On July 10, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo talked on the telephone from 9:10 pm to 9:21 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 041-055 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Mr. Raposo, sir.
Hello.
Hello, how are you?
Well, how are you doing?
Well, everything went pretty good.
Yeah, what is your appraisal?
Well, I met with him for about three hours and then I went through my account.
They're going to do a three-year, you know, check on me, but Gemmel was here.
Gemmel is very confident that as far as his first situation is concerned, there's nothing...
to be concerned with, and we went down, Gimel and I went down to my accountant who handled my affairs for about 24 years.
Yeah.
They have all of my records, and they're not the least bit concerned either.
It's just, you know, gonna be a lot of research and all this.
Why are they researching?
Because of this particular thing to see?
Yeah, they decided to go through an in-depth examination.
But Gimel presented all the...
Yes, he did that before he called me.
He presented the facts.
He didn't present all the details.
I guess he decided to save some of them for a later date.
I didn't know what he had or hadn't presented when I got there, so I just answered the question.
They had a series of...
rather stupid questions surprised questions weren't too good i had them all typed up and asked them asked me and i uh
basically questions about what this or about other things about this thing you see yeah and then they uh then they've got the names of all my brothers and sisters and all i guess they're gonna check to see if you know if i've played any games there they won't find anything no sir no they won't find anything it's a yeah i uh i um
Yeah.
I see.
Yeah.
that we had decided before we met to go ahead and send the documents.
It happens that my accountant has all of my canceled checks and statements going back years.
Yeah.
And he's got his worksheets for my returns and everything.
We're going to sign them up.
I've been thinking about it tonight, and I've tried to reach my accountant on the phone and can't, but I think I'm going to just let them come down here and do it.
I don't know about sending all this stuff up to Orlando.
No, no.
For months on end.
No, sir.
Some of it.
No, I wouldn't let it out of your hands.
I don't think so.
I don't think I will.
And although Hamill and my accountant had agreed to do that, I'm trying to reach them now.
I just think that I'll supply them with a room at the bank if they want, and they can spend as many weeks as they want to.
Yeah.
I think that's the best way to do it.
Yeah, yeah.
But they're not going to find anything but a stone wall.
It's just a pain in the neck, but...
The thought that this was going to be just the one thing, and that was it, but from the questions, from the things that they've requested, the accountant, as well as Gemmell, says it's a complete in-depth...
Sort of a field, a full field investigation.
Yep, complete, complete.
And we'll go back five years, but Gemmell said that, no, three was all they could do, and they said, well, we'll go three, and then we'll see if we need anything further.
But I just think that...
You know, we were very, very cooperative, and they seemed very nice, but I don't think that... Don't trust them at all, right.
We've got, you know, to Xerox.
We couldn't let these out of our hands without copying everything.
That's right.
Copy everything would take, you know, days.
Right.
And if somebody copied it, it would disclose something going on.
So I'm just going to call them in the morning and change the signals.
But everything is great.
And incidentally, John was just great today.
I guess you've heard that.
People have told me.
What did you think?
I didn't get to see it.
Fantastic.
Isn't that great?
Really.
Really.
I didn't think he could do it, but he handled it beautifully.
And as he upheld you.
Everybody said he did that.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, sir.
Well, we knew he did that.
But boy, they said he handled himself well, too.
He was great.
He was just great.
Yes, sir.
And good show.
Would you go on the boat tonight?
Yeah, I had to go out for a while.
I got back.
And incidentally, the one thing, of course, that you naturally handle, they may try to get into any expenditures that have been made there and so forth and so on, but I think that's, I don't know how that goes.
No problem there.
We had one account that stands off as handled.
I just...
sent them the signature cards, and I didn't handle it at all.
They want copies of that, which is perfectly all right.
They don't know that's already been picked up before anyway.
And the only thing at...
that I had second thoughts on was that they, you know, I'm involved in about a dozen different accounts and partnerships and everything.
Oh, yes, yes.
But I mean, the only thing they're really interested in is what expenditures were done at Key Biscayne and that sort of thing.
But how do you handle those?
Well, I think now, they're not going into that at all.
I think now they're just looking to see if I used any funds that I might have collected for my own purposes.
I think that's what really they're looking for now.
Oh, my God, they know that as far as this particular one is concerned, you didn't, because it's all given back.
Gimel thinks that sounded pretty wild, doesn't he?
Yes, he says that, you know, they told him, as a matter of fact, before I arrived, that had I not returned it, I'd probably be in serious trouble.
They did?
Yes.
And he repeated again that there is absolutely no violation whatsoever.
He repeated those words again.
Good, good, good.
That's good.
But they know it's returned.
This other thing that they'll, you know, spend a lot of time on.
Well, they've bought it to you before, damn it.
Yeah, it's been a year, 61, 62.
Right.
But my accountant has everything.
He's got his worksheets.
And he's got everything.
He's not the least bit concerned.
One thing that they've done, of course, sort of an unconscionable thing out at San Clemente, they go around, of course, this is where the GSA was involved, and they'll do the same there.
I don't care about the GSA expenditures.
That's perfectly defensible.
But they may go around and say what expenditure you might have had in terms of the...
no property and so forth and so on no problem but uh no no problem i wouldn't think so i mean you could no no problem there at all they just what they're doing now is just make an in-depth check on me for 68 69 70 71 72 which is what they want to do but they're going to get 70 71 and 72 now
Well, if they want to go back, fine, but they're going to have to do it down here.
I don't know whether Gimel and my accountant will agree to it, but I'm going to force it.
Why not?
I think you're right.
I don't think there's any reason to let them know.
If you send all that stuff up, it'll appear in a column before you know it.
Exactly.
There's too many people.
That's right.
Besides, it's voluminous.
You know how many checks I write?
My accountant tells me I sign more checks than any client they've got.
Yeah.
Right, right, right, right.
Unfortunately, you have so much turnover in cash and so on that they can't raise any questions on that.
Sure, about several partnerships and corporations and everything.
Well, that's fine.
I hope you don't worry too much about it.
No, I'm not worried about it at all.
I'm not worried at all.
Everything is, I think, in excellent shape.
And Gimel said that if it hadn't been returned, you'd be in serious trouble.
They told him that.
They told him that.
Well, he agreed, I suppose.
That's probably true.
Yeah, well, he said there's absolutely not a scintilla of violation here.
It's unfortunate we didn't get it all worked out sooner, where we would have, you know, stopped.
McGimmel's probably, or did they ask you about it, whether you tried to return it earlier or something, or did you go into that?
I don't know if I told him or not, you see.
He apparently didn't go into it as much as I assumed he had, and I didn't want to look like we had done a lot of collaborating.
That's right.
I just went in and answered their questions with very little embellishment.
That's right.
Good.
Guillermo was convinced.
They were very, very nice, but you know how that is.
On the legal side, he says no problem whatsoever, and on the tax side, my accountant.
He's standing in strong.
He's unfortunately got his whole family in Los Angeles and is supposed to leave to join him.
Yeah.
But he's going to stay and finish up the job, huh?
Yeah.
Well, it's good to have it in the hands of an accountant, baby.
You know, it really is.
Oh, yeah.
And he can be there to help answer the current questions.
Well, this fellow's been doing my work for 24 years.
He's, you know, he knows all the answers.
That's right.
That's right.
I think we're in excellent shape, and I'm particularly delighted at John's testimony.
How much of it do you hear, B.B.?
I'm watching it now in public service, but I saw just parts of it on the news, and I've talked to several people who saw it.
And I mean, he comes through loud and clear.
I tried to call him, but they don't know where he is.
That's all right, but the people told me I got a rundown from Ziegler in his office, and he said that everybody was really thought he had done a hell of a job.
Oh, he did.
He was fantastic.
Fantastic.
He just laughs, you know, because they...
They'll work on him, try to beat him down.
They won't beat him down.
He's smarter than they are, and he's more honest than they are, too.
I think so now, I tell you.
Bob was worried about that dog gun, and he came through.
Yes, sir.
I just prayed about his health, you know.
But he's got another day, and I hope to God he's up to it again tomorrow.
He stood up to him where it stood up to Dash where it counted, and actually to Palmage on one occasion.
Yeah, I understand that.
He was excellent.
He was excellent there.
Was he?
Yeah.
The question just played right into his hands.
Sure.
He gave them the answers they didn't expect and made them look all the better.
Yeah.
Oh, that's great, baby.
Where are you now?
I hear some voices.
Oh, you are?
I'm home.
Oh, you're listening to TV, yeah.
Well, I'll let you get back to the TV.
All right, sir.
Okay, bye-bye.