Word: rodino
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...Judiciary Committee and Republican leaders in both chambers of Congress had worked frantically to avoid this newest constitutional confrontation spawned by Watergate. After Democrat Peter Rodino, chairman of the committee, set Tuesday, April 9, as the firm deadline for a definitive White House response to its Feb. 25 request for 41 tapes, congressional Republicans repeatedly implored Nixon's chief Watergate counsel, James St. Clair, to respond affirmatively and cooperatively. If he did not, they warned, the subpoena could not be avoided...
Rhodes and other Republicans phoned St. Clair to tell him that a subpoena was imminent unless he gave more ground. Rodino, for his part, knew he had a majority in favor of issuing a subpoena. But he did not want the vote to be along party lines. He was also aware of three continuing sources of Republican dissatisfaction with his handling of the committee so far: 1) he had prevented any vote on whether St. Clair should represent the President during committee proceedings; 2) he had similarly postponed any decision on the procedures the committee would follow as evidence...
With those words, Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. declared that his House Judiciary Committee would no longer tolerate the White House failure to deliver 41 tape recordings of presidential conversations that the committee had requested on Feb. 25 for its impeachment inquiry. Without dissent from any of the 38 committee members, Rodino said that the evidence must be submitted this week or it would be subpoenaed. Such a legal step would weaken the President's frequent public claims that he is voluntarily cooperating with the committee...
...comply with the subpoena would carry serious implications for him. Refusal to produce legally subpoenaed evidence creates an assumption that the withheld material is damaging to the withholder's case. In a sense, such an act forfeits the law's normal presumption of innocence until proved guilty. Rodino does not intend, however, to seek any immediate contempt of Congress citation against the President if he fails to honor the subpoena. That possibility would be held in reserve until the committee determined whether it already had evidence warranting impeachment charges...
...Jersey Democrat Rodino's exasperation over White House dawdling on the request for evidence was shared by the committee's ranking Republican, Edward Hutchinson of Michigan. He said that he could not understand why Nixon and his chief Watergate lawyer, James St. Clair, were resisting. "We're not after irrelevant matters," Hutchinson declared. "We're not after state secrets." Rodino explained that the committee wanted only "specific evidence of specific acts of specific relevance to our inquiry." The committee had waited "40 days and 40 nights" and still did not have a satisfactory White House reply...