White House Intrigue: Colson v. Dean

One fascinating factor in the John W. Dean III case involves his cat-and-mouse relationship with Charles W. Colson, the shrewd former colleague of Dean's at the White House and now one of the most vociferous advocates of the President's--and his own--innocence in the whole Watergate affair. Chuck ("Chuckles" to some newsmen) Colson had hired E. Howard Hunt Jr. as a special White House investigator and "plumber." He insists he had nothing to do with the former CIA agent after Hunt left the White House on March 29, 1972, to become a Nixon committee wiretapper.

Yet it became known last week that Hunt has told Ervin committee investigators that Colson called him last year on May 15, the day Alabama Governor George C. Wallace was shot, and just two weeks before the first Watergate breakin. Hunt said Colson asked him to burglarize the assailant's Milwaukee apartment to see if anything could be found to connect Arthur H. Bremer with leftist causes. Hunt refused on the ground that official investigators already would be examining Bremer's quarters and might catch him.

The Ervin committee and other investigators have also learned that before Hunt pleaded guilty in the Watergate burglary, he telephoned Colson to demand money--even though he had then already received some $200,000. Colson recorded the conversation. As Dean described it, investigators now suspect this was done by Colson in an attempt to clear himself. Colson said distinctly: "This is all very interesting, Howard, but I can't understand why you're telling all this to me. As you know, I don't know anything about the Watergate incident." Hunt kept right on asking for money.

Colson then gave the recording to Dean, who says he passed the Hunt demands along to John N. Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Colson later asked for the tape back, but Dean stalled, contending he had misplaced it. He finally returned it--after making a copy that has now been turned over to the Ervin committee.

Dean's use of the tape, according to Watergate prosecutors, implicates him in the attempts to keep Hunt quiet, while some committee investigators believe it is evidence of Colson's involvement.

Colson earlier had sent Dean a memo describing a visit from Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy in which they had complained that their "security activities" for the Nixon committee had not yet been approved by Mitchell. Colson said in the memo he did not know what the proposal was but nevertheless had called Jeb Stuart Magruder to urge prompt consideration of it. Dean, knowing the plan was the Watergate bugging, sent the memo back to Colson, urging its destruction. The prosecutors consider this more evidence that Dean was obstructing justice. Some Ervin committee investigators, however, consider it a Colson move to entrap Dean.

Late last week Colson sat down with TIME Correspondent Simmons Fentress. Bitter about the press, Colson charged that newsmen were "playing the game of innuendo to try to get after the President." He called it "bloody outrageous." He was especially angry at Washington Post Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who first reported Hunt's claim that Colson had suggested a Bremer burglary.

What actually happened, Colson contended, is that after the Wallace shooting, "the President was concerned that the FBI wasn't moving quickly or massively enough," so Colson was directed to keep prodding the agency. He claims he instructed the FBI to guard the Bremer apartment about 7 p.m. "It's patently inconceivable that I'd send Hunt out there after 7 p.m.," Colson protested. "I'd had the apartment cordoned off. Christ, I'm not stupid." Referring to a memo he had written to himself for the record about his call to Hunt, Colson said he had only asked Hunt, "Howard, who do you think is behind this? Is he left or right? Why did he do it?"

Colson has been consistently critical of Dean and Mitchell, and to a lesser degree of Haldeman and Ehrlichman (he calls them "Hans and Fritz"). He admits that he began writing memos to protect himself as soon as Hunt's snooping became known. "The headline was out, COLSON AIDE TIED TO WATERGATE, and I figured I'd be the guy to take it up to the ass. So I dictated all I could remember. If I had been up to some skulduggery, why would I admit the [Hunt] call and put it into a memorandum?" Added Colson: "It's a self-serving memo, obviously. I said, 'Christ, I'm going to be made the culprit,' so I wrote down every contact I'd had with Hunt."

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