Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [252]
The account of the Hughes-Nixon dealings in Irving’s book was quoted in an unpublished Senate Watergate Committee report and also in part by a February 4, 1972, story in the New York Times. A White House aide confirmed that Nixon himself read at least a summary of Irving’s account.
Hughes’s activities on the day of his press conference were detailed in the logs maintained by his aides. The Hughes quotes are from a tape recording of that conference.
The creation of the Hunt-Liddy team was described in reports of the Senate Watergate Committee and the House Impeachment Committee, by both Hunt and Liddy in their books, and by Haldeman and Dean in their books.
Nixon’s reaction to reports that Bobby Kennedy had investigated the Hughes “loan” was quoted by a White House aide in an interview. Nixon himself made similar comments in his memoirs RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (Warner, 1978, vol. 1, p. 305), writing that Kennedy’s effort to prosecute his mother and brother was “typical of the partisan vindictiveness that pervaded the Kennedy administration.”
The February 4, 1972, and January 27, 1972, meetings between Liddy, Mitchell, Dean, and Magruder were detailed by Liddy in his book Will (St. Martin’s Press, 1980, pp. 196–203), by Dean and Magruder in Senate Watergate Committee and court testimony, by Dean in Blind Ambition (pp. 79–86), and by Magruder in An American Life (Pocket Books, 1975, pp. 207–12). Both Dean and Magruder testified that Mitchell discussed O’Brien as a target for surveillance. Magruder also told the Senate Watergate Committee, according to an unpublished staff report, that “the attorney general not only brought up the Greenspun entry operation, but also urged Liddy to consider it as more pressing and important than the other targets discussed.”
Hunt detailed the Greenspun plot in Senate Watergate Committee testimony and stated that Bennett first suggested that break-in a few days before the Mitchell-Liddy meeting. Bennett gave a similar account but claimed that it was Hunt who suggested a break-in after Bennett told him Greenspun had Hughes memos. Hunt in his testimony and Liddy in his book (Will, p. 205) confirmed Winte’s involvement.
Nixon’s impatience with the lack of action from Liddy’s operation was reported by Haldeman in his book (The Ends of Power, pp. 10–11). Strachan’s call to Magruder was quoted by Magruder in Senate Watergate Committee testimony. Nixon’s anger at O’Brien over the ITT affair was noted by Haldeman in his book (The Ends of Power, pp. 153–55), by Colson in an interview, and by Nixon himself in his memoirs (RN, vol. 2, p. 54). The Hunt-Liddy-Colson meeting was confirmed by all three, and Magruder testified that Colson called to push him on getting approval of Liddy’s plan.
The Magruder-Mitchell meeting and Mitchell’s revelation of the Hughes motive behind Watergate were described in detail by a confidential source with direct knowledge of their conversation in two hour-long taped interviews. The source agreed to give the information only upon my assurance that he would not be identified.
In Senate Watergate Committee and court testimony, Magruder said that Mitchell approved the Watergate break-in on March 30, 1972. Magruder also testified that Mitchell ordered the second break-in. Liddy stated in Will (p. 237) that Magruder ordered him to photograph O’Brien’s “shit file” on Nixon. “The purpose of the second Watergate break-in” wrote Liddy, “was to find out what O’Brien had of a derogatory nature about us, not for us to get something on him or the Democrats.”
Nixon’s reaction to the Watergate arrests was described by Haldeman in his book (pp. 7–13) and by Nixon himself in his memoirs (vol. 2, pp. 109–13).
Haldeman reconstructed his June 20, 1972, conversation with Nixon in The Ends of Power (pp. 18–19) and in two interviews confirmed that Nixon himself revealed the Hughes connection to Watergate, probably in that erased conversation, and definitely in one of his talks with Haldeman in the days following