Word: ervine
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...three staff members present instantly realized the significance of Butterfield's revelation. They told Dash and the chief Republican counsel, Fred Thompson. Next morning when Chairman Ervin was informed, he called the news "quite astounding." Determined that this story must not leak to newsmen, as so many staff interviews had, Ervin ordered that not even the other Senators on the committee be immediately informed. Vice Chairman Baker learned of it Sunday morning only when Butterfield, seeking advice, asked to meet with him. Baker told Butterfield that he would have to testify publicly, but should inform White House Counsels Leonard Garment...
Butterfield, 47, an efficient and bright administrator who had been a U.C.L.A. acquaintance of Haldeman's, advised the White House counsels of his intentions on Sunday. He was not told to invoke Executive privilege, probably because the Ervin staff already had his testimony. Ervin moved swiftly to get Butterfield's information out. On Monday morning the full committee was told about Butterfield's story. A staff attorney was ordered to call Butterfield and tell him that he would be put on television that afternoon. Butterfield, reached in a barbershop, objected, still concerned about national security and worried about missing...
Thus a nervous but precise and wholly cooperative Butterfield became the Ervin committee's first mystery witness. He arrived without an attorney, not having had time even to obtain counsel to accompany him. Speaking in understated, undramatic terms, he told a sensational story of how Nixon had made it a practice to bug all presidential conversations. At no time, so far as he knew, Butterfield said, did Nixon seek to cut off the system or were his visitors or callers informed that their words were being taped...
...President precisely what he thinks about the implications that result when anyone withholds evidence. Ervin is respectful of, but not awed by, Presidents. Says he: "For a long time, I've proceeded on the basis that all people put on their trousers one leg at a time...
During one brief and bizarre episode, the ever-optimistic Ervin thought that his hopes had been realized beyond expectation. He announced at a session of the televised hearings that he had just received a telephone call from Treasury Secretary Shultz, whose Secret Service is custodian of the tapes Shultz, the chairman reported, had concealed that the President had decided to make all relevant tapes available to the committee and would meet with Ervin to arrange the transfer. The chairman praised the President for his "very wise decision." Vice Chairman Baker joined in the salutations, declaring: "It would appear that...