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Waiting for his two aides to return from a first meeting with their lawyer, John J. Wilson, Nixon chats with Rogers. "Dammit," he says of Dean, "why didn't he come in earlier and tell me these things, Bill?" Nonetheless, he seems confident.
P: This'll be in better perspective in a year, I think.
R: I think so. I think ... well, the first blush will be...
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P: Terrible.
R: But when it's all over—finished ...
P: I'll be here, all along, Bill.
When Haldeman and Ehrlichman return from their meeting with Wilson, Nixon offers a suggestion.
P: Both of you, and Bob particularly, you ought to get yourself a libel lawyer, Bob, and use the most vicious libel lawyer there is. I'd sue every [expletive deleted] ... that also helps with public opinion.
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P: John, this libel thing. You may as well get at the libel thing and have yourself a little fun.
E: Might make expenses.
APRIL 19, 1973, 8:26 P.M.
E.O.B. Present: the President, Wilson (W) and Frank Strickler (S), attorneys for Haldeman and Ehrlichman.
This is basically a mutual get-acquainted session. Says Wilson: "We admire you so much—we both are dyed-in-the-wool Republicans." Strickler notes that he was at the Shoreham on election night.
P: You were there? Oh boy. That was a great night?
Well, that was what it was all about.
S: Yes, it sure was.
P: Well, we'll survive this. You know—people say this destroys the Administration and the rest—but what was this? What was Watergate? A little bugging! I mean a terrible thing—it shouldn't have been done —shouldn't have been covered up ... and the rest, but we've got to beat it. Right.
APRIL 27, 1973, 5:37 P.M.
The Oval Office. Present: the President and Petersen.
HP: We had a kind of crisis of confidence night before last. I left to come over here and I left my two principal assistants to discourse with Silbert and the other three. And in effect it concerned me—whether or not they were at ease with my reporting to you ...
P: Yes...
HP: There is a very suspicious atmosphere. They are concerned and scared.
Nixon himself is concerned—and possibly scared —about another matter. "He has heard rumors that the New York Times has information linking him directly to the coverup.
P: We have gotten a report that, ah, that really we've got to head them off at the pass. Because it's so damned—so damn dangerous to the Presidency, in a sense.
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P: Information indicating that Dean has made statements to the prosecuting team implicating the President. And whether ... the [Washington] Post has heard similar rumors. Now, Henry, this I've got to know.
APRIL 27, 1 973, 6:04 P.M.
The Oval Office. Present: the President, Petersen and Ziegler.
Only minutes after Nixon has expressed his fears to Petersen, the prosecutor returns for yet another meeting and assures the President that there are no specifics to the Dean charges. Nixon tells Ziegler to kill any budding newspaper story on the subject and "kill it