Word: sirica
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With the jury out of the courtroom, Sirica dismissed as "ridiculous, frankly" the claim by McCord's attorney, Gerald Alch, that McCord had helped bug the Democrats in hopes of detecting plans of radicals for acts of violence against Republicans during the campaign. If McCord really believed that, Sirica suggested, he should have called police, the FBI or the Secret Service. Well, could McCord's defense be based on the claim that he had no criminal intent? "You may argue it," Sirica told Alch. "Whether the jury will believe you is another story...
...Sirica urged the Government's prosecutors to put certain Nixon officials "under oath in the grand jury room." At least one, former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans, had been permitted by the prosecution to submit a sworn statement to the grand jury in lieu of testifying. "I am still not satisfied that all of the pertinent facts have been produced before an American jury," Sirica declared. He reminded the prosecutors of a list of persons he wanted them to question again...
Following judicial routine, Sirica ordered presentencing investigations for all seven defendants. But going beyond normal procedure, he let the convicted men know that the severity of sentences would depend heavily on the degree to which they cooperated with probation officers and investigators still probing the Watergate crimes. One potential truth-baring forum looming ahead at the time was that of Sam Ervin's Senate Select Committee. Sirica welcomed the hearings despite the fact that they could complicate some criminal prosecutions. "Not only as a judge but as one of millions of Americans who are looking for certain answers," Sirica said...
...combination of the impending hearings, twinges of conscience, and Sirica's not very veiled hints at severe sentences was too much for one of the previously uncommunicative conspirators. On March 20 Sirica stepped out of his chambers and into his office reception area to find James McCord standing there with a letter in his hand. A clerk told the startled judge that McCord wanted to see him privately. Sirica, who never allows a defendant or convicted individual to approach him privately before sentencing, quickly retreated to his chambers and ordered McCord to leave. He said McCord would have to hand...
...Sirica, it was an awkward situation. Perhaps McCord was offering incriminating information on others. But what if the envelope contained money, and some sinister plot to frame the judge was under way? Should he have any private dealings at all with McCord, if only to accept a letter? Should he just turn the envelope over to Government prosecutors and let them open it? But what if it contained something McCord did not want even the prosecutors to know...