Date: April 16, 1973
Time: 1:39 pm – 3:25 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with Henry E. Petersen.
[A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was also prepared Richard Nixon’s
Special White House Counsel for Watergate Matters and submitted to the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives. This transcript can be found in Submission of
Recorded Presidential Conversations (SRPC), pages 842-928 (1-87). Please refer to the
logging below.]
President’s schedule
-Use of Executive Office Building [EOB] office
Stairs
-Smoking
-Exercise
-Petersen’s age
Watergate
-Jeb Stuart Magruder
-Plea
-Lawyers
-Judge John J. Sirica
-Imprisonment
-Timing
-Other defendants
-John N. Mitchell, Frederick C. LaRue
-Ervin Committee hearings
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-Impact on fair trials for Watergate defendants
-Mitchell
-Possible injunction
-Mitchell’s chances for fair trial
-Precedent of tax collector case [Delaney case]
-Prejudicial publicity
-Petersen’s meetings with President
-Richard A. Moore
-Petersen’s April 15, 1973 meeting with Earl C. Silbert and Seymour
Glanzer
-Magruder
-Status in case
-Plea bargaining
-John W. Dean, III
-President’s request for resignation
-Prosecution
-Dean resignation
-Deal between Dean and prosecutors
-Timing
-Control of situation
-President’s possible statement
-Richard G. Kleindienst
-Justice Department
-Magruder plea
-Timing
-Washington Post’s revelations
-President’s role and Petersen’s role
-Possible effect of action
-Magruder, Dean
-Dean’s resignation
-Timing
-Announcement
-Petersen’s involvement
-Kleindienst
-Petersen’s role
-Harold H. Titus, Jr.
-Sirica
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-President’s statement
-Timing
-Ronald L. Ziegler
-Selection of special counsel
-History of investigative effort in the White House
-Dean report
-John D. Ehrlichman’s subsequent work
-Magruder
-Kleindienst
-Ehrlichman
-Dean’s allegation of “deep six” order
-Documents from E. Howard Hunt
-Fred F. Fielding
-Transfer of documents to L. Patrick Gray, III
-President’s knowledge
-Political compared to Watergate nature of documents
-Gray’s denial of receipt of documents
-Reconciliation with Dean
-Gordon C. Strachan
-April 16, 1973 pre-grand jury appearance interview
-Ehrlichman
-Allegation
-Petersen’s role
-Magruder’s testimony
-Obstructions of justice and subornation of perjury
-Contacts with Dean
-Dean’s subsequent call to Petersen
-Dean’s report back to Magruder
-Grand jury appearance
-Petersen quote
-Subornation of perjury
-Petersen’s possible testimony
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, Ehrlichman
-Charles W. Colson
-Allegation of White House pressure on CRP on intelligence gathering
-Haldeman
-Target of G[eorge] Gordon Liddy’s intelligence gathering
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operation
-Lawrence F. O’Brien, Jr.
-Forthcoming interview with witness W. Richard Howard
-Source of information conveyed to President
-Dean, Petersen
-Magruder
-Statement release by White House
-Ziegler
-Petersen’s role
-Kleindienst’s role
-White House investigation
-Ziegler’s presence at meeting
The President talked with the White House operator at 2:19 pm.
[Conversation No. 427-2A]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 38-65]
[End telephone conversation]
Watergate
-Testimony
-Frederick C. LaRue
-Paul L. O’Brien
-Subornation of perjury
-Dean
-Counsel’s statement on possible prosecution
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell
-Offer of immunity
-Liddy
-Petersen’s conversation with counsel
-Thomas [unintelligible], Peter L. Maroulis
-Refusal to cooperate
-Petersen’s response
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-Meeting with Liddy, Maroulis
-Magruder
-Liddy’s actions
-Cuban burglars
-Motivation
-Anti-Castro attitude
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
-Receipt of documentation and camera equipment
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Special project for the White House
-Ehrlichman as source of request
-Relevance to Watergate break-in
-Date
-Film
Ziegler entered at 2:25 pm.
Watergate
-Dean
-Timing
-Negotiations
-Magruder’s guilty plea
-Dean
-Role
-Lack of involvement with Cuban burglars
-Role in investigation
-Haldeman
-Immunity
-Defense as presented by lawyer
-Role as agent of the President
-Obstruction of justice
-Invocation of executive privilege
-Negotiations on deal
-Immunity issue
-Effect of immunizing Dean
-Mitchell
-Magruder
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-Liddy
-Negotiations on timing
-Counsel’s concerns
-Ervin hearings, Sirica
-Dean
-March 21, 1973 meeting with the President
-President’s investigation
-Possible action on Magruder, Dean
-Washington Post
-Instructions to cooperate
-Protection of rights
-President’s statement
-Scope of investigation
-Dean’s role
-Effect on Dean’s future action
-Mood of potential witnesses
-Effect of President’s statement
-Disclosure to Ervin Committee counsel Samuel Dash
-Possible meeting between President and Congressmen
-Disclosure of information
-Need for President to take pre-emptive action
-Washington Post
-Ehrlichman investigation
-President’s meetings with Attorney General
-James W. McCord, Jr.
-President’s role in investigation
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
-Dean’s report
-Dash, McCord
-Moore
-Release of story
-Wire services
-The President’s involvement
Ziegler left at 2:52 pm.
Watergate
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-White House staff
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman
-Legal status of case
-Ehrlichman
-Haldeman
-Strachan
-Haldeman’s receipt of intelligence reports
-Prior knowledge
-President’s query to Dean
-Ehrlichman, Haldeman
-Dean
-Meeting in Mitchell’s office
-Culpability
-Inaction as cause of culpability
-Ehrlichman, Haldeman
-Ehrlichman
-Order to destroy files
-Petersen’s forthcoming conversations with
Gray, Fielding, and Ehrlichman
-Transfer of materials to Gray
-Gray
-Relevancy to case
-Proof of Dean’s veracity
-Gray’s receipt of material
-Hypothetical situation
-Kleindienst
-Gray’s receipt of material
-Status of material at present
-Dean’s veracity
-President’s meeting with Dean
-Hunt
-Missing notebooks from safe
-Dean, Fielding, Bruce A. Kehrli’s recollections
-Relevance to case
-Gray
-Grand jury testimony
-Financial disbursements
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-Dorothy Hunt
-Role as intermediary
-Fee to Hunt’s lawyer William O. Bittman
-Prosecutor in James R. (“Jimmy”) Hoffa
case
-Payroll allegations
-McCord
-Colson
-Hunt
-Testimony
-Los Angeles Times story about Alfred C. Baldwin
-Delivery of envelope
-Inability to remember addressee
-Listing of names
-Murray M. Chotiner
-Denial by Baldwin as to recipient’s
identity
-Appearance of name in tape of
conversation
-Sirica’s listening of tape
-Request to Silbert for subpoena
issuance to Chotiner
-Chotiner’s status in
case
-Justice Department’s
refusal to issue
subpoena
-Haldeman’s status in case
-LaRue’s confirmation of Strachan’s story
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman
-Resignation
-Petersen’s recommendation
-Timing
-Dean, Magruder allegations
-President’s April 16, 1973 conversation with Dean
-Office of Presidency
-Ehrlichman culpability
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-Materials in Gray’s custody
-Instructions to Hunt
-Dean’s story
-Liddy’s story
-Impact on White House
-Haldeman
-Dean’s discussion with Haldeman
-Money
-bugging operation
-Agreement not to proceed
-Subsequent inaction
-Mitchell
-Dean’s statements to President
-Strachan
-Magruder
-Culpability
-Authority in campaign
-Lack of disclosure
-Dean’s allegations
-President’s planned meeting with William P. Rogers
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman’s joint resignation
-Timing
-Magruder
-Resignations
-Timing
-Dean’s departure prior to Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Negotiations
-Charles N. Shaffer
-Alleged report to Haldeman
-Immunity issue
-President’s need to be informed
-Strachan’s forthcoming testimony
-President’s telephone call to Peterson
-Strachan’s and LaRue’s testimony
Peterson left at 3:25 pm.
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