The Milk Case Revisited

The case that continues to haunt John Connally--despite his acquittal--was a complex web of accusations. Watergate prosecutors investigating President Nixon's campaign finances began to concentrate in October of 1973 on donations by dairymen. By August of 1974, the Government had amassed enough evidence to win a Washington grand jury indictment charging Connally on five counts for having allegedly accepted $10,000 from Associated Milk Producers, Inc., the nation's largest dairy cooperative.

Most of the Government's case rested on information provided by Jake Jacobsen, a Texas lawyer who was once an aide in the Johnson White House and who had long been Connally's friend. Jacobsen faced numerous charges of fraud and perjury. In plea bargaining, these charges were dropped; but he pleaded guilty to a single count of bribery and agreed to testify against Connally. He maintained that during a talk in Connally's office at the Treasury Department on April 28, 1971, Connally asked for money for himself in return for his help in persuading President Nixon to increase milk price supports. When this was relayed to the Associated Milk Producers, said Jacobsen, who was an attorney for the coop, it gave him $10,000, which he delivered to Connally in two $5,000 installments later that year. But Connally got nervous, according to Jacobsen, when a Watergate grand jury began looking into the dairymen's contributions. Jacobsen said that he and Connally met in an Austin hotel and concocted a cover story. If they were ever questioned about the money, said Jacobsen, they would both maintain that while it had been offered to Connally, he had refused it and Jacobsen had put it in a bank safe-deposit box. To back up this alibi, according to Jacobsen, Connally then handed over a cigar box containing $ 10,000, which was soon stashed in an Austin bank.

Lending some credence to Jacobsen's account were travel and telephone records confirming the dates on which he said he had seen or called Connally. And when the FBI opened the safe-deposit box, it found that some of the bills inside probably had been put into circulation later than May 1971--the date on which they were supposed to have been locked up according to the cover story.

The case against Connally, however, depended on Jacobsen's word. Defense Attorney Edward Bennett Williams, hired by Connally for a reported $250,000 fee, hammered away at Jacobsen's testimony. In a number of instances, he forced the central prosecution witness to back down and acknowledge that he was unsure of some details. Williams also emphasized that Jacobsen, on other occasions, had admitted perjury. Cumulatively, this eroded Jacobsen's credibility and enhanced Connally's. Perhaps no less important was the parade of celebrated witnesses who testified to Connally's integrity. They included: the Rev. Billy Graham, Lady Bird Johnson and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

--BLACK STAR Among the most important was Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who said she delayed agreeing to speak up for Connally for a week, partly because she felt she was "being used ... because [Washington] is an overwhelmingly black town" but finally testified on his behalf for the sake of fairness.

Throughout the proceedings, Connally did not budge from his insistence that he had not taken the money. By the end of the three-week trial, there seemed to be only one issue. Who was telling the truth: Connally or Jacobsen?

John Connally's future was turned over to a federal jury of four men and eight women, ten of them black. Conviction would not only have destroyed his career but could have led to a sentence of up to four years in prison, a fine of as much as $20,000, plus possible further prosecution on perjury and conspiracy charges. After five hours of deliberation, the jurors declared the defendant not guilty. Jacobsen was sentenced to two years' probation.

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