Fred Buzhardt Robert Mardian Huston Plan May 16 1973

Introduction and majority of transcript are from Stanley Kutler's Abuse of Power.

Audio file is from nixonlibrary.gov (this audio starts at 3:24 and continues till end)		:
http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/tape046/046-086.mp3

Clip with audio and accompanying transcript is on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcbFvy7rmd4

MAY 16, 1973: BUZHARDT AND ROBERT MARDIAN, 4:57-9:33 P.M., WHITE HOUSE TELEPHONE
Buzhardt calls Robert Mardian, former Assistant Attorney General, Internal Security Division, to confirm that the Huston Plan never was operational.

OPERATOR: I have Mr. Mardian.

BUZHARDT: Good thank you.

MARDIAN: I've got it.

BUZHARDT: Hello?

MARDIAN: Hello, Fred how are you?

BUZHARDT: Bob, how the hell are ya?

MARDIAN: Fine thanks.

BUZHARDT: It's been a long time.

MARDIAN: It has. What's your new job?

BUZHARDT: I'm Special Counsel to the President.

MARDIAN: Good.

BUZHARDT: On guess what.

MARDIAN: (laughs)

BUZHARDT: Bob, there were some documents that were released by the court today.

MARDIAN: Yeah.

BUZHARDT: Which consisted of a certain domestic intelligence plan.

MARDIAN: A what?

BUZHARDT: A certain domestic intelligence plan. That dated in the summer of 1970. You reading me?

MARDIAN: Yeah.

BUZHARDT: Okay, now, this was handled here by a fellow named Huston until about August of '70, at which time Dean came aboard and took over the responsibility.

MARDIAN: Right.

BUZHARDT: Some time along about that time you came aboard and formed a committee, interagency.

MARDIAN: Yes.

BUZHARDT: Now. The committee has these documents, incidentally.

MARDIAN: Yeah.

BUZHARDT: Now there are certain things we need to know. Quite urgently.

MARDIAN: Yeah.

BUZHARDT: On the committee you ran, Bob, was it an analysis group solely and simply, or were there any activities?

MARDIAN: No activities whatsoever.

BUZHARDT: No collections?

MARDIAN: What?

BUZHARDT: No collections?

MARDIAN: No. The only activities was an attempt to—I understood this was at the direction of Ehrlichman or the President, actually. That's what they told me. And the only purpose was to—originally, it was set up in the White House, and then it was moved over to internal security because everybody—the various members of the intelligence group were concerned about everybody seeing them coming in and going out together when they had meetings.

BUZHARDT: Right.

MARDIAN: And the sole purpose was to attempt to bring the intelligence to coordinate the activities of various law enforcement intelligence agencies within the government.

BUZHARDT: Alright, now-

MARDIAN: Now, what they were doing...see, it started as a White House operation and moved over to my shop. And what they would do would be to respond to requests. There's a—I don't know whether you'd call it a charter, but an agreement as to what they would do, what their scope would be...

BUZHARDT: When did this come into being, Bob?

MARDIAN: Oh, I would guess...January...February...of 1971. And it was a friend of a...judge, a former Justice of the Washington Supreme Court was supposed to be the working director of it.

BUZHARDT: Did he ever show up?

MARDIAN: Oh yeah. He was just there on a...served as a special assistant to the Attorney General. Put him on the payroll there. That was Ehrlichman's idea. It was Ehrlichman's neighbor. And subsequently, when he got appointed back on the court, he went back, I think, on the Federal District court, Bernie Welles, who was in my shop...

BUZHARDT: Yeah.

MARDIAN: Was put in charge of it. He's still in charge of it. But there's nothing...all it is, is an attempt, all it was an attempt to get the various agencies to work together. And it included National Security Agency...your shop, Defense Intelligence Agency...although I guess they never admitted they had anybody working on it over there, but...there was, as I recall...

BUZHARDT: I know the guy that was liaison.

MARDIAN: Well, that's all they had was liaison. If there was a problem, if the White House wanted staffed out, they would...if CIA had input on it, they had a foreign aspect...it would contribute what information it had. If the FBI had an input on it, they would give an input.

BUZHARDT: All right. Let me ask you this, Bob. I have to know some specifics here. To your knowledge—and I need to know this on the square—were any surreptitious entries made specifically for this purpose?

MARDIAN: Absolutely not. Hell, no. If it were...no, it couldn't have been, Bernie Welles was running it for Christ's sakes...all they were doing, they were making assessments.

BUZHARDT: Okay.

MARDIAN: To my knowledge, that's all they ever did.

BUZHARDT: Only assessments?

MARDIAN: That's all. There would be a request for information concerning whatever it was the White House wanted, and an assessment was made. Copies went to the constituent liaison agency as well as the White House, and that's all.

BUZHARDT: Okay.

MARDIAN: But that's all they did, was to make assessments. They weren't operating anything.

BUZHARDT: Alright, who was your point of contact over here? Did you work with Dean at all on it?

MARDIAN: Actually, I didn't really have much to do with it, except help put the group together. The contact was direct from Dean's office, as I recall, to Bernie Welles.

BUZHARDT: Yeah.

MARDIAN: And copies of the work product, as I say, went to each of the constituent departments and agencies. But, uh, I forget what the hell assessments they made, but nothing of consequence, and certainly wasn't any covert operations that I was aware of. I'm sure there weren't. Bernie Welles wouldn't have gone into anything like that.

BUZHARDT: At this time-

MARDIAN: In fact, they never worked together too well, Fred. Because, well you can imagine, trying to get a bunch of people like that all...They're all holding their own information. This was simply an attempt to establish liaison between them, with respect to particular problems in the White House.

BUZHARDT: Okay. To the best of your knowledge...I know the problem while Hoover was there. I'm sure there weren't any. But thereafter, you know of no entries made by the Bureau?

MARDIAN: Hell, no. No, sirree. Here again, not as a result of that operation. What the hell did they come up with as far as in these papers that indicates what this group was doing?

BUZHARDT: Well, I don't want to talk too specific over the phone. But uh...

MARDIAN: Well, I suggest you get in touch with Bernie Welles. You know Bernie?

BUZHARDT: Yeah, okay, I'll talk to Bernie.

MARDIAN: I'd get Bernie. Jesus Christ, Fred, if there's anything amiss over there, I'd sure appreciate you calling me and letting me know.

BUZHARDT: Okay. I don't believe there is, Bob, I'm just trying to verify that there isn't.

MARDIAN: I'm sure there wasn't.

BUZHARDT: I'm trying to verify a negative, you know how hard that is.

MARDIAN: Well, you talk to Bernie, and he'll level with you.

BUZHARDT: Well, I've got to know. We can't say no-

MARDIAN: Is there some inference there was?

BUZHARDT: I expect there's going to be a claim there was. Okay?

MARDIAN: That's a lot of crap.

BUZHARDT: Okay.

MARDIAN: To my knowledge. I'm never surprised by anything.

BUZHARDT: Right. Okay.

MARDIAN: I just...can't imagine Bernie...in fact, after the Watergate thing came about, Liddy was arrested.

BUZHARDT: Yeah.

MARDIAN: Bernie Welles told...I heard from Bernie it was Jim McGrath who worked over there. That this asshole was over there, said, "Hell, there's only one way to break"...this is during the Times and Post case, or the Pentagon Papers case..."there's only one way to do that, and that's to bug the New York Times." They thought he was joking, and never reported it to me.

BUZHARDT: Yeah. Okay, thanks a lot, Bob. I gotta run.

MARDIAN: I'm just telling you. Bernie (unintelligible) on that basis. Will you call me back and let me know?

BUZHARDT: Yeah, I will.

MARDIAN: I'd appreciate it.

BUZHARDT: Okay.

MARDIAN: Thank you.

BUZHARDT: Goodbye.