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
[00.33.37] Senator TALMADGE. In that you still are chastising Mr. Sloan because he did not deposit a check, I believe, for $1,000 from Mrs. Alice Abel promptly enough, and get, out, a thank you letter promptly enough. Is that the sum and substance of it? Mr. STANS. Well, the sum and substance of it, Senator, is that I received a check from this lady and--while I was in Omaha on May 12--for some reason it did not appear on the sheet listing the contributions until June 1. Now, I did receive from Mr. Sloan every day a report, of the contribution received, and when I found out, that that check hadn't appeared on the report, for 2 weeks as having been received, I was concerned because it, related to the question of whether we were behind in all of Our work in his shop, His reply was very clear that the check was improperly made out or returned for appropriate endorsement and deposited. I was, not checking on at routine involving one transaction. I Was checking on whether or not, the thank you letters were being kept up to schedule. Senator TALMADGE. Then that at raises this question, Mr. Stans: Why did you allow Mr. Sloan, contrary to your explicit instructions to casually report to you only several weeks later the deposit of the $25,000 check received from Mr. Dahlberg and $89,000 check in Mexican bank checks? Mr. STANS. Well, Senator, I fairly well covered that in my testimony yesterday. The fact is that I was not aware that the Mexican bank checks had even been received until I got back from my vacation around the 24th of April, The fact also is that the record shows that, before I went on that vacation, I left a memorandum of things to be done by the staff, and one of the items was a request for Mr. Sloan to balance up his cash as soon as possible. Now, Mr. Sloan had given those checks to Mr. Liddy, he followed up with Mr. Liddy and I think his testimony is that be followed up several times, and Liddy said, "It takes time to get that money back." Mr. Sloan did get the money back in early or mid-May and deposited I think the follow-up was as thorough as we could have expected it to be. Senator TALMADGE. But you got the Dahlberg check personally, I believe, did you not? Mr. STANS. Yes, it went through my hands, and I had it for a short time on the 11th of April. Senator TALMADGE. Mr. Stans, are you telling---- Mr. STANS. I think, Senator, what you are bringing out is the difference in the function between the 'chairman and the treasurer. I raised the money--he had no part in soliciting contributions. He did the bookkeeping and the accounting and I had no part of that, and once I turned a check over to Mr. Sloan, I had every reason to assume that it would be handled in due course and only when I learned about things that were not handled in due course-as that Abel check--did I raise questions with Mr. Sloan about it. [00.37.20] Senator TALMADGE Are you telling us, Mr. Stans, that as a certified public accountant, a member of the Accountants Hall of Fame, former Secretary of Commerce, and who further had been personally selected by the President to be the Director of the Budget and director of the committee to raise $50 million for his reelection campaign you intended all this money to be spent without any of your supervision and control? Mr. STANS. No, I am not telling you that at all, Senator. I did exercise some supervision and control. I got a daily report of all the contributions received which I looked over every day. I indicated to the extent, that I knew people personally their first, names so that the letter of acknowledgement, and appreciation would be a first-name basis. I saw--I got reports from time to time, I had a daily staff meeting, the summaries of the reports that Were filed with the General Accounting Office. So I did exercise supervision but, I did not, Senator, have anything to do with the day-to-day work of the treasurer's office. Senator TALMADGE, Now, you realize that, the reporting act went into effect on April 7, 1972, do you not? Mr. STANS. That is correct. Senator TALMADGE. And a -very stringent law? Mr. STANS. Yes, sir. [00.38.55]