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> After making their initial $100,000 peace offering to Nixon's campaign committee, AMPI officials discovered that it was illegal because it came from AMPI corporate funds. In an elaborate effort to conceal the contribution, they directed Bob A. Lilly, assistant to AMPI General Manager Nelson, to replace the gift with an equal amount borrowed personally from the Citizens National Bank of Austin; such a personal contribution could be legally arranged. Then, to repay Lilly, AMPI asked attorneys and public relations firms with whom they had previous friendly business dealings for interest-free loans ranging from $5,000 to $56,000 each. AMPI paid back the lenders by raising their retainers. All of them now claim that they never suspected that they were being used to launder the money contributed to Nixon. Ironically, many of the lenders were prominent Democrats, including Richard Maguire, former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee; the late Clifton C. Carter, former executive director of the D.N.C.; and Ted Van Dyke, who was an adviser to George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972 and to Humphrey's campaign in 1968.
> Prior to Lyndon Johnson's decision not to run for re-election in 1968, the cooperative paid $90,711 for the printing of a book of his speeches, titled No Retreat from Tomorrow.
> In 1969 AMPI concocted another scheme to get around federal election laws. It gave bonuses and advances totaling about $80,000 to employees and outside agents and told them to donate the money to political campaigns, chiefly that of Democratic Presidential Nominee Hubert Humphrey. On hearing of the Wright report, Humphrey acknowledged the gifts but said that he thought they had been legal.
> AMPI was also concerned with influencing farm policies on the state level. In 1969 the cooperative gave $9,500 to the campaigns of five Democratic legislators in Texas in amounts ranging from $500 to $4,000. The conduit was Texas Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Bill Pieratt, who received the funds from AMPI Executive Lilly, then distributed them to the candidates.
> Even though the cooperative was backing Nixon's re-election in 1972, it contributed a legal $41,600 to the brief presidential campaign of Democratic Congressman Wilbur D. Mills of Arkansas. However, AMPI also rented apartments for two campaign workers in Washington and paid the salary of one of them. Mills has denied any knowledge of the illegal help.
> In May 1971 Attorney Jacobsen offered $10,000 in cooperative money to John B. Connally, then Secretary of the Treasury, for contributions to the campaigns of unnamed politicians. Connally turned down the money twice. Jacobsen later told the Watergate grand jury that he left the money untouched in a safe-deposit box in the Citizens National Bank of Austin until last Nov. 27. The grand jury offered no clue as to what might have happened to the $10,000 but said that Jacobsen had lied, and indicted him for perjury. Last week he pleaded not guilty in Federal District Court in Washington.