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The procedure for playing the tapes has produced much of the courtroom quarreling. Defense counsel have consistently argued that the tapes contain irrelevant but prejudicial comments, and that transcripts provided to the jury for help in listening, but not as evidence, can mislead the jurors. The point was illustrated in a salacious way when a March 22 tape was played on which someone in the Oval Office is heard discussing a phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. A voice then calls him "asshole Trudeau." The transcript omitted Trudeau's name but identified the voice as Haldeman's. In a pained conference, Haldeman's attorneys insisted that the voice was Nixon's, and other attorneys agreed. Sirica offered to advise the jury of the mistake, but Frank Strickler, a Haldeman attorney, countered that that would only draw attention to the remark. The matter was dropped.
In another conference with Sirica, the judge indicated that he was considering calling former President Nixon as a court witness. That would provide more latitude in questioning him by 'all parties, said Sirica, and it would mean that no party would have to "vouch for his credibility."
The very next day, Nixon was readmitted to the Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Long Beach, when his doctor, John Lungren, was not satisfied with the results of routine tests on his treatment for phlebitis. There was no evidence of new lung clots, but Lungren reported that one major vein in Nixon's left leg was almost totally blocked, and there were several previously undetected clots in his left thigh. Nixon's dosage of anticoagulant drugs was increased, and Lungren said that if this is not successful, surgery might be necessary.
Shy but Tough. To replace retiring Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, Attorney General William Saxbe after consultation with President Ford appointed Henry S. (Hank) Ruth Jr. A quiet, almost shy, former Philadelphia lawyer, Ruth, 43, has spent more than 15 months as the top deputy to both Jaworski and the first Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Thoroughly familiar with all of the staffs pending investigations, the soft-voiced Ruth is seen to be as tough as Jaworski, but endowed with some of Cox's scholarly attributes. He taught law at the University of Pennsylvania after serving in Attorney General Robert Kennedy's Justice Department. Within hours after Cox was fired in the Saturday Night Massacre on Oct. 20, 1973, Ruth was stopped outside the Special Prosecution Force office by a security guard who declared: "The FBI says I can't let you go up now." Replied Ruth: "I'm going." He did, holding the demoralized staff together.
On the new Special Prosecutor's still open agenda is the case of Maurice Stans, Nixon's former Commerce Secretary and chief campaign fund raiser. He has been plea bargaining with the prosecutors, seeking to plead guilty to one or more misdemeanor charges of violating campaign-contribution laws. The prosecutors want him to plead guilty to a felony. If no agreement is reached, an indictment is expected. Also facing probable indictment is Bebe Rebozo, Nixon's millionaire Miami friend. Although it is entering its final phase, the Watergate scandal is far from over.