On March 19, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Dean, III, Richard A. Moore, and John C. Stennis met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:03 pm and 5:41 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 420-024 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
What have you got in the way of protecting me today?
Oh, uh, I'm going to speak to Edmund.
I'm just getting a little bit of detail.
I don't think there's a lot of detail that we can answer tomorrow.
I don't think we're prepared to put it all in the house.
Then we know it's going to be better.
Then we're going.
I just thought about it.
I just thought about it.
Well, there it is right now.
I think there might be some ground.
Oh.
Oh.
Well, I've got to take my check here to see how you're doing.
Your shield has still come along.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What?
And, uh, well, of course...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh boy, yeah, yeah.
Everybody's, uh, they'll, uh, they'll be ready for you.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, uh, uh, after all, we, uh, we, we do it all.
You've always been there when it's counted, and I guess once you know where to do it, it counts, too.
Okay.
all hang out, which is a part of hang out in a way that doesn't create more problems than it solves, but I like part of the hang out.
That's tough, very tough.
You've got to have open, open small doors.
The dead will want to get their nose into it from that.
There's a...
they don't want they want to have it they don't want to cover up they don't want to have one
That's a pretty good thing.
Well, just keep hammering it against all of the people.
See, I can't go out every week and say, you know, I said at lunch, we've got to keep out of the circus.
But I can't say it every week.
No, I said it.
But other people have got to keep saying it.
I wonder if we should get a group of the congressmen and senators there and get them to put those things together.
I think that's a good idea.
Bernie, for example, tomorrow is going on.
uh i think
and also get the separation part of the branch of the government.
I think the thing that's developing right now is being against the Navy and the common cause of losses and how we have those losses leading to a disclosure of all contributors.
which I now want to pick up as a penal standing where they haven't served me yet.
The question really is, is my, and the print has come up from some stands, testimony on deposition.
Before they had a council, Stanford found things out for me.
I didn't get ideas of the structure of committees and the likes that they were applying to the law.
There were a number of cases when I was prepared.
In fact, there were cases that they got council that I had.
Stanford's under fire.
I just approved this council and he reversed his council based on what I was telling him.
Uh, that's very consistent with my role, which made it sure that you would have absolutely accurate compliance with all of the state laws.
Uh, we, you know, secure the signature on all of them and make sure they're all signed and filed, like, does include it in my role, and I'll just candidly advise that the Great Lakes Committee is, cannot be divided or in any way separated by a general rule of the year's Council of the President.
So the question comes down to, do I go for a total executive privilege in the judicial branch, or do I do something that's more limited, for example, to extend the subpoena?
And then when I go take my deposition, blank privilege, unbanked privilege, and again have a double, little privilege, the kind of client privilege that I have.
But it's untimely right now because the name of the graduate in the Senate is
probably is to go for a limited type of acceptance service.
I think it'd be better to put a small wall on that.
I think one is it'd be consistent.
You have to go to the Congress and you have to go to the court.
But you have to take it up after you've done that.
... ... ... ... ...
but it does kind of drag me into the area of the relationship, confidential relationship with the president.
Now, this is half and half of it, but you can see that it's a yes.
But in life, I go to here, and they don't question about a bunch of things.
They simply, without me today, refuse to answer 31 questions.
31 things that you could like to find an answer.
The interesting thing is that they were really seeking the information.
I have no hesitation in giving them the information.
They're a routine interpretation of a statute that no one else was familiar with.
I followed the direction that I understood it.
They didn't have anybody over there that understood it.
I wasn't giving them the fancy answers needed.
It's one of the things that's really unfortunate.
It should not be something that they needed.
How often does it take?
Well, let's say, I may speak to the court.
They're scheduled for April 9th.
That would be on April 9th.
I would, well, they probably would be on April 9th.
They'd watch the service.
They have to watch the service on it.
And that would start the divorce right away.
Uh, I would say they predicted that my wife would trust me because I had 15 days on my own.
Yeah.
That, uh, in the case of the three weeks, uh, six weeks, because I had the importance of the court meeting the issue, I would take a simple civil suit.
It would be of much importance.
I would think of being here before he was all there.
Well, you know, I'm here for what I need now.
So far, I think that's what the link is not.
It's a matter of if it's supposed to be in it.
I think it's going to come out eventually.
But the reason being, Shoreline Highway is only close to a virgin area.
That's right.
And those things go on into another dimension.
That's right.
That's why the whole idea of what I would consider this, why not just put out to the public, put out what you did to the thing publicly.
It is going on right now.
and just say that I am perfectly willing to respond to your inquiries.
I don't want to hide anything.
So I have to know what you're asking for.
If you don't want to have to know, you can tweet me.
I'm trying to find privilege.
I haven't sought a waiver from anybody.
It's already a very big issue.
So I want to make sure that you know what you're talking about.
Yesterday, it was so strict with the vaccine that everyone went through a list of things to do after the vaccine.
Um, did you recommend a lot of the, a lot of the relationship with the, a lot of the relationship with the American Air Force?
What I mean is this.
I mean that the lawyer's always had to try to convince his parents of how they had to think that it's really what he had to do.
So I'm glad that I just put out a letter that's on the bench.
I'm prepared to swear that he's back.
He didn't want to submit his written letter on the nurse.
The letter didn't say what he wanted to say.
The message wasn't a lot of weight.
The written letter wasn't a lot of weight.
It was a lot of rain.
He said he's doing good.
To that certain question, I'm prepared to not hear the answer to that one.
I'm prepared to be suggestive.
I think the doctor indicated I wanted to go to get away with the idea of
We don't like to do that around the way.
The more that you can get out, the more that you can get out, you know, in terms of coming totally clean, the more they disarm.
It's all this bullshit that they put out.
Why do you know about it?
You know, you said that, but they won't hear it.
Right there, you can split it up and say there is no doubt about the fact that a number of people in this band have come into see you.
In terms of what our case has been, in that connection and relation, it would provide a view that John is a discipline, and as far as I am concerned, it is totally related to what I must know to understand things.
They told me things that I have not really repeated to anybody.
And their confidence.
Because I felt that there was no way I could understand what I was doing.
And I think I would go to jail before I could reveal it.
I could put it in context and tell you that some reform has been completed without saying anything.
And he told me that he did.
And I think that's only fair because of this video I just showed.
I'm not sure if they think it's fair to me because I was holding it.
I don't really know anything else.
Well, I don't respond to this, but people should study it up.
What would that one feel like?
The way I would write the letter back is to say, Mr. President, everybody, we will cooperate.
And, uh...
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
I will still respond to them.
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
Any further questions you may have?
You're the best one to get it out.
You're the best one to get it out.
You're the best one to get it out.
You're the best one to get it out.
I can't really take as far as the thoughts that we had over the weekend.
Letting anything out is still, in other words, all of us, all of us, Jason and all of us, have not even sworn faith.
That's all I have.
That's all I have.
That's all I have.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not volunteering anything on that.
We want to talk to Matt.
that there is a good, solid basis for not letting these men and girls go out there, for not legislating on this, for a purely political person to be there, totally or not totally.
And that's what it's going to be.
That's what they want.
And I want to say that the whole experiment, watching him miss it, is kind of a show.
He plays that country boy role.
I thought it was quite effective.
Thank you.