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There is, of course, a need to protect the judicial process so that anyone who has broken laws will be fully prosecuted. Indeed, the general complaint against the Justice Department is that it originally did not seem at all determined to do just that. Yet there seems to be an overriding need for speedy exposure of the full truth, so that all of the remedial moves can be taken to restore public confidence in the Government. Dean's attorneys have said that they "are proceeding on the assumption that there is going to be an impeachment." They argue that Dean's testimony is too valuable to the investigation to be thrown away for the sake of convicting such a relative small fry.
Support for Dean's position came last week from a most unlikely source: L. Patrick Gray. At the Senate hearings on his nomination as FBI director, Gray had conceded somewhat grudgingly that Dean had "probably lied" to the FBI in its Watergate investigations. Yet Gray told Ervin committee investigators that Nixon had to know that his aides were trying to cover up White House involvement because Gray had warned him about it last July. Gray's story, as reported by TIME Correspondent Stanley Cloud:
Within days of the arrests at the Watergate, Gray learned from his own agents that two of the arrested men, Hunt and McCord, had once worked for the CIA and that McCord was still employed by a Washington firm that had been used as a CIA front. Some of the other burglars also were found to have had CIA connections. The CIA made approaches to Gray in an effort to keep the FBI agents away from the question of CIA and White House involvement in Watergate.
After his agents complained about problems with the CIA and the White House, Gray scheduled a meeting with the then CIA Director Richard Helms. On June 28, the day of the meeting, according to Gray, he received a call from Ehrlichman, who insisted that it be canceled—an order Gray carried out. But, under continuing complaints from his agents, Gray called Nixon Campaign Director Clark MacGregor and reported that "a group of men around the President" seemed to be interfering with the investigation. Gray says he urged MacGregor to inform Nixon.
The President then phoned Gray, ostensibly to express his appreciation for the FBI's successful effort to abort a Southwest Airlines skyjacking in San Francisco. As Gray later explained to Senator Lowell Weicker, he decided then "to take the bull by the horns." He told the President: "You should know that the men around you are using the CIA and the FBI for their own purposes." According to Gray, Nixon ignored him, replying in a non sequitur: "Oh, Pat, you just keep pursuing your investigation aggressively. You're doing a fine job, Pat. Keep it up."
Gray softened the story consider ably, however, when he was questioned by the staff of the Ervin committee. He said he was merely "confused" about the White House involvement in the investigation. The difference in the two stories was not explained.