. Did he ever get, back to you? Mr. STANS, I don't recall any specific report. He would take it up and talk about it, but that was it. Senator MONTOYA. Did you ever discuss 'With Mr. Haldeman any expenditures with respect to any of the activities chargeable to the White House? Mr. STANS. NO, I don't recall any discussion with Mr. Haldeman about that. Senator MONTOYA. Were you aware that expenditures were being made for activities which were emanating from the White House? Mr. STANS. I was aware that the Republican National Finance Committee was reimbursing the White House for fairly substantial amounts of money for matters which were believed to be political, such as mailings and things like that. And when the President became the official candidate of the party, I was aware of those amounts in considerably greater detail, because I also became chairman of the Republican National Finance Committee, Yes, the two committees were paying substantial amounts of money for mailings by the White House, for traveling expenses of people 'in the White House, and for the President's political travel. Senator MONTOYA. And how was this money disbursed to the White House for these purposes? In cash or by check? Mr. STANS. Oh, it was all by check, I don't know of any case in which the money went by cash. Senator MONTOYA. SO, do I understand that the cash disbursements about which you are aware are as follows: $350,000 to Mr. Kalmbach' which eventually went to the White House to Mr. Strachan, and $75,000 to Mr. Kalmbach directly, comprised of $45,000 from your safe and $30,000 from the contribution by the Philippine National then $89,000 to Mr. LaRue on one occasion Mr. STANS. $81,000. [01.14.53]