Several of the aides, in depositions, recounted Hughes’s departure from the Desert Inn, and one gave further details in an interview. The Las Vegas Sun story appeared on December 2, 1970. Two days later Hughes released the proxy, stripping Maheu of power, and on December 7, 1970, at one A.M., Hughes called Governor Laxalt from the Bahamas to confirm that Maheu had been fired.
The White House encounter between Ehrlichman and Rebozo was recounted by Ehrlichman in an interview.
Epilogue I Watergate
The story of the Hughes connection to Watergate told in the epilogue is in many ways more a confirmation than a revelation. An unpublished forty-six-page report by the staff of the Senate Watergate Committee first presented significant evidence that the Hughes-Nixon-O’Brien triangle triggered the break-in, and was a primary source for my account. Several staff investigators also provided testimony, transcripts, and documentary material never made public, and provided further details in interviews. I am also deeply indebted to J. Anthony Lukas, the first journalist to fully explore the Hughes-Watergate link in his book Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years (Viking, 1976).
Nixon’s message to Haldeman was quoted by John Dean in Blind Ambition (Simon & Schuster, 1976, p. 66) from a copy of the memo Haldeman passed on to him, and its content was confirmed by Haldeman in an interview.
Nixon’s fears that the $100,000 would become public in the aftermath of the Hughes-Maheu split were reflected by Rebozo in his Senate Watergate Committee testimony: “Matters went from bad to worse in the Hughes organization, and I felt that sooner or later this matter would come up and be misunderstood…. The concern was principally any disclosure that the president had received Hughes money… I didn’t want to risk even the remotest embarrassment about any Hughes connection with Nixon. I was convinced that it cost the president the 1960 election.”
An aide who was with Nixon in San Clemente recalled seeing the president reading a Los Angeles Times story about Maheu’s lawsuit against Hughes shortly after Maheu’s ouster, and such a story did run on January 14, 1971. In a column five days earlier Anderson wrote, “Some of the confidential documents impounded by the Nevada court in the Hughes case have been slipped to us.”
Nixon’s orders to “nail O’Brien” were quoted by Haldeman in The Ends of Power (Times Books, 1978, p. 155), and while in the book he placed the conversation aboard Air Force One, in an interview he corrected his account, placing it in the White House. Haldeman also noted that “O’Brien touched a raw nerve: Nixon’s dealings with Howard Hughes, which had cost him two elections” (The Ends of Power, p. 155).
Hughes’s setup and condition in the Bahamas were described by one of his Mormons in an interview and by other aides in depositions. One of them, George Francom, later testified that “control of Mr. Hughes’s communications began to tighten…. I observed many messages to and from Mr. Hughes being held by all the other aides.”
Hughes’s drug use was detailed in a 1978 report of the Drug Enforcement Administration. His activities were recorded for each day from October 1971 through July 1973 in logs kept by his aides. (Logs were also maintained all through the years Hughes spent in Las Vegas and continued until his death, but all these records were destroyed.)
The arrest of Maheu’s men in the Bahamas was confirmed by FBI reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and by an Intertel agent in an interview.
Colson’s memo about Bennett was obtained from Senate Watergate Committee files. In an interview Colson said that he was unaware of the connection to Hughes through Rebozo and also knew nothing about Bennett’s CIA ties. Colson also suggested that both Bennett and the CIA instigated the Watergate break-in: “I think Bob Bennett had a tremendous motive—he had more interest in what O’Brien was doing and saying than we did—and I’ve always felt that the CIA had some motive because of their interlocking ties with both Bennett and Hughes.”
Dean detailed his efforts to nail O’Brien on orders from Haldeman in Blind Ambition (pp. 66–68), and the memos he sent and received were obtained from files of the Senate Watergate Committee. Haldeman gave a similar account of the Hughes-O’Brien probe in Ends of Power (pp. 19–20, 153–56) and in a series of interviews. The entire operation by the White House was also detailed in an unpublished report by the staff of the Senate Watergate Committee.
Nixon’s renewed orders to get O’Brien were quoted by Haldeman in The Ends of Power (pp. 19–20, 154–56). “In the case of O’Brien,” noted Haldeman, “Nixon was acting very much like Captain Queeg in his search for the strawberries… here was Larry O’Brien a secret Hughes lobbyist—and no one cared…. And yet, as Nixon often said to me, how the press took after him on any possible connection to Howard Hughes!”
Intertel’s instigation of an IRS probe of Maheu was detailed by Andy Baruffi, the IRS agent in charge of the Hughes case, and confirmed by two other IRS agents directly involved. In an interview, Maheu confirmed his belief that he was the target of a conspiracy between the Hughes organization and the federal government. “I felt the pangs of government muscle within hours after I challenged Howard Hughes,” he said.
Danner told the Senate Watergate Committee that Rebozo called him right after Anderson’s August 1971 column appeared: “I think the subject was how did Anderson learn of this, and the answer was that he had been shown an alleged memo describing the details of the event.” Danner also testified that Anderson told him that Maheu had leaked the Hughes memo.
Greenspun’s September 1971 warning to Klein was confirmed by both Greenspun and Klein in interviews. Both Ehrlichman and Kalmbach confirmed in interviews that Ehrlichman sent Kalmbach to see Greenspun about the Hughes money, and Kalmbach and Greenspun gave similar accounts of their meeting. “I recall there being a need for someone to talk to Greenspun,” said Ehrlichman, “and I recall it being agreed—not just by me, but by a number of people, at the very least Haldeman, possibly Mitchell—that Kalmbach ought to call on him. I probably also discussed it with Rebozo.”
The Senate Watergate Committee noted in its final report that Rebozo paid $45,621 for improvements on Nixon’s Key Biscayne compound, and concluded that the only apparent source for at least half of that expense was the cash he received from Hughes.
Bennett informed the Senate committee that he told Colson about the Hughes memos in Greenspun’s safe late in 1971.
Ehrlichman confirmed in a series of interviews that he received IRS “sensitive case reports” on the Hughes probe, and provided a copy of one such report he received on July 24, 1972, which summarized political aspects of the IRS investigation. The John Meier–Donald Nixon dealings were recounted in that report and further detailed by Ehrlichman, who confirmed in the interviews that he kept Nixon informed on the probe.
Nixon’s story of the “loan” scandal was recounted by Ehrlichman. Haldeman gave a similar account of Nixon’s claims about that scandal.
The impact of the Clifford Irving affair on Watergate was first suggested by an unpublished report of the Senate Watergate Committee. In Blind Ambition (p. 390), Dean reported Haldeman’s orders to get a copy of Irving’s manuscript and also stated that “somebody from the White House got a copy from the publisher.” Bennett told the Special Prosecutor’s Office that both Colson and Dean contacted him about Irving’s book and recounted his conversation with Dean. FBI files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Hoover sent Haldeman reports on the Irving affair.