Read Online All the President's Men by Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
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was worth 10 percent of some big businessman’s income to keep Richard Nixon in Washington and be able to stay in touch.”
That was Saturday, August 26, three days after the President had been renominated. In Washington, Woodward had just received the GAO report, finally released for Sunday’s papers. It listed 11 “apparent and possible violations” of the new law and referred the matter to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. It also stated that Stans maintained a secret slush fund of cash in his office totaling at least $350,000. At one time the fund included the cash that had come from the $25,000 Dahlberg check and the four Mexican checks totaling $89,000.
Woodward wrote the top portion of a story from the GAO report. From Miami, Bernstein dictated an account of the Mexican laundry and Haynes’ estimate that not $89,000 but $750,000 had been washed across the border.
After several lengthy conversations, Bernstein and Woodward decided not to refer to Stans’ other fund-raising tactics that Haynes had described. Both were wary of the lawyer’s language. Haynes’ description of the “Stans shakedown cruise,” as he called it, was filed forfurther investigation. The GAO investigator confirmed the substance of the Mexican laundry operation to Woodward.
Three days later, Tuesday, August 29, the President scheduled a press conference at his oceanside home in San Clemente, California. Reporters waited under large palm and eucalyptus trees on a sunny morning.
“With regard to the matter of the handling of campaign funds,” the President said, “we have a new law here in which technical violations have occurred and are occurring, apparently on both sides.”
What are the Democrats’ violations? a reporter asked.
“I think that will come out in the balance of this week. I will let the political people talk about that, but I understand that there have been [violations] on both sides,” Nixon remarked calmly.
Stans, the President said, is “an honest man and one who is very meticulous.” In fact, Stans was investigating the matter, the President said, “very, very thoroughly, because he doesn’t want any evidence at all to be outstanding, indicating that we have not complied with the law.”
The President rejected suggestions that a special prosecutor, independent of the Justice Department, be appointed, and disclosed that his counsel, John W. Dean III, had conducted a Watergate investigation: “I can say categorically that his investigation indicates that no one on the White House staff, no one in this administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident. What really hurts in matters of this sort is not the fact that they occur, because overzealous people in campaigns do things that are wrong. What really hurts is if you try to cover it up.” *
Woodward, in Washington, wrote a story from the transcript of the press conference, and listed some of the people under investigation who, as the President had been so careful to point out, were not “presently employed” in the administration: Hunt, Liddy, Stans, Sloan and Mitchell.
Bernstein was still in Florida tracking the four Miami men. That morning, he had spoken with Enrique Valledor, president of theFlorida Association of Realtors, Barker’s former boss. Barker was worried about losing his real-estate license and had come to see him after being released on bond. Valledor related part of their conversation: “I said, ‘What about this million-dollar [Democrats’] suit? Aren’t you worried?’ ”
“I’m not worrying. They’re paying for my attorneys,” Barker replied.
“Who are they?”
“I can’t tell you.”
The incident was included in the story on the President’s press conference. It was the first public hint of direct money payments to the conspirators.
• • •
Since June 17, CRP had seemed inviolate, as impenetrable as a super-secret national-security bureaucracy. Visitors
That was Saturday, August 26, three days after the President had been renominated. In Washington, Woodward had just received the GAO report, finally released for Sunday’s papers. It listed 11 “apparent and possible violations” of the new law and referred the matter to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. It also stated that Stans maintained a secret slush fund of cash in his office totaling at least $350,000. At one time the fund included the cash that had come from the $25,000 Dahlberg check and the four Mexican checks totaling $89,000.
Woodward wrote the top portion of a story from the GAO report. From Miami, Bernstein dictated an account of the Mexican laundry and Haynes’ estimate that not $89,000 but $750,000 had been washed across the border.
After several lengthy conversations, Bernstein and Woodward decided not to refer to Stans’ other fund-raising tactics that Haynes had described. Both were wary of the lawyer’s language. Haynes’ description of the “Stans shakedown cruise,” as he called it, was filed forfurther investigation. The GAO investigator confirmed the substance of the Mexican laundry operation to Woodward.
Three days later, Tuesday, August 29, the President scheduled a press conference at his oceanside home in San Clemente, California. Reporters waited under large palm and eucalyptus trees on a sunny morning.
“With regard to the matter of the handling of campaign funds,” the President said, “we have a new law here in which technical violations have occurred and are occurring, apparently on both sides.”
What are the Democrats’ violations? a reporter asked.
“I think that will come out in the balance of this week. I will let the political people talk about that, but I understand that there have been [violations] on both sides,” Nixon remarked calmly.
Stans, the President said, is “an honest man and one who is very meticulous.” In fact, Stans was investigating the matter, the President said, “very, very thoroughly, because he doesn’t want any evidence at all to be outstanding, indicating that we have not complied with the law.”
The President rejected suggestions that a special prosecutor, independent of the Justice Department, be appointed, and disclosed that his counsel, John W. Dean III, had conducted a Watergate investigation: “I can say categorically that his investigation indicates that no one on the White House staff, no one in this administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident. What really hurts in matters of this sort is not the fact that they occur, because overzealous people in campaigns do things that are wrong. What really hurts is if you try to cover it up.” *
Woodward, in Washington, wrote a story from the transcript of the press conference, and listed some of the people under investigation who, as the President had been so careful to point out, were not “presently employed” in the administration: Hunt, Liddy, Stans, Sloan and Mitchell.
Bernstein was still in Florida tracking the four Miami men. That morning, he had spoken with Enrique Valledor, president of theFlorida Association of Realtors, Barker’s former boss. Barker was worried about losing his real-estate license and had come to see him after being released on bond. Valledor related part of their conversation: “I said, ‘What about this million-dollar [Democrats’] suit? Aren’t you worried?’ ”
“I’m not worrying. They’re paying for my attorneys,” Barker replied.
“Who are they?”
“I can’t tell you.”
The incident was included in the story on the President’s press conference. It was the first public hint of direct money payments to the conspirators.
• • •
Since June 17, CRP had seemed inviolate, as impenetrable as a super-secret national-security bureaucracy. Visitors
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