898-021b

Conversation No. 898-21

Date: April 17, 1973
Time: 2:46-3:49 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry E. Petersen.

[A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was also prepared Richard Nixon’s
Special White House Counsel for Watergate Matters and submitted to the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives. This transcript can be found in Submission of
 -39-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 898-21 (cont’d)

Recorded Presidential Conversations (SRPC), pages 1060-1114 (1-55). Please refer to the
logging below.]

Watergate
-Grand jury
-President’s knowledge
-John N. Mitchell
-President’s conversation with William P. Rogers, April 16, 1973
-Rogers
-John W. Dean, III
-Conversation with Mitchell
-Role in White House during campaign
-Information from grand jury
-Jeb Stuart Magruder
-Conversations with officials
-Dean
-Conversations with Mitchell
-Information from grand jury in 1972
-Conversations with Petersen
-Leaks from grand jury
-Involvement in Watergate
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr. materials
-Status reports
-Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports
-Conversations with L. Patrick Gray III
-President’s forthcoming statement
-Timing
-Content
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Mitchell
-Comparison with Hiss case
-President’s cooperation
-Judge John J. Sirica
-Departures from White House staff
-Dean
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman
-Rogers’s opinion
 -40-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 898-21 (cont’d)

-Dean
-G[eorge] Gordon Liddy’s revelations, June 19, 1972
-Timing of Dean’s conversation with Ehrlichman
-Mitchell and Magruder
-Departures from White House staff
-Ehrlichman, Haldeman, Dean
-Indictments
-President’s policy
-Magruder
-Unindicted coconspirators
-Magruder
-Guilt
-Legal meaning of “unindicted coconspirator” term
-Immunity
-Dean
-Gordon C. Strachan
-President’s conversation with Rogers concerning Gray
-Public impression
-Possible evidence against Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Need for corroboration
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Charles W. Colson
-Immunity
-Strachan
-Possible evidence against Ehrlichman
-Liddy
-Hunt
-Testimony in grand jury
-Dean
-Immunity

-Relationship with Petersen

-Possible public reaction

-Gray

-Removal from White House staff
-Magruder
-Possible indictment
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson
 -41-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 898-21 (cont’d)

-Mitchell, Frederick C. LaRue, Robert C. Mardian, Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 2:46 pm.

President’s signatures

-Ehrlichman’s report


The unknown man left at an unknown time before 3:49 pm.

Watergate

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Effect of President and the Presidency

-Resignations
-Dean
-Haldeman, Ehrlichamn
-President’s conversation with Dean
-Strachan
-Strachan

-Possible role

-Evidence against

-Possible prosecution

-Immunity by estoppel

-Dean

-Immunity

-Rogers’s advice
-Public’s belief
-Immunity
-Plea of a lesser charge
-Sirica

-Magruder

-Lawyer’s threat

-Mitchell

-Attention to detail

-Magruder

-LaRue

-Grand jury testimony

 -42-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 898-21 (cont’d)

-Petersen’s conversation with Peter L. Maroulis
-Maroulis’s conversation with Liddy
-Liddy
-Rogers
-Reaction to Watergate
-Dean
-Immunity
-Petersen’s conversation with Gray
-Gray’s meeting with Dean and Ehrlichman concerning Hunt
material

-Destruction of material

-Knowledge of contents of envelopes

-President’s possible statement
-Content and phrasing

-Immunity

-Strachan

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible indictments
-Magruder’s possible statement
-Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Sirica
-Timing
-Notice to President
-Washington Post article
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible indictments

-Sirica

-Hunt’s threats
-Colson
-Ehrlichman, Dean
-McCord’s testimony concerning funds
-Dorothy Hunt

-LaRue

-Herbert W. Kalmbach
-Relationship to President
-Petersen’s instructions to Earl J. Silbert
 -43-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 898-21 (cont’d)

-Role in fundraising

-Mitchell

-Motive

-Magruder’s possible statement

-Timing

-Ervin and Sirica

-Action by President

-President’s forthcoming statement

-Magruder and Dean

-Mitchell


Petersen left at 3:49 pm.