Word: wiretap
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...wiretap program, itself of debatable merit, indeed should not have become entangled in the Watergate controversy?and need not have if the White House had more closely controlled its plumber team...
Senator Baker suggested that this file might have been labeled "Gemstone," and contained typed summaries of the wiretapped conversations of Democrats at the Watergate. (Gemstone was the code word for these summaries.) Odle said that he did not know if this was a Gemstone file, but admitted that it probably contained "things which have no place in a political campaign." If it was a Watergate wiretap record, of course, that would further confirm that Jeb Magruder had had advance knowledge of the illegal operation. He has admitted lying to the grand jury in denying that he knew in advance about...
...disclosures reflected adversely on both of them last week. Ehrlichman's White House office safe was found to contain the missing FBI wiretap records of an intercepted telephone conversation of Daniel Ellsberg that contributed to the dismissal of all charges against him in the Pentagon papers case. Fed eral Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. had repeatedly demanded the record, to determine if the evidence against Ellsberg was "tainted," but the Administration - for still unknown reasons - refused to turn it over...
Thus, in a separate case, but one clearly related to Watergate, the first high officials stood formally accused. So far the criminal charges against them did not directly bear on Watergate, but they obviously reflected the amorality and the motives behind the wiretap and the many connecting offenses. Obviously also, the indictments were only the beginning of a long inquest that would produce many more charges...
...unresolved questions about the legality of the Government's charges-and of Ellsberg's actions in taking and releasing the documents. In the corridors, an ugly suspicion was voiced by defense counsel: perhaps the Administration had deliberately flunked its last assignment from Byrne, about the Halperin wiretap, because it was being increasingly embarrassed by the disclosures that Byrne was forcing. By failing to meet Byrne's demands, the Administration had given him good reason for dismissing the case and had thus forestalled any further investigation that he might order. It had thereby plugged the leaks of Watergate...