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The resulting news stories gave Presidential Press Secretary Ziegler a choice opportunity last week to accuse the Ervin committee of "irresponsible leaks of tidal-wave proportions." Added Ziegler: "I would encourage the chairman to get his own disorganized house in order so that the investigation can go forward in a proper atmosphere of traditional fairness and due process."
Ervin, returning to Washington, moved to do just that. He protested that the leaks were coming not from his committee but from McCord's lawyers. Nevertheless, with the support of the committee's ranking Republican, Tennessee's Howard H. Baker Jr.,* Ervin ordered the committee not to hold any more closed-door hearings. Prospective witnesses would talk only privately to the staff investigators until public hearings begin. And the chairman ordered the start of those hearings moved up so that they would begin after the Easter recess, which ends April 25.
Ervin and Baker took an even stronger step, indirectly criticizing Weicker. They issued a short press release stating: "In the interests of fairness and justice, the committee wishes to state publicly that it has received no evidence of any nature linking Mr. Haldeman with any illegal activities in connection with the presidential campaign of 1972." The chastised Weicker, admitting "I know when I've been zinged," said he had no such evidence against Haldeman—but indicated that he still thought Haldeman ought to quit because "he is chief of staff—and I hold him responsible for what happened."
Watchdog. The Ervin orders to hurry up the start of the hearings seemed necessary to keep rumors from running wild, but it shortened the time for careful staff investigation into the exceedingly complex and clouded affair. A priority aim of the committee would seem to be to unravel the tangled role played by White House Counsel Dean. He had insisted on sitting in on FBI interviews with White House personnel, and had asked for all FBI reports, but more as a White House watchdog, it seemed, than in a search for truth.
Dean's role seems pivotal, and the Ervin committee may have a tough time finding out just what it was. Last week Press Secretary Ziegler refused to respond to a series of questions that TIME put to him about both Dean and the President. Assuming that Nixon had no advance knowledge of the Watergate wiretapping, what did the President do when he heard about it? Did he summon his top aides and ask them about it? If not, why not? Did he rely entirely on Dean to conduct a White House investigation? What did Dean report? Was the President satisfied with whatever Dean told him, or did he question others? Does he feel that he now knows all about how Watergate happened and who was involved? If so, why does he not reveal all and spare himself the potential embarrassment of having the Ervin committee do so?