(8 of 13)
Nov. 13. Hunt had a telephone conversation with Colson in which they discussed the need to make additional payments to the defendants.
Mid-November. Colson met with Dean at the White House and gave Dean a tape recording of a telephone conversation between Colson and Hunt. (This call has been described by Hunt as a direct appeal for more financial help.)
Nov. 15. Dean played this Colson-Hunt recording for Ehrlichman and Haldeman at Camp David.
Nov. 15. Dean played the same recording for Mitchell in New York City.
Early December. Haldeman had a phone talk with Dean in which Haldeman approved the use of part of a fund of approximately $350,000, then under Haldeman's control, for the defendants.
Early December. Strachan met with LaRue at LaRue's apartment in Washington and delivered approximately $50,000 in cash to him.
Early December. LaRue arranged for the delivery of about $40,000 in cash to Bittman, Hunt's attorney.
Jan. 3,1973. Colson met with Ehrlichman and Dean at the White House and discussed the need to assure Hunt how long he would have to spend in jail if he were convicted. (This was the indictment's oblique way of saying that the talk centered on getting Executive clemency for Hunt. Dean testified that Colson told him that just after the meeting he had asked Nixon about clemency. On the next day, according to Dean, Ehrlichman gave Colson assurance that clemency could be promised to Hunt.)
Early January. Haldeman had a conversation with Dean in which Haldeman approved the use of the balance of his $350,000 cash fund for additional payments to the defendants.
Early January. Strachan met again with LaRue at LaRue's apartment and gave him about $300,000 in cash.
March 21. LaRue arranged to deliver about $75,000 in cash to Bittman.
March 22. Ehrlichman had a conversation with Egil Krogh Jr., one of the White House plumbers, now imprisoned for his role in the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Ehrlichman assured Krogh that Hunt would not reveal certain matters. (One matter presumably was the burglary of the psychiatrist's office. This statement in the indictment seems to signal that Krogh will be a witness against Ehrlichman.)
The False Statement
The multiple accusations of lying to official investigative bodies is described in even fuller detail in the indictment, though the evidence leading the grand jury to believe that the statements were false is tantalizingly omitted. Several allegations of falsehood are charged even when a defendant testified that he could not recall an alleged act. Such accusations are difficult to sustain without documentary evidence or corroboration by several witnesses, and they are certain to be vigorously attacked by defense attorneys.
John Mitchell was accused of lying as early as June 1972, when he told the original Watergate grand jury that he had known nothing about any scheme to spy illegally on Democratic candidates or the Democratic Party. At that time he also denied knowing anything about Liddy's political intelligence proposals, though he later publicly admitted attending three meetings at which Liddy's plans had been presented to him. The indictment claims that Mitchell also lied to the grand jury in denying that LaRue had ever told him that Liddy had confessed his role in the breakin.