- Title: UNITED STATES: EHRLICHMAN AND HALDEMAN GIVE EVIDENCE AT WATERGATE HEARING.
- Date: 31st July 1973
- Summary: 1. GV Int. Watergate Committee (silent) 0.08 2. SV Ehrlichman 0.35 3. GV People in Gallery 0.38 4. GV Haldeman enters room and seated (2 shots) 0.54 5. SV Reporters (silent) 1.00 6. SCU Haldeman 2.30 EHRLICHMAN: "Mr. Vice Chairman, this Select Committee has an awesome responsibility -- to find the truth. But the search cannot be made by ones whose eyes are clouded with preconceptions or partisanship, it can only be found by those with open minds, free of bias and unfairness. I am confident that the truth is there to be seen; it only needs the seers. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman;" HALDEMAN: "This President, Ehrlichman and I were involved, very much involved in other .. many other vital matters in this vital period; and we made no attempt to get into the details of, or in any way, take over the Watergate case. The view of all three of us during the whole period was that the truth must be told and quickly, although we did not know what the truth was. Every time we pushed for action in this direction we were told by Dan that it could not be done. His concern, as I understood it, was that the case was complex. It involved rights of defendants and other legal complexities, the facts were not clear, and that nothing should be done publicly. As long as we were confident that the facts he told us were correct, we had to agree with this, since there was no proof of any involvement of higher-ups of the Committee and any premature speculation regarding any such involvement would have been unfair and damaging, especially since the top officials at the Committee had denied any involvement. Thus, as it now appears, we were badly misled by one or more of the principals, and even more so by our own man, for reasons which are still not completely clear. At no time did I give Dean any instructions to cover-up anything in this case. I did, however, occasionally receive his verbal reports of the facts and his intended actions, and relayed these to the President. None of these reports concerned the cover-up. Initials AE/1.16 AE/1.45 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th August 1973 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WASHINGTON, U.S.A.
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA1CCQOAVI6YC7HJPB0SR2BPJN4
- Story Text: In Washington, the Senate Committee hearings into the Watergate affair on Monday (30 July) saw the conclusion of five days evidence by Mr. John Ehrlichman and the start of evidence by Mr. Bob Haldeman -- both trusted advisers of President Nixon before their resignations.
Mr. Ehrlichman, who was the President's Chief Domestic Affairs adviser, finished his testimony calling for an investigation "with open minds, free of bias and unfairness."
In his opening evidence, Mr. Haldeman, the former White House Chief of Staff, spoke about the investigation of Mr. John Dean, the President's legal adviser, into the Watergate case.
Mr. Haldeman said at no time did he give Mr. Dean any instructions to cover up anything in the case.
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