Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 13, 1973 Testimony of Maurice Stans
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 13, 1973 Testimony of Maurice Stans
[00.17.25] SENATOR. ERVIN. Senator Talmadge, Senator TALMADGE. Mr. Stans, I have had the pleasure of knowing you for a great number of years. Your career IS one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of America, humble origins, a hard working young man, certified public accountant at the age Of 23 years, highly successful businessman, Secretary of Commerce, Director of the Bureau of the Budget and, finally the most effective money raiser for any political campaign in the history of the country. My questions may be viewed as antagonistic but I don't want you to think of them in that vein because I, too, am merely seeking facts which I think the American people entitled to know. You, of course are well acquainted with Mr. Sloan. Mr. STANS. Yes, I am very well acquainted with Mr. Sloan. Senator TALMADGE. He testified before the committee last week and there, are certain direct contradictions- between your testimony and Mr. Sloan's I thought Mr. Sloan was an articulate, able, and effective witness. How do You regard Mr. Sloan's character? Mr. STANS. I would like to say something about that and I welcome the opportunity to talk about that. I consider Mr. Sloan a man of very high character. He is able, he is a brilliant person, We worked very closely together all through the time that he was associated with the Committee. I had known him in 1968 when he worked on our campaign. He is also sophisticated. He has spent more time in fundraising than I have, perhaps by a factor of two, He was in this campaign before I was, and I don't consider it significant that there are a few matters on which our remarks differ. We have agreed on almost everything I that We have testified about. There has been no disagreement in our testimony except on two or three points I think perhaps it would be a matter of suspicion If there weren't some disagreements between us. But The basic fact is that we do have high respect for each other. We Worked very closely together and I want to repeat what I have said before; the finance committee, in its isolation from the campaign, had nothing to do with the events that you are investigating in this hearing. Except for Mr. Gordon Liddy who was with us a relatively short period of time, who was transferred over under circumstances which have been described here, I am convinced that neither Mr. Sloan nor anyone else connected with the finance committee had any knowledge of these events, Senator TALMADGE. You would believe Mr. Sloan under oath? Mr. STANS. Pardon me. Senator TALMADGE, You believe Mr. Sloan's testimony under oath? Mr. STANS. I would believe Mr. Sloan's testimony under oath except in the few cases in which his recollection is slightly different from mine. Senator TALMADGE. It Went substantially beyond recollection, I may say. I think at, one point he said you would have to check it with Mitchell, $83,000 payment to Mr. Liddy, you deny that, don't you? Mr. STANS. Oh, no. Senator TALMADGE. You did check it with Mr. 'Mitchell? Mr. STANS. I did check with Mr. Mitchell on the principle of whether Mr. Magruder had authority to tell Mr. Sloan to make payments to Liddy. I did not check with Mr. Mitchell on the amount. Senator TALMADGE. Mr. Mitchell authorized the payment? Mr. STANS. Mr. Mitchell--no; he did not authorize the payment. He said that Mr. Magruder is the man to talk to. "Mr. Magruder Is; running the campaign and he is directing the expenditures." Senator TALMADGE. After talking with Mr. Mitchell, you told Mr. Sloan to make the payments? Mr. STANS. No, sir. After talking with Mr. Mitchell, I told Mr. Sloan to check with Magruder to see whether he should make the payment and Mr. Magruder said--and Sloan said he had already talked to Magruder. Senator TALMADGE. You deny also that you told Mr. Sloan about $83,000 to Mr. Liddy, that you didn't want to know and he didn't want to know what it was going for? Mr. STANS. No, Senator, I don't deny a discussion on that subject. I said two things: one, that it was not, the whole conversation. Second, that I am not sure the words are entirely accurate, and Mr. Sloan himself has said, last week what I said here today, that that remark was made in a, context of total frustration with the campaign people, and it was not related solely to the question of the payment to Mr. Liddy. Senator TALMADGE. I believe you verified in the question asked by Senator Baker Mr. Odle's testimony which was that your position on the budget committee was to maintain the expenditures at an economical level? Mr. STANS. To try, yes. [00.22.41]