(2 of 5)
In the course of his testimony, McCord brought up another burglary plan that had not been mentioned publicly before. In early 1972, Liddy had said he might need his help in breaking into the office safe of Herman ("Hank") Greenspun, feisty publisher of the Las Vegas Sun. Liddy said he had been informed by Mitchell that Greenspun had documents connecting a top Democratic presidential candidate with racketeers—though McCord now believes that there was another motive for cracking the safe. (Greenspun thinks that the raiders were searching for papers that might prove embarrassing to Howard R. Hughes, whom Greenspun was suing over a real estate controversy.) Once the break-in was completed, said Liddy, the burglars would escape to Central America aboard a plane owned by Hughes. McCord never joined the raid and never found out what happened. Later he read that E. Howard Hunt had forwarded a campaign contribution from Hughes to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.
Freedom. Like McCord, John Caulfield portrayed himself as more used than using, a pliant tool of higher-ups. Obviously impressed by the fact that he had been plucked from obscurity on the New York City police force to head a special security apparatus in the White House, Caulfield was prepared for almost any assignment. Even so, he balked when John Dean first asked him to convey the offer of Executive clemency to McCord, a close friend. By then holding a job as assistant director of enforcement at the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, from which he resigned last week, Caulfield wanted someone else to do the job for him. He chose a paunchy ex-cop from New York City, Anthony Ulasewicz, who was on the payroll of Herbert W. Kalmbach, the President's personal attorney. Without identifying himself, Ulasewicz phoned McCord and relayed Dean's message: "1) a year is a long time; 2) your wife and family will be taken care of; 3) you will be rehabilitated with employment when this is all over."
McCord insisted on meeting Caulfield face to face. "I objected to seeing Mr. McCord," Caulfield testified. "But finally Mr. Dean got my concurrence to do so." McCord, however, turned down the offer. He told Caulfield: "I have always followed the rule that if one goes, all who are involved must go ... I saw a picture of some guy who I am sure was involved sitting with his family. I can take care of my family. I don't need any jobs. I want my freedom." McCord had testified that he believed the clemency offer came from Nixon himself, but Caulfield contradicted that. He declared that he never said he was speaking for the President. Under questioning by the committee, however, he admitted feeling that "the President probably did know about it ... Based on that background, I thought I was doing something for the President of the U.S., and I did it, sir."
McCord offered a bizarre counterproposal. He told Caulfield that he had made telephone calls to the Chilean and Israeli embassies in Washington. Since the phones of both embassies were probably tapped by the U.S., he thought that the Government would be embarrassed if forced to reveal the taps at his trial. Thus the Government would have an excuse to drop the case against him.