WATERGATE: The Most Critical Nixon Conversations

(6 of 21)
Dean tells how the President's personal attorney Herbert Kalmbach raised money to pay the attorneys' fees for the Watergate defendants, Nixon speculates that the "cover of a Cuban committee" must have been used. (Some of the burglars were Cuban exiles.)

P: [Unintelligible], but I would certainly keep that cover for whatever it is worth.

D: That's the most troublesome thing because 1) Bob [Haldeman] is involved in that; 2) John [Ehrlichman] is involved in that; 3) I am involved in that; 4) Mitchell is involved in that. And that is an obstruction of justice.

Dean goes on to describe the "continual blackmail operation" by the Watergate defendants: their requests for money to keep them from talking.

D: It will cost money. It is dangerous. People around here are not pros at this sort of thing. This is the sort of thing Mafia people can do: washing money, getting clean money and things like that. We just don't know about those things, because we are not criminals and not used to dealing in that business.

P: That's right.

D: It is a tough thing to know how to do.

P: Maybe it takes a gang to do that.

D: That's right. There is a real problem as to whether we could even do it. Plus there is a real problem in raising money ... But there is no denying the fact that the White House, in Ehrlichman, Haldeman and Dean are involved in some of the early money decisions.

P: How much money do you need?

D: I would say that these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years.

P: We could get that... You could get a million dollars. You could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten. It is not easy but it could be done. But the question is who the hell would handle it? Any ideas on that?

D: That's right. Well, I think that is something that Mitchell ought to be charged with.

P: I would think so too.

D: And get some pros to help him.

P: Let me say there shouldn't be a lot of people running around getting money—

D: Well, he's got one person doing it who I am not sure is—

P: Who is that?

D: He has Fred La Rue [a former Mitchell aide] doing it. Now Fred started out going out trying to solicit money from all kinds of people.

P: No!

∎

P: You need it in cash don't you? ... Would you put that through the Cuban Committee.

D: No.

P: How if that ever comes out are you going to handle it? Is the Cuban Committee an obstruction of justice, if they want to help?

D: Well, they have priests in it.

P: Would that give a little bit of a cover? ...

D: Some for the Cubans and possibly Hunt.

∎

P: Don't you think you have to handle Hunt's financial problem damn soon?

D: I think that is—I talked with Mitchell about that last night and—

P: It seems to me we have to keep the cap on the bottle that much, or we don't have any options.

D: That's right.

P: Either that or it all blows right now?

D: That's the question. What really bothers me is this growing situation. As I say, it is growing because of the continued need to provide support for the Watergate people who are going to hold us up for everything we've