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IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Business Meeting

MONDAY, JULY 22, 1974

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,
Washington, D.C.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:03 p.m., in room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Peter W. Rodino, Jr. (chairman) presiding.

Present: Representatives Rodino (presiding), Donohue, Brooks, Kastenmeier, Edwards, Hungate, Conyers, Eilberg, Waldie, Flowers, Mann, Sarbanes, Seiberling, Danielson, Drinan, Rangel, Jordan, Thornton, Holtzman, Owens, Mezvinsky, McClory, Smith, Sandman, Railsback, Wiggins, Dennis, Fish, Mayne, Hogan, Butler, Cohen, Lott, Froehlich, Moorhead, Maraziti, and Latta.

Impeachment inquiry staff present: John Doar, special counsel; Samuel Garrison III, special counsel to the minority; Albert E. Jenner, Jr., senior associate special counsel; Richard Cates, senior associate special counsel; Bernard W. Nussbaum, senior associate special counsel; Evan A. Davis, counsel; Richard H. Gill, counsel; Edward S. Szukelewicz, counsel; Ben A. Wallis, Jr., counsel.

Committee staff present: Jerome M. Zeifman, general counsel; Garner J. Cline, associate general counsel; William P. Dixon, counsel; Michael W. Blommer, counsel, and Franklin G. Polk, associate counsel. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

The first order of business will be the consideration of the further release of executive session material, and then following that the consideration of the proposal for authorization for broadcasting committee debate. Should we not complete this business today, this meeting will be recessed until further call of the Chair. And following the recess, we will hear from Mr. Garrison in closed briefing session in order that he may complete his presentation, and following that, there is going to be some time which is to be given to Mr. Jenner who had requested that the time he is to take be deferred until after Mr. Garrison had made his presentation.

Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman ?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Brooks.

Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, I offer a resolution, the text of which is resolved that the committee publish, and upon publication release, the remaining unpublished executive session material presented on and after July 2, 1974, including the statement of information relating to "Political Matters Memoranda," and arguments of counsel.

Mr. MCCLORY. Mr. Chairman?

Mr. BROOKS. And copies are before the members.
Mr. McCLORY. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. McClory.

Mr MCCLORY. May I inquire relative to this document? I think some of the members may have some question about it, I believe. However, it has been put into print and circulated among the members; is that correct?

Mr. BROOKS. And copies are before the members. And I would say to my distinguished friend that after July 2, that means everything after the initial presentation, which has already been released, and the testimony of witnesses already released, and does include the new material, as new material to be released the political matters memoranda we discussed last week, Mr. St. Clair's response and the briefing that he submitted to the committee, both of which the members have already, and fourth, the arguments, the summary of information of our counsel, and the Ehrichman notes which have been delivered to this committee. That essentially is the material.

Mr. WIGGINS. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wiggins.

Mr. WIGGINS. Mr. Chairman, referring to the political matters memoranda, as I recall that is a thick booklet of several hundred pages, and out of those several hundred pages I am aware of only a half a dozen or so which have been referred to by counsel in the course of their presentation. If I am incorrect in that, Mr. Jenner, you may be able to correct my recollection, but it seems to me that my recollection is that only a small portion of the political memoranda were called to the attention of the committee in the presentation of their case as evidentiary material bearing upon this case. Is my memory correct. Mr. Jenner?

Mr. JENNER. Congressman Wiggins, your memory happens to be correct. I don't know as I would view it as a small portion, but certainly not all of it by any means. But, the staff had in mind that the political matters memoranda have been referred to by the witnesses, Mr. Colson, and others during the course of the proceedings, and that the members of the committee, therefore, would wish to have the political matters memoranda generally in mind to absorb their general character and their flow.

Mr. WIGGINS. Yes. I appreciate, Mr. Chairman, if I am still recognized, the need for the members of the committee to review the full body of the political matters memoranda to determine what portions of them are relevant to our inquiry. But, having made a judgment, the judgment affirmed by the staff in their presentation, that the great body of it, without attempting to quantify it more precisely than that, the great body of it is not relevant to our inquiry.

My concern, Mr. Chairman, is that that irrelevant material labeled political memoranda be released publicly. The concern I have, and I will try to be succinct, is that the power of this House to obtain materials under the impeachment clause is admitted to be sweeping in character, but it would be inappropriate, I think, to compel the production of documents under the power of impeachment, and then to release publicly that material which has been produced, if it is, in fact,

irrelevant to an impeachment inquiry. It permits the kind of public disclosure of information which is private and would not be published but for the impeachment power.

I would suggest to the chairman that the appropriate response to my concern is that only those portions of the political memoranda of Mr. Strachan to which this motion refers, which are included in our evidentiary materials, or to which counsel has referred to in the course of his argument, be released, and that the balance thereof not be released.

Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Edwards.

Mr. EDWARDS. I would agree with Mr. Wiggins. I don't think that we should be publishing a lot of information that doesn't have anything to do with the actual evidence having to do with the various charges that have been made in this impeachment inquiry. I think it is certainly not very fair to provide to the public and to political writers and to members of the other party confidential political matters that really have nothing to do with the subject of our inquiry, and which could be highly prejudicial to third parties.

Mr. WIGGINS. I appreciate the gentleman's comment.

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Holtzman.

Ms. HOLTZMAN. Mr. Chairman, in addition, of course, to the point that Mr. Wiggins raised, I, during my examination of Mr. Dean, referred to some portions of the political matters memoranda that had not previously been referred to by counsel, and I think that obviously ought to be released. But, I would like to make a broader statement, that I have reviewed, I won't say all of that book, but a substantial portion of it, and I think it is highly relevant to determine the extent to which Mr. Haldeman did have knowledge, and was aware of the matters going on in the campaign to reelect the President. And I would suggest that document is extremely relevant to our decision, and I would support Mr. Brooks' motion in full.

Mr. DENNIS. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Dennis.

Mr. DENNIS. Would the gentleman from Texas yield for an inquiry on another matter? I am assuming that arguments of counsel include the oral argument that the President's counsel made here the other day, Mr. St. Clair's oral argument is included in this?

Mr. BROOKS. That is my understanding.

Mr. DENNIS. That was my understanding, but I wanted to ask as the author.

you

Mr. BROOKS. Yes, sir. I certainly included that and expected to. Mr. SEIBERLING. Mr. Chairman, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. SANDMAN. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Sandman.

Mr. SANDMAN. I would like to ask the sponsor if it also includes the President's counsel's brief, since it is a part of the record, I assume, and it was filed with the committee. Mr. Brooks?

Mr. BROOKS. Yes it does. I said so originally. I'm sorry.

Mr. SANDMAN. Now, you said that it included the President's counsel's argument.

Mr. BROOKS. Response and brief.

Mr. SANDMAN. OK. OK.

Mr. BROOKS. Certainly they should be made public, and I mean he is willing to make them public, and there is no reason why they shouldn't be. He wants it to be made public.

Mr. SANDMAN. Fine.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Mr. Chairman?
The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Seiberling.

Mr. SEIBERLING. I wonder if the sponsor could tell me whether the definition of material included in this resolution includes the materials that were presented to the committee with respect to the bombing of Cambodia other than those that are classified?

Mr. BROOKS. This material I understand was submitted previously to July 2, and this is not involved in this authorization. This says everything on and after July 2.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Well, Mr. Chairman, I wonder if we could have some clarification as to whether that material is included with any authorization for release that has been previously approved by the committee, the material with respect to the so-called secret bombing of Cambodia?

Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, I realize that you screened out, you and Mr. Hutchinson screened out, the material that was not to have been released earlier under full committee authorization.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, that was matters that were not relevant nor pertinent to the inquiry. Those were the matters that were screened

out.

Mr. SEIBERLING. But I didn't understand that that was included within the purview of what was to be screened out, but that we merely hadn't actually gotten around to authorizing the release of the Cambodian material; is that correct?

The CHAIRMAN. I don't know whether at that time we had made that presentation, but I am sure that in light of the fact that our inquiry went into various areas, and there was information presented, that the matters that related to Cambodia were part of the inquiry, and part of the presentation.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Well, could I ask whether the material on Cambodia is being released the same as the other material, or to the extent that that could be done legally?

The CHAIRMAN. That material would be released that is not classified material. However, other material that is relevant and pertinent to the inquiry that was developed, and which was developed in other executive sessions of other committees, and it has been made a part. of the presentation, would be released. That was my understanding. Mr. SEIBERLING. Could we get some information from staff as to exactly what the status of that is as far as release is concerned, because if it hasn't, isn't going to be, I would like to amend this resolution to make sure that it will be.

Mr. DOAR. Well, Mr. Congressman, with respect to the Cambodian material, you will remember that the classified material was in the first section of that memoranda, and we had prepared a digest of that first section and eliminated all of the classified material. And it was our understanding that that memoranda was ready for public release with the substitute digest that had excluded the classified mate

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