On April 17, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:50 pm to 4:41 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 899-001 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
I think if he puts that in there, that was a tough time.
I don't know.
I think if you'll cover the truth, that's what he's going to do.
Answer their questions.
Why didn't you say, I'll be with you?
Why didn't you just say that?
Take care of it.
Maybe that's what he said.
I'll take care of it.
I think that's what we want him to do.
I think what he should do is just say, I don't have anything, but I don't think I'm going to get your offer.
And just make the point that given that offer, he doesn't have to volunteer.
All he has to do is answer their questions.
Right.
He should just take their offer and leave it.
We don't have to have him say he isn't trying to hide anything.
I feel fine with his doing that.
Right.
So he can say.
I'll tell you the only other truth.
He tells them.
They think it's worse than it is.
They think he's covering up, and they're wrong.
That's the reason why he gets down to it.
And they're trying to confuse him.
That's what's kind of bothering me.
And the poor guy, you see, what's really worrying him is that he's covered everything with me every step of the way.
he doesn't need to make up something or take something that's partly right and twist it, which is what Dean is doing, and hang him on it.
And I think what he's got to do is just go with what he believes is correct and hang with it.
Don't you think we're right to tell the U.S. Attorney, if I want to name all of them, I'm going to find the thing you did, and I'll tell you what you want to respond to.
I have a couple of conspirators that I got a case for.
That makes his case for it.
Do you agree?
I was going to suggest that we will get that, could we get Rogers over here and I think this is, you and Ernie, you and Rogers want to sit down and talk about this specific matter, so yeah.
Well, I don't want to screw up your time, but we've only got this guy.
The only time he could take today was an opposite time out of the deposition.
Well, we'll give him a quick fill and get him started.
That would be a very foolish thing for him to do.
That would be a very foolish thing for him.
He didn't say that.
You know how strong he feels.
And here's the two, I guess, that accomplishes this.
But it's all a learning process.
I'd say all human charms, I know the theme has made some charms, right?
There's another way you can do it, maybe.
Now, John got by in a second.
But another way you can do it, I was good at it, John, but we've got to do it together.
Because I think either one of us hangs together every playing game.
But maybe...
Maybe we request of you a leave of absence on the basis of the information you have, which we have, because we've been involved in the investigation too, right?
Now, if we're going to be on that list, we're going to have to ask for a leave of absence anyway.
Once and for all.
If he puts the list out and hands us on it, well, it's going to be awkward.
And I don't know that you'll be on it.
See, that's the point.
We've got to see if, nevertheless, we'll be called on.
But we've always talked about being called to the grand jury.
That's right.
And said that we would appear, hell, you made a statement weeks ago saying that anybody in the White House will welcome the opportunity to testify at the grand jury.
Do you automatically suspend anybody?
Thank you.
He's going to do his worst anyway, with or without immunity.
Irvin is going to get him up there, if he has immunity or not, and take him over the jumps.
What you've done here is to lay a ground rule for Irvin on immunity.
That's going to be very tough for him to live with.
if there are urban hearings, right?
But eventually there will be urban hearings, Bob.
I don't think there's much question.
The more battles the president wins, like that economic stabilization thing, the more urgent the urban hearings become.
Because that's the only thing they have left.
It's the only thing they have left.
You're winning all the big ones.
And... Yeah.
If you want to see Bill and Bob ahead of us,
I'll tell you, as we lay this out, I'll be interested to see what this lawyer has to say.
Dean's testimony may not be admissible.
that his communication to us was communication to you, and vice versa.
That all we are is the authority of the President.
I don't have any separate existence.
But don't I have to, uh, you have to assert privilege, in a sense.
But, uh, and I don't know, what are, you know, I don't know what kind of political problems that makes, but...
Looking at disability by, uh, just strictly from that standpoint, didn't you have trouble getting some of that in?
Would you discuss with your lawyer what the legal plan is?
And let's think about the experience about whether the... Ron, John.
Yes, I'm sorry.
Come on in.
Lenny's been around for a long time.
He's been around for a long time.
He's been around for a long time.
He's been around for a long time.
He's been around for a long time.
He's been around for a long time.
since we can't get her.
But I don't want it.
Okay.
It's done.
Fine.
Then, John, afterwards, you better ask me about what the ground rules are.
I'll just say it's up to the committee to follow suit.
Okay.
Where is it?
Wait.
I know.
I'm just trying to get the answer.
I forgot about it.
Oh, I see.
We have plenty of time.
Video tape recorder so there's no film dropping.