Nixon, Powell & Rehnquist on Supreme Court and National Security

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All right.

Are you lost?

Lost with you?

Yeah, that's great.

You're number one.

Number one.

You're number one.

Sorry, Jim.

You're Jim.

My son Jim.

You're number one.

How are you?

You're a great man.

Excuse me.

I didn't know I knew you were making this up.

That's right.

Well, you are.

You're going to be here.

You didn't have a good morning.

You don't mind?

Yeah.

Mr. Higgins, are you alive at all?

He didn't mention that.

I've really got to talk to my wife.

Usually that's a dodge.

For the purpose of identifying with the client.

But in this case, I knew, yeah, she had the bingo, and she knew I was going to follow that track.

What we would like to do here is to set up the formal ceremony first.

Afterwards, we'll have people in the city, and then we'll have a family picture of each group, and then we'll have this family, and this family.

The following ceremony will be covered in press.

You are confirmed.

Now you can secure your mouth.

You are not sealed.

Now you're here, Mr. Justice.

You can call Mr. Justice Jeff, Johnny.

I'm not John.

I'm Mr. Justice Jim.

I think most are trash.

We've got to get this warrant in on this.

Really?

This is a version of that?

No, I, uh...

I've heard of the war between the states, and they said, that's your southern sky.

All right.

I'll do the universe.

Ladies, now, just lay down here.

Call the commissioners in the morning.

That's all.

Thank you.

you didn't get, you don't have that.

This is all, this is really all you get.

You get something under the corner of the court, you get another, you know what, this is what you hang on the wall.

This is what you hang on the wall.

Get out.

Ladies and gentlemen, this presentation will be brief, as far as the report and as far as the mission.

I am resigning the commission to receive two new appointees.

For the most part, I do not get to serve you, Mr. Jeff Powell and Mr. Jeff Jenkins.

For the last time, I'm going to serve you, Mr. Jeff Powell.

but I would like to thank you first.

He is the first named bar detention to serve as the Supreme Court and not to do this.

And it's a great creation of the Supreme Court in the United States.

I would like to thank the Supreme Court and all the people who served on this responsibility.

It's a great, great thing.

And I'd like to thank you in the back, and I'd like to thank the Supreme Court, and Marco, and the Supreme Court.

And all those who know this at all well, say that you have marked this life, I think so too.

Thank you very much.

As President of the United Nations, I do appreciate the confidence and trust that you have, both in yourself and in the United States.

But as I've often said, my man is tested by a hot consummation type.

It makes him a better man.

And for making this presentation, it's been tremendous.

I was about to say something, but I said, well, these men, when I called them to congratulate them after they had been confirmed to the Senate, I first

I've practiced law for 30 years.

I have a great respect for law, and it seems a sense.

And it is my view that a ceremony like this should not be allowed in the past without making one point.

From this moment forward, these three men should be resorted to justice for any kind of sin.

Hold their obligation.

They hold their duty to the law in its highest sense and not the president.

In fact, I always put the law first, but I believe the law here is not a tribute to me without any political considerations, without any considerations that might have to do with the appointment process.

And that's very, very important.

I appreciate the confidence that you have proposed a meeting with Titus, who is worthy of it.

I might say for my native states, I don't think there's ever been a native of Wisconsin, or certainly a resident of Arizona, nominate you to speak for.

So I will try to prove worthy of it.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Well, now we would like to get in touch with the family.

I've got to get the call from Anthony first.

If you come over here, I can't.

Yeah.

All right.

It's only .

So we're going to give you a copy of this and one of each of them. .

Now let us see if we can do the same thing for them.

Stand here.

Justice on this side.

Now, let's see.

That's good.

I would do that inside.

Let me get inside.

You're on the end.

There.

That's good.

All right.

Now, look up there.

Look at me.

Just got through the center.

Well, it's all done now.

Now all you have to do is pull up your hands and say, I do.

I'll be in California.

If you all get your Christmas presents, it's not a lot.

President of California Superman.

There's a seal, a seal in a coffin.

It's a nice little thing.

And the same thing for the ladies, except it's a bow.

There's a seal, a little bow.

But it's not all evidence.

Well, we're so glad to see you.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Thank you.

Have you read the book out there?

No.

Yes, we do.

And you are?

And you're from law school?

We're now law school here in Virginia.

And our cancer detailer is my last year of the 15th year.

Mr. President, my car is going to take more than two of the way.

Oh, yeah.

I need to get a discussion with your... Oh, that's right.

Your picture is going to be written.

Will you see it again after Christmas this year?

No.

Oh, it's my next.

We've got to do a lot of things.

Don't think I'm just trying to serve you.

Oh, did you see it last night?

I had to go watch it myself.

Yeah, but you were doing that for a whole hour, didn't you?

Yes, sir.

You've got two footfalls for that.

You know, it's style and intensity.

Before that, do you go, are you a, do you use a, what do you use, a straight key or a... What do you say?

What do you say?

Go on.

You run some, grapple some.

You gotta watch these games over the weekend.

You're watching the league.

Fine school.

It is, thank you.

Yes, it is.

Goodbye, everyone.

Very much so.

You did you know that?

I did, sir.

I thought so.

I just want to say that we were married, and that'd be wrong.

I like that it's there.

I know, I know.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We're very proud of you.

And don't give the Attorney General too hard of a time.

You don't owe anything to the President.

How do you like that?

Very close.

You don't look that high on Dr. Dills.

He showed you that it's the same number of votes against him as there was Chief Justice Hughes.

He's done very well.

You don't get a little better from selling something that's hard to sell.

I try.

There are more senators now, Bill.

That's right.

But you get a percentage of votes.

You did better than Brandeis and better than Hughes.

I'll beat that with a vote.

That's right.

Oh, he'll do it.

He'll do it.

I used to work with Senator Ross and worked very closely with Dave.

He just thought you were great.

He listened to you for a while.

And you've been here now.

You like the bathroom.

I like the bathroom.

I love the bathroom.

It's wonderful.

You were out in my house one time, too, weren't you?

Yes, sir.

I was.

How old are you now? 32.

You said you were poor.

He said very well.

He's got the talent.

We're very, very sorry to lose him.

But it's a higher calling when he moves to the Justice Department.

Did we say that from you?

We're glad to have you.

Is he got his confirmation?

You got any confirmation?

Oh, thank you.

You got your, anybody?

You got your book?

John, what do you think of that?

It's very, uh, very well, very good.

John, uh, do you think one of you and John are on the stage?

I don't think so.

All right.

Let's see.

Look, uh, no words to the wearer.

Well, uh, see you tonight.

Have fun.

We're girding up for next year.

We've got John and I are working on revenue.

Well, everyone, we hope that you know where you are.

Where you are.

Whisper that to me.

I need that.

I just put the letter in there to know if he signed it.

So, I don't know who's the more, but the problem, I, after sleeping on it,

You never know what you're going to find.

Because we dug up a couple on this chamber, you know.

Nobody knows that the nuts in the back of that one, I think, began.

They were both that way.

If there's any possibility of this, John, that could be the key as well to something.

He may be under blackmail.

David, David's impression the first day he was over there was that this guy was very offendable.

Yeah.

Which doesn't prove it so much.

Well, we pull this package and we look in the personal box and know that nothing gets cheapened until they're tall.

But they've got the perfect excuse for reinterrogating him because of yesterday's Anderson comments.

And the question was if this fellow had access to that and so on.

I'm going to get into that in another slide if this other thing is passing.

That'd be the simulator over the first thing this morning.

This is a polygraph again.

Yeah.

The thing that concerns John is, and I think your strategy is exactly right, except with one thing that I worry about.

This guy's a potential Ellsperger.

terms of, and he knows more, really, than Ellsberg knows.

Because he really knows what happens.

And unfortunately, what he knows is not anything that's going to be, in my view, I wouldn't mind if it all came out.

But it's better for him not to.

The point is, is there any way that we can keep him scared to death so that he doesn't get out and think, oh, I know I'm going to write a book, or I'm going to do this or that, or the other thing.

can he be told that a criminal, I think he's got to be told that a criminal offense hangs over him, that it's going to hang over him, and that we're going to, you see what I mean?

I'd like to scare the son of a bitch to death.

I would believe that.

Do you believe that?

Yes, we believe that, Mr. President.

I think that the sign-off on this guy when he's sent to wherever he's going to be sent is going to be just that.

You can sit down and read the

the statutes to him, and the background, and the sentences, and so forth, and really give him a good understanding of what is going to be in his background for a long time to come.

And I think this, if anything, will keep the cellar from opening up, will be that.

I think it's important to silence him.

Correct.

And he also, the important thing is to handle the captain and the admiral in a way that they do not talk.

Well, their career, I suspect that that's enough leverage.

And they're probably loyal fellows, I suspect.

They're just doing it for my service, this fellow.

I think they'd be shocked to know what this guy did.

Well, they know.

Do they know the packet?

Absolutely.

Oh, absolutely.

Let's see, they, the welder and the captain, used it.

And they knew that he was stealing from Kisselman.

They had to.

I just don't see any escape from that.

That's the reason they have to be transferred.

If they do that, they have to be transferred.

This is the only way you're going to have a deterrent on future such operations.

That's why you've got to have more.

You're going to do the interval.

Well, your suggestion was to let this fester.

But now I'm going to interrogate Walter today at 1.

That's fine.

And then we'll just let it sit for a bit and regroup and we can compare notes and see where we go from here.

And then we'll get it.

But I hope that this interrogation comes as an admission from him that he has been passing this stuff to the Joint Chiefs so that we have completed the chain.

That's the missing link right now.

One thing that concerns me a little bit, I met Hugh's successor this morning.

And he is from the junk chiefs.

I don't know if everybody in the outfit is tainted, but the red belt is because I'm kind of allergic to that these days.

Well, it's going to be pretty difficult.

Time, not talking to the subject matter.

That's right.

Oh, he's going to have to talk.

Or that's in his career.

That's his choice.

There's so much atmosphere.

You know how to work with him.

He does.

He's a master.

He has more people around this government than I guess anybody has ever had, far more than Drew Pearson ever had.

Well, he got them, Pearson.

He was Pearson's leader.

Yes, I know, but he...

He was all over the town.

He's developed a lot of...

He got them all around.

I certainly would say this.

I'd watch around.

I'd see anybody.

He was closer to what he could recall.

I just think that...

I think we better check everybody Anderson knows and talks to.

I really think we better do that.

You know, if we want to find out where he's at, what do you believe is going to help us?

I'm not so sure.

I think...

His regular sources are not a problem for us.

That is, if the Sapphire is a source or something like that, that's not a problem.

It's the hidden guys like this who bootleg stuff to us that we just stumble onto occasionally that we've got to root out.

I don't know how we find those people.

Have you had a report on the Czech Bacchanics column yet?

No, not yet.

You may have a four-man team when he comes in.

You say this, Wally Johnson's quite a fellow.

Yes, he did.

He was the one that told me he was a great guy.

Yes, he was the best man for it.

That was a good staff.

We had a lot of good guys on that.

Wally and Dean came from that staff.

Santorelli.

Santorelli and Dean told us.

They were a great group.

Fast as we'd get them to train them, though, you'd take them over here.

Now, what Johnson, though, did he really work on?

What did he do?

He prepped these two fellas.

And he wrote...

All for us with questions, and he wrote all the minority senators.

For all of the other 30-odd senators.

Because he does, and every damn time.

He just programmed this whole thing.

He said, we're not going to have any problems with this confirmation like we've had in the past.

And he just stepped in there and he put this.

He has some of the best judgment of anybody I've ever seen in dealing with these ticklish questions.

10 to 15 letters a week from congressmen or senators that are bitching about this or bitching about that, and they want the hard answers, and he can put this stuff, keep them off balance, keep them happy.

He's just great.

And a hell of a good lawyer.

He's a good lawyer.

Very good lawyer.

He's been working with our team on this campaign reform legislation.

In fact, from the legislative liaison point of view, he's been the most effective one of all of them.

Very good.

Well, you've written quite a long letter.

Well, congratulations.

Yeah, I took a lot today.

Well, on this, I think you've done a marvelous job of sleuthing.

This is a great job of detecting where to run.

They will write it.

But the point is now, and this is done, your strategy is correct.

We can't blow it, but we ought to get out of this and keep this guy under arrest.

by scaring him to death, and something's got to hang over.

And second, use this as a device to, of course, clean up the Joint Chiefs operation.

And third, you've got to get at Henry.

Now, you've got to get at Henry another way.

Henry, we all know his fake leaks, and he tries to chop Henry and vice versa.

But on the other hand, Henry is paranoid.

And there has to be ordered in there that security officer can check himself.

And I think we'll get Young to sit down with him, because Young knows that system so well, to sit down with a security officer and give him even a keynote so that the guy starts out ahead of the game a little bit.

Young is writing up a memo for year five on this whole episode.

It's just the only copy there is of the whole thing.

And we'll just salt that away so that you're in a position to write about it at some time.

But then, Young, what we're doing here is an effective...

excusing the crime.

So it's a goddamn thing to do.

But this has been the history all through this question of espionage.

That's it.

All the way through.

The chairman's from Cape Harbor, Washington, which is the best place in the world to live.

The burden of that is going to sit almost outside of Tacoma.

It's almost outside of Tacoma.

Nixon, Powell & Rehnquist on Supreme Court and National Security

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on December 22, 1971

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