Word: buzhardt
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...secretary was drawn reluctantly back into Sirica's courtroom last week after an embarrassed and nervous White House counsel, J. Fred Buzhardt, told the judge on Nov. 21 that 18 minutes of Nixon's June 20 conversation with Haldeman was totally obscured by a persistent hum. At the time Buzhardt said that neither he nor Government technicians could explain how the noise had originated. But last week he said that an explanation had been found, and that Miss Woods would provide...
Like Miss Woods, White House Attorney Buzhardt was also pressed hard when he took the stand and was questioned by Watergate prosecutors. Often pleading a lack of memory, he finally conceded under questioning that he had first learned in early or mid-October that there was some difficulty with the Haldeman portion of the tape, although he claimed not to have been aware of the full 18-minute problem until mid-November. His reason, too, for not telling the court about this much sooner was that he thought the Haldeman conversation was not under subpoena. Sirica seemed openly skeptical...
Rehearsing Testimony. The courtroom scene turned tense again when Rhyne was allowed to question Buzhardt. He established that neither Buzhardt nor White House Attorney Leonard Garment had actually represented Miss Woods at her first court appearance, but were representing the President. Garment interjected to agree. Then Rhyne said flatly that Garment and another White House counsel, Samuel Powers, "had spent hours rehearsing her on her testimony." Garment immediately objected to the term "rehearsing" ?and Sirica called all the attorneys to confer for some 25 minutes at his bench. Without explanation, Buzhardt then was excused from the stand...
...court, Prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste urged Sirica to take immediate custody of all of the subpoenaed tapes. Buzhardt objected that several conversations not under subpoena were also on the reels containing the desired recordings. Unmoved, Sirica indicated he would order the reels subpoenaed if they were not voluntarily turned over to him by Monday of this week. He added sourly: "This is another instance that convinced the court that it must take steps to safeguard the tapes, to make certain nothing like this happens again between now and when we actually listen to the tapes...
...sound was present on the original recording, it presumably would have been detected by any of a number of White House officials who have heard some of the tapes. They include the President, Miss Woods, Haldeman, Presidential Aide Stephen Bull and former Presidential Aide Alexander Butterfield. According to Buzhardt, the discovery was made only on Nov. 14, when he and another White House counsel, Samuel Powers, were cataloguing the tapes for presentation to the court. If the sound was not introduced in the original recording of the conversation, it could have been picked up during an attempted erasure or rerecording...