918–14

Conversation No. 918-14

Date: May 15, 1973
Time: 9:59 am - 10:45 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with an unknown man and Henry E. Petersen.

Greetings

The unknown man left at an unknown time after 9:59 am.

Congressional relations
-President’s previous meeting with congressional leaders
-Delay
-Traffic

Watergate
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 918-14 (cont’d)

-J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
-Compared with John W. Dean, III
-Petersen’s knowledge
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Special Prosecutor
-President’s conversation with Elliot L. Richardson
-President’s conversation with Petersen and Richard G. Kleindienst, April 15,
1973
-Justice Department investigation
-White House cooperation

-Dean

-William D. Ruckelshaus

-Special Prosecutor
-Harold R. Tyler, Jr.
-Relationship with Myles J. Ambrose

-Richardson’s plan

-Function

-Decisions to prosecute
-Grand Jury investigation
-Effect on the President and Petersen
-President’s appointments
-John N. Mitchell, Maurice H. Stans, H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D.
Ehrlichman

-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

-President’s decisions

-President’s conversation with Richardson
-Petersen
-Petersen’s actions
-Possible alternatives
-Kleindienst
-Dean
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Telephone call from the President

-Hijacking incident

-Investigation

-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters and Richard M. Helms
 -13-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 918-14 (cont’d)

-Kleindienst
-Number of interviews
-Gray
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] investigation
-Jeb Stuart Magruder


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[Statute]

[Duration: 1 m 30 s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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Watergate
-President’s meeting with Petersen and Kleindienst, April 15, 1973
-Resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Material for W. Matthew Byrne
-President’s telephone call to Petersen from Camp David
-G[eorge] Gordon Liddy
-Break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Evidence
-President’s knowledge
-Justice Department investigation
-CIA
-Lawrence (“Larry”) Houston
-Cooperation
-President’s conversation with Walters

-Haig

-Dean

-Efforts regarding CIA and defendants

-Break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office

-Justice Department’s investigation

 -14-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 918-14 (cont’d)

-CIA
-Camera
-Photographs
-Liddy
-Earl J. Silbert
-Dean’s statement to Petersen, April 15, 1973
-President’s conversation with Dean
-Timing
-Justice Department’s investigation
-Dean’s knowledge
-Byrne
-President’s conversation with Petersen, April 18, 1973
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
-Petersen’s subsequent conversation with Richardson
-Hunt’s White House activities
-National security
-Use of evidence
-Effect on Ellsberg case
-Byrne’s action
-FBI wiretaps
-Ellsberg
-Morton H. Halperin, staff member of National Security Council [NSC]


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[Privacy]

[Duration: 12 s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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Watergate

-National security

 -15-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 918-14 (cont’d)

-Ruckelshaus’s press release, May 14, 1973
-Ehrlichman
-President’s telephone call to Petersen
-Liddy’s lawyer, Peter L. Maroulis
-Break-in of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Investigation

-Hunt

-Los Angeles

-Joseph P. Busch

-Justice Department

-Ervin Committee

-Hunt
-Liddy
-Testimony
-Ervin Committee
-Hunt
-Immunity for witnesses
-Immunity
-Byron White’s decision
-Murphy v. Waterfront

-Effect on possible prosecutions

-Dean

-Petersen’s possible book
-Petersen’s possible conversation with Richardson
-Petersen’s conversation with the President
-Hunt
-Petersen’s previous conversation with Ronald L. Ziegler
-President’s possible obstruction of justice
-President’s conversation at Camp David
-Leaks
-Hunt and Liddy
-Effect on NSC staff members
-Halperin
-Henry A. Kissinger
-FBI records
-William C. Sullivan
-Mitchell
 -16-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 918-14 (cont’d)

-J. Edgar Hoover’s possible use

-President’s knowledge

-Lyndon B. Johnson

-Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy

-Indictments

-Timing

-Testimony

-Perjury

-Personal gain

-Corroboration

-Documentation

-Motives

-Cover-up

-Threat of jail

-President’s conversation with Dean, March 21, 1973

-Money

-William O. Bittman

-Hunt

-Cubans
-Sentences

-Compared with Ervin Committee investigator

-John J. Sirica

-White House cooperation with Justice Department

-Buzhardt

-Ellsberg case

-Ellsberg case

-Judge’s opinion of government’s case

-FBI records

-Halperin


Presentation of gifts by the President
-Cuff links

Message to Mrs. Petersen

Watergate
-President’s cooperation
 -17-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 918-14 (cont’d)

-Ervin Committee

-Effect on defendants’ trials

-Mitchell

-Ability to stop hearings
-Petersen, Richardson, Special Prosecutor
-Samuel L. Dash
-Change of venue

-Ellsberg


Petersen left at 10:45 am.