The Evidence: Fitting the Pieces Together

Never in the 25-month history of the Watergate scandal had so much of the evidence been brought together in one place. The eight volumes of material released last week by the House Judiciary Committee assembled all the available bits and pieces of the Watergate mosaic: previously secret grand jury testimony furnished to the committee by Judge John Sirica, memos written by President Nixon and some of his high aides, Senate Watergate Committee testimony, tape recordings from the Oval Office, a presidential Dictabelt, and notes scrawled on legal-size pads in the President's irregular hand. The Judiciary Committee formed no conclusions and drew no verdicts. In a serious effort to be fair and impartial, it simply presented all the materials it had acquired.

The overwhelming weight of the evidence is against Nixon, though there is no single piece of new information that could conclusively decide the case. There is much ambiguity about specific words and actions of the President. But the broad pattern of motives and strategies suggested by the mass of material leaves little doubt about the major aim of the President: to protect him self and his aides from the flood of disclosures that began immediately after the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972.

New evidence assembled by the committee confirms, and in many instances sharpens, the impressions given by already published material. The President and his men often judged possible actions for their publicity value, rarely for their potential in getting out the complete truth or bringing individuals to justice. Though the White House insists that the impeachment inquiry should be limited to the Watergate break-in and cover-up alone, the committee, beginning this week, will produce ten more volumes of information on other allegations against Nixon.

The President's defense on Watergate is contained in a separate 242-page volume, which the committee released together with last week's seven books of evidence. Prepared by Presidential Lawyer James St. Clair, it is the only portion of the massive document that attempts to draw specific conclusions. St. Clair cites Senate Watergate testimony by H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell that the President had no knowledge of the burglary or the coverup. The defense counsel's main focus, however, is on the crucial $75,000 payment to E. Howard Hunt, one of the convicted Watergate conspirators. St. Clair argues that the transcript of the meeting that Nixon held with White House Counsel John Dean on March 21, 1973, "clearly demonstrates that the President recognizes that any blackmail and cover-up activities then in progress could not continue."