THE CRISIS: Nixon Presses His Counterattack

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New Mystery. This presented a new mystery, since Assistant Attorney General Henry E. Petersen had told the Senate Watergate Committee—and he repeated it last week in Sirica's hearings on the missing tapes—that Nixon had called him on April 18 and told him he had "a tape" of the Dean conversation. Nixon called Petersen later to tell him he had meant that he had dictated a memo about the conversation and that this was on tape. The questions of one of the prosecutors, Richard Ben-Veniste, indicated that Ben-Veniste believed that there never was a Dictabelt memo, but that Nixon's second call to Petersen was made to prevent the prosecutors from becoming aware of the elaborate White House recording system. If true, this would mean that Nixon must have believed that the entire April 15 conversation was indeed on tape.

Throughout the week Nixon said he was trying to find a way to get all the evidence presented to the public but that it was tied up in the courts, particularly in Judge John J. Sirica's court. In an unusual judicial move, Sirica issued a formal statement, declaring: "If the President thinks it advisable to waive any privilege and make tapes or other material public, he of course is free to do so at any time." TIME has learned that Sirica felt he was being used by the White House as an excuse to stall in releasing material to the public. Sirica also said he did not want to accept any White House documents that had not been subpoenaed by prosecutors, since his court should not become "a depository of non-subpoenaed matter." Nixon, he said, should deal with the prosecutors on any unrequested evidence.