Word: subpoenaing
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This week loomed among the most fateful yet in Richard Nixon's year-long struggle to salvage his presidency and stave off impeachment. He had until Tuesday to reply to the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena of 42 tapes relating to his role in Watergate, a deadline oft-deferred but now inescapable. In preparation, as he had done in past crises, he retreated to the quiet of Camp David to work out his response on his long yellow legal pads. The best indications were that it would be an attempt, aimed at the American people, to justify...
...reckoning. For more than a month after the committee asked for the tapes on Feb. 25, White House aides portrayed the request as unduly broad, a fishing expedition that called for enough material to fill a U-Haul trailer. Not until several days before the committee's formal subpoena of the recordings on April 11 did Nixon order aides to locate and transcribe the tapes. Last week, at Presidential Counsel James St. Clair's request, the committee extended its deadline by five days. "Having gone the last mile [with Nixon]," Chairman Peter Rodino explained, "we want to accommodate...
...problems were compounded by the necessity of figuring out how to respond to a second subpoena, which came two weeks ago from Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski. It demanded 64 tapes of presidential conversations with aides from June 1972 through June 1973 that dealt primarily with the Watergate coverup; included were 24 tapes asked for by the Judiciary Committee. Federal Judge John J. Sirica ordered that the White House answer the subpoena by this Thursday. Presidential aides thought it unlikely that the deadline could be met. But it was possible that Nixon was seeking a way to dispose of both subpoenas...
...committee seemed unlikely to be appeased by such partial compliance with the subpoena. Nearly all of its members, including most of the Republicans, have repeatedly insisted that Nixon turn over the tapes entire. In a clear warning last week to the President, House Minority Leader John Rhodes of Arizona said: "The committee will have to be convinced that all of the relevant material is made available." He has suggested that the committee might agree to a compromise that would permit Rodino, Ranking Republican Edward Hutchinson of Michigan, Chief Counsel John Doar and Minority Counsel Albert Jenner to listen...
...committee voted late Wednesday to send a letter to Nixon saying that the transcripts were not in compliance with their subpoena. At the same time committee members made it clear that they view non-compliance as an impeachable offense and expressed concern that the White House's transcripts of some of the tapes do not coincide with transcripts of the same tapes made by the committee...