{"conversationCode":"507-005","tapeNumber":507,"conversationNumber":5,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-507-005","startDateTime":"1971-05-29T14:32:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-05-29T14:48:00.000Z","startDate":"29-May-1971","startTime":"10:32 AM","endDate":"29-May-1971","endTime":"10:48 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.;","description":"On May 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:32 am and 10:48 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 507-005 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"OVAL","recordingDevice":"Oval Office","latitudeEstimated":38.8974,"longitudeEstimated":-77.0374,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"None","filename":["507a.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:27:51","tapeEnd":"01:32:25","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ehrlichman, John D."],"prevCode":"507-004","nextCode":"507-006","tapeTranscriptFile":"507a.mp3","transcript":[{"start":5271,"end":5272.79,"text":"I did not do that."},{"start":5272.81,"end":5272.97,"text":"Yes."},{"start":5273.15,"end":5273.21,"text":"Yes."},{"start":5273.47,"end":5273.59,"text":"Yes."},{"start":5282.31,"end":5288.5,"text":"I was just talking to Rockefeller to commiserate with him about his problems with Lindsey on the rent thing at Donovan's Farm."},{"start":5289.42,"end":5300.98,"text":"And he was just saying he was happy to cut the budget in New York by $400 million in New York City, and that what Lindsey was probably going to do was to cut them in in blue, you know, in order to screw Rockefeller."},{"start":5302,"end":5309.1,"text":"He made an intriguing suggestion that probably nothing could be done, or maybe a tokenism can handle, but"},{"start":5309.86,"end":5311.7,"text":"And I thought, I told him, I had you call him about it."},{"start":5311.76,"end":5328.1,"text":"And so all these lines, he said, I wondered if there's anything that you might do on an emergency basis because of the recent problems, you know, all the riots and all that sort of crap, and the shooting of policemen, to give us some assistance directly on the police side."},{"start":5328.12,"end":5330.3,"text":"Now, I don't know, I don't know."},{"start":5330.32,"end":5334.7,"text":"And I think he's referring only to New York, and he hasn't thought through and all that sort of thing."},{"start":5335.69,"end":5340.05,"text":"But, uh, and I know we have it further down the road, this is Revenue Insurance Center."},{"start":5340.63,"end":5344.58,"text":"But, uh, would you, would you give us some thought and call him up on it?"},{"start":5344.66,"end":5346.68,"text":"I, uh, he, he, we've got some funds we could do."},{"start":5346.7,"end":5352.5,"text":"We could say that, in other words, have Rockefeller and me and, uh, have it, have it announced that way."},{"start":5353.1,"end":5359.3,"text":"When Lindsey does screw them, say we're giving a hundred million bucks to the state of New York specifically for the purpose of this."},{"start":5359.34,"end":5363.08,"text":"Now, of course, it puts us in a problem with our city and so forth, but I don't know."},{"start":5363.1,"end":5363.38,"text":"Okay."},{"start":5365.04,"end":5367.39,"text":"All right, thank you."}],"transcriptBoundary":{"start":5271,"end":5545,"startMethod":"tape_time","endMethod":"tape_time"},"transcriptConfidence":"low","transcriptSource":"bigtape","aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discuss a request from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller for emergency federal financial assistance to support New York City police, citing recent unrest and violence. Nixon explores the political implications of providing direct aid to the state to counteract budget maneuvering by Mayor John Lindsay. The two agree that Ehrlichman will evaluate potential funding sources and contact Rockefeller to determine if a strategic federal grant can be announced.","topics":["Nelson Rockefeller","John Lindsay","New York City","Police funding","Federal aid","Urban unrest"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T22:34:34.974Z"},"topicSlugs":["nelson-rockefeller","john-lindsay","new-york-city","police-funding","federal-aid","urban-unrest"],"audioDurationSec":274,"audioFiles":[{"file":"507a.mp3","bytes":150905416,"durationSec":6287.65,"bitrate":192002,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":true,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:49.684Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/507a.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/507-005","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/507/conversation-507-005","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}