Word: clair
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...persuasive testimony of the technicians inspired a spirited contest between two aggressive lawyers: Richard Ben-Veniste, 30, the brash assistant prosecutor who has handled much of the tapes controversy in the Sirica hearings, and James St. Clair, 53, the Boston trial lawyer who became the President's new chief counsel for all of his Watergate defense on Jan. 1. Far less defensive than his soft-spoken predecessors, Buzhardt and Leonard Garment, the poised, silver-haired St. Clair sharply challenged any effort by Ben-Veniste to get the experts to draw conclusions going beyond their carefully stated report...
...Clair interrupted Expert Weiss at midsentence in one answer with a curt, "Thank you." Objected Ben-Veniste: "This is a joint panel here and these experts should not be cut off." Sirica sustained the prosecutor. St. Clair, in turn, objected vigorously when Ben-Veniste tried to get one of the technicians to declare flatly that the erasure was "deliberate." Although the report leads to that inescapable conclusion, none of the experts would put it that bluntly. Sirica complained, "That's what I want to know." The best Ben-Veniste could get was Bolt's concession that...
...Stockham if the signature marks on the tape could only be produced by pushing tape recorder buttons by hand, he replied: "With a hand. Or with a stick." "But not a foot pedal?" Sirica asked. "Not with a foot pedal," Stockham declared. When the technicians completed their presentation, St. Clair grumped, "I think I'm going to talk to my own experts." Protested Bolt: "I thought we were your experts...
That seemed to signal a new approach by White House attorneys: a turning away from past expressions of dismay at new revelations. St. Clair's pose was the more traditional defense lawyer's approach, seemingly
...saying, "Well, if you think we did wrong, prove it." As the hearing continued, however, the White House attitude became one of pledging cooperation with the FBI probes, and St. Clair did not try to produce any contrary technical witnesses. In a series of White House briefings, Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren asserted that the President was not responsible for the erasure, and that Nixon had complete confidence in both Miss Woods and Bull...