THE WHITE HOUSE: The Pardon: Questions Persist

(3 of 3)

The only member to talk tough to the President was Brooklyn's Elizabeth Holtzman, a first-term liberal Democrat, who delivered a speechlet about the need to dig further into the whole affair, which had raised "very dark suspicions ... in the public's mind." Among a series of questions, she wondered if Ford would be willing to turn over to the subcommittee all the taped recordings of conversations between himself and Nixon. Ford did not answer directly, although exactly what bearing such tapes would have on the issue of the pardon was unclear. Nixon pulled the plug on his recording system in mid-July 1973 while he was still determined to tough it out in office. Spiro Agnew was then Vice President, and Ford was the House minority leader.

At the time of the pardon, Ford gave the former President control over the tapes and related documents. Tradition, said Ford, made them Nixon's property, a view that is now being sharply challenged (TIME, Sept. 30). When Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski protested that he needed access to the materials, the White House temporarily suspended the agreement. In recent weeks, Ford's and Nixon's lawyers have tried to reach a new agreement on how the tapes should be handled, but to no avail. On the day of last week's hearing, Nixon went to court to get an order enforcing the original deal. Ford's position remained that he would not give up the tapes until the special prosecutor was satisfied with the arrangement.

Cleared Air. When he was through testifying Ford said, "I hope at least that I have cleared the air." The Republicans on the committee agreed that he had ("I, for one, think he was telling the truth," said Indiana's David W. Dennis). But Democrats both on and off the subcommittee wanted to know more. "I just don't believe the whole story holds together," said Manhattan Congresswoman Bella S. Abzug, who was a co-sponsor of the resolutions that prompted the inquiry, although she is not on the Judiciary Committee.

Had there been any further reasons for deciding so abruptly to give Nixon his pardon? What precisely was the role of Haig in the whole affair? One former top White House aide has said that he believes Ford gave the pardon so early because he did not want the case dragging through the courts when he ran for election in 1976.

Faced with such questions and theories, Subcommittee Chairman Hungate declared: "I'm not sure just what we'll decide to do, but we've still got a lot to do. We'll decide after the recess." When Congress reconvenes following the elections, Hungate's subcommittee could vote to hold more hearings. A probable star witness: Alexander Haig. For Jerry Ford and the G.O.P., the problems of the pardon are far from over.