Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [255]
Nixon’s angry reaction to the news, apparently first received in a phone call from Rebozo, was quoted by a member of the White House staff. Haig confirmed in an interview that he discussed the Cox probe with Nixon and that the president said it was “a perfect illustration” of how Cox was out to get him.
Richardson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Haig called him on October 18 and said that Nixon “didn’t see what Mr. Cox’s charter had to do with the activities of Mr. Rebozo.” Haig confirmed in Senate Watergate Committee testimony that after talking with Nixon he called Richardson: “I may have expressed this as being of presidential concern and I’m sure if I did I would have had reason to know … because he specifically told me so.”
Secret Service records obtained from the National Archives show that Rebozo arrived at the White House October 19 and stayed there through October 20 as a “house guest,” meeting with the president at least twice in his office, and, according to a member of the staff, he spent “considerable time” alone with Nixon at night.
Haig testified that when he was with the president in Key Biscayne he had “invariably” heard both Nixon and Rebozo complain about the “unfair and unjust persecution” of Rebozo over the Hughes money.
“There’s no doubt that the tapes were the big issue,” said a senior White House aide, “but there’s also no doubt in my mind that Nixon’s anger over the Hughes investigation, and quite possibly his fear that it would lead to a broader investigation that would uncover the entire Rebozo slush fund, was a real flash-point in the whole Cox affair. I think it pushed him over the edge.”
Hughes was indicted in the Air West deal on December 27, 1973. Maheu and Davis were named co-defendants.
The scene of Davis dumping the Rebozo $100,000 in front of Senator Ervin was described by a member of the committee staff who was present.
One of the Mormons confirmed that Hughes was never told that his secret papers were stolen in the Romaine break-in, and the memos Hughes dictated in the aftermath of the burglary make it clear that he was not aware they were missing.
CIA documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that Gay told the Agency on July 2, 1974, that the Glomar document was missing and presumed stolen. Colby confirmed his meeting with Nixon in an interview.
Haig’s call to Nixon informing him of the Supreme Court decision about the tapes was described by Nixon in his memoirs (RN, vol. 2, p. 640).
The suppressed Senate Watergate Committee staff report on the Hughes connection to Watergate was obtained from one of the staff investigators who wrote it. The chief minority counsel, Fred Thompson, apparently first proposed deleting it from the committee’s final report, and Senator Ervin quickly agreed. One of the senators said in a background interview that none of his colleagues, Republican or Democrat, wanted it published. “Too many guilty bystanders would have been hurt,” he remarked, “and after two years of Watergate I don’t think anyone was ready to accept such a small price tag.”
Haldeman’s conclusion that the Hughes connection triggered Watergate was stated in The Ends of Power (pp. 19–20) and confirmed in a series of interviews. In fact, every top Nixon aide who has publicly expressed an opinion on the cause of the break-in agrees that the Hughes-Nixon-O’Brien triangle lay behind it. It is also the thesis of Dean’s Blind Ambition (Simon & Schuster, 1976) and Colson said in an interview: “I’ve always believed that the real motive behind the Watergate break-in was to get dirt on Larry O’Brien, who was drawing a retainer from Hughes. Beneath it all we’ll find some day that the real motive was Hughes.”
Colby’s discussion of the Romaine-Glomar link was quoted in CIA records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s probe of possible Hughes links to Nixon, the Mob, and the CIA was reported in part by the New York Times on March 26, 1975, and further confirmed by a staff investigator.