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Although this tale was documented with photostats of letters and papers, some of them bearing Elliott's purported signature, the daily press regarded it as so "hot" that no paper save the rabidly Republican New York Sun dared to report it at first. Meanwhile newshawks in Washington were hounding Senator Nye for confirmation. To answer charges that the Munitions Committee was concealing facts simply because they touched the President's son, Chairman Nye grudgingly made public a deposition his Committee had obtained in September 1935 from Anthony Fokker. Excerpts:
"Questioned concerning why he signed an agreement which provided for such a large commission, that is $500,000, to Mr. Roosevelt and $500,000 to himself upon the completion of the sale, Mr. Fokker explained that he had not felt that the prices which it was proposed to charge the Russians for these 50 military planes were at all reasonable; in fact, he had thought them notably excessive, but that he had been persuaded by Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Roosevelt's associate, Mr. Stratton, that Mr. Roosevelt had enough influence with the Import and Export Bank and the Russian purchasing commission then in the country to swing the deal at that excessive price. . . .
"Mr. Fokker stated that before the agreement with Mr. Elliott Roosevelt had been signed, he had desired Mr. Elliott Roosevelt to make a trip abroad with Mr. Fokker to attempt to sell airplanes to various governments, counting on the willingness of high foreign officials to receive Mr. Roosevelt as the son of the American President.
"In the course of taking the deposition, Mr. Carter Tiffany, in Mr. Fokker's presence, stated that Mr. H. A. Reed had reported to Mr. Tiffany that before the contract was signed with Mr. Fokker Mr. Elliott Roosevelt had telephoned the President of the United States from California concerning the arrangement to travel abroad as Mr. Fokker's agent, and gave the President the main details of his proposed contract with Mr. Fokker, and had been told by the President that he had objection to Mr. Elliott Roosevelt's traveling abroad in this connection, but had approved the contract with Mr. Fokker. Mr. Fokker stated that he had not been told the details himself."
With his political conscience possibly pricking him as this story of the President and his son began to spread through the Republican press. Senator Nye last week tried to put himself right with the White House thus : "My whole purpose in making the Fokker affidavit available was to demonstrate the fact, that, after all, nothing ever came of the tie-up and that there was no pressure on the committee from any source to prevent the development of any part of the story. . . . Since no sales were made, it is obvious that the President's son did nothing illegal, and so far as the Munitions Committee is concerned the incident is closed." In California Mr. Stratton publicly declared that he had received the $5,000 for expenses and had so reported it in his income tax returns.
Meantime, at the Oklahoma Biltmore Hotel in Oklahoma City Elliott Roosevelt was routed out of bed late at night to make indignant denials. His rebuttal: "I have never denied that I discussed with Fokker arrangements for selling planes to the Soviet Government, or that I even entered into a contract with Fokker.