Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 906 › Conversation 906-017

Nixon & Petersen on Watergate scandal and John W. Dean III

Friday, April 27, 1973 · 5:37 PM–5:43 PM ET · Oval Office · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Petersen, Henry E.Conversation906-017 on Tape 906StartFriday, April 27, 1973 at 5:37 PMEndFriday, April 27, 1973 at 5:43 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 906-017 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Assistant Attorney General Henry E. Petersen to address alarming reports from journalists Seymour Hersh and Bob Woodward that John Dean had implicated the President to Watergate prosecutors. Nixon expressed deep concern over these rumors and pressed Petersen to confirm whether the prosecutors had received such statements, specifically regarding the March 21, 1973, conversation concerning E. Howard Hunt’s demands. Petersen agreed to immediately contact the lead prosecutors to verify the information and reiterated his stance that his office lacked a mandate to investigate the presidency, asserting that such authority resided only with the House of Representatives.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Man, very good man.
Another one of your hard days, huh?
Well, I'm sure they're harder than yours, sir.
They're not, they're not.
I've got less to be today.
Let me come to a point, Mr. Dillard.
You know, getting reports of me, you know, reports that we, you know, really, we've got to head off past, because it's so damned, uh, we'll have all this, so, uh, dangerous presidency in a sense, you know.
There's a reporter by the name of Hersh in the New York Times.
You probably know him.
He's the fellow who did the Vietnam riot stories.
Who told Bittman, according to him, who told O'Brien, apparently, that they have information, or Hersh has information.
I don't know.
You can't tell who's saying this, whether this is from Hersh or Bittman.
indicating the dean has made statements to the prosecuting team, indicating the president.
And Woodard.
And Woodard.
His post has heard similar rumors.
Now, Henry, this I've got to know.
I've told you everything I know about this thing.
I don't have any problem with that, Mr. President.
I'll get in touch with him immediately.
But with...
Titus Silbert and Glanzer and Campbell.
Do you mind calling them right now?
No, sir.
I'm sorry.
I'm saying, now, look, all of your conversations with Dean and Bittman, do they, if the president, because we can't, I've got to, I want this to mention there, if the U.S. attorney's office, I mean, if there is, you've got to tell me.
Well, you know, it's strange.
You've got to tell me on that.
I had them over there.
We had a kind of crisis of confidence the night before last.
I came and left to come over here, and I left my two principal assistants to discourse with Silbert and the other three.
And in effect, it concerned me and whether or not they were at ease with my reporting to you.
And I pointed out to them that
I had very specific instructions, discussed that with them on that Sunday.
And, well, as a consequence, I kind of laid in the tightest yesterday.
And it cleared the air a little bit, but there's a very suspicious atmosphere out there, concerned and scared.
And I will check on this, but I have absolutely no information at this point that... You've never heard it?
No, sir.
Absolutely not.
My God.
The only, as I said, the only... Mr. President, I tell you, I do not consider it... You know, I've said it twice.
We have to draw the line.
We have no mandate to investigate the presidency.
We investigate wording.
And I don't know where that line draws, but we have to draw that all the time.
You're right.
If the dean is advocating the presidency, we're going to go out there and we'll find out where that is.
That's not, because let me tell you, the only conversation we ever had with him was the famous March 21st conversation I told you about, where he told me about Bittman coming to him.
You know, the Bittman request for $120,000 a year for Hunt.
And I then finally began to get at it.
I explored it with him thoroughly.
now what the hell is this for it's because he's blackmailed early remember i said that's what it was about about hunts without a great deal of the same he started and i asked him i said well how would you get it how would you get it so my purpose was to find out what the hell had been going on before and uh believe me nothing at that point nothing was approved
As far as that's concerned, as far as I'm concerned, I thought it was turned off totally.
I tell you, my understanding of law is, my understanding of our responsibilities, is that if it came to that, I would have to come to you and say, we can't do that.
The only people who have jurisdiction to do that is the House of Representatives, so far as I'm concerned.
But I want you to know, you tell me, because as far as I'm concerned, I'm afraid to go.
I'll call you.
Do you want me to call you from here or outside?
Well, I tell you what, he's the captain of them, and you could talk freely.
All right.
And who will you call?
Who can you talk to there?
I'll call Silver.
If he's not there, I'll get tight with him.
You can say that.
This is a story that some New York Times reporter has in the Woodward Post.
Well, his is a different one than that, but it's in the Woodward.
It's sort of stuck around the same.
But Hershey reported that Deans has made a statement
to the prosecutor's office, and this is not a grand jury thing, sir.
We haven't had any grand jury.
I've got them, and I want to know what it is.
I'll call right away.
And I need to know.
Yes, sir.
If you'll go to that area, please take a look on that, uh, envelope.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Perfect.

NARA Description

On April 27, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry E. Petersen met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:37 pm to 5:43 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 906-017 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 906-17

Date: April 27, 1973
Time: 5:37 pm - 5:43 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry E. Petersen.

[A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was also prepared Richard Nixon’s
Special White House Counsel for Watergate Matters and submitted to the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives. This transcript can be found in Submission of
Recorded Presidential Conversations (SRPC), pages 1257-1260 (1-4). Please refer to the
logging below.]

     President’s schedule
           -Mississippi

     Watergate
          -Seymour M. Hersh
                                              -27-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                              Conversation No. 906-17 (cont’d)

                  -Conversation with William O. Bittman concerning New York Times
                   information
                        -John W. Dean, III’s statement to prosecutors implicating President
                  -Robert U. (“Bob”) Woodward’s information
            -Petersen’s meeting with prosecutors
                  -Seymour Glanzer, Harold H. Titus, Jr., Earl J. Silbert, Donald E. Campbell
                  -Statements by Dean implicating President
            -Petersen’s April 25, 1973 meeting with prosecutors
                  -President
            -Petersen’s April 26, 1973 conversation with Titus
            -Petersen’s knowledge of information concerning President
            -President’s March 21, 1973 conversation with Dean
                  -Bittman’s request for $120,000 for E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
                        -President’s response
            -Petersen’s legal mandate
                  -House of Representatives
            -Petersen’s forthcoming call to prosecutors
                  -Cabinet Room telephone
                  -Silbert, Titus
                  -Hersh, Woodward
                        -Dean’s statement about President

Petersen left at 5:43 pm.

Also recorded on April 27, 1973

  • 906-013 5:00 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:00 pm and 5:37 pm.
  • 906-014 5:00 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:00 pm and 5:37 pm.
  • 906-018 5:43 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 6:04 pm.
  • 906-019 5:43 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 6:04 pm.
  • 906-020 5:43 PM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 6:04 pm.
  • 906-021 5:43 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 6:04 pm.
  • 906-022 5:43 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 6:04 pm.
  • 906-023 6:04 PM · 43 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry E. Petersen, Stephen B. Bull, Ronald L. Ziegler, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:04 pm to 6:48 pm.

All 42 conversations from April 27, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 906-017, April 27, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/906-017 (accessed October 5, 2026).