(11 of 13)
That could be bluster before the fall, or it could represent Nixon's sincere belief in his innocence of impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors." Depending on what may be in that briefcase, his survival strategy has some practical chance of success. His lawyers are advancing the narrowest possible grounds for impeachment, limited to indictable crimes of "a very serious nature committed in one's governmental capacity."
Nixon's narrow view of the permissible impeachment grounds might permit his attorneys to stall. They could argue that most requests for evidence from the Rodino committee were irrelevant to impeachment. The Supreme Court might have to decide these battles. The basic Nixon strategy still seems to be to hold out and play for some unexpected break.
There are few in sight. Indeed, many more troubles still loom for the increasingly isolated President. He as much as admitted at his press conference that his income tax deduction of $482,000 for the donation of his public papers was at least technically illegal—because the paper work was not completed before the law allowing such deductions expired—and he hinted that he would have to pay a large sum in back taxes. His own tax accountant, Arthur Blech, was quoted last week as saying that he objected to some of Nixon's 1970 and 1971 deductions but had been prevented, apparently by White House aides, from telling the President of his misgivings before returns were filed.
The President's Lawyer
While pushing the cover-up prosecution, Jaworski's busy staff also netted another top Nixon associate in a somewhat peripheral phase of the Watergate scandal—but one that also has serious implications for Nixon. Kalmbach, the President's personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to two charges: 1) violating the Federal Corrupt Practices Act by helping create and run a secret committee in 1970 for which he collected nearly $4 million for congressional candidates but had no treasurer or chairman and failed to file reports as required by law; 2) soliciting and accepting a $100,000 political contribution in 1970 from J. Fife Symington Jr., Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, in return for a pledge—which Kalmbach testified that he cleared with an unnamed White House aide—that Symington would get a higher-ranking ambassadorial post in Europe.
The operation of the secret committee was a felony charge. The Jaworski staff told Judge Sirica that three other unnamed former White House aides helped Kalmbach run the committee. They, too, will presumably be charged at some later date. It seems highly unlikely that such a large fund would have been gathered without the President's knowledge. The deal with the ambassador was only a misdemeanor, and Symington never got a European job; but it would have taken