"We Were Snookered"

Senator Sam Ervin: "Well, then, justice as administered by the Department of Justice is not blind."

Assistant Attorney General Henry E. Petersen: "I hope justice is not blind, Senator. I do not apply it blindly."

In that revealing exchange, the chief of the Justice Department's criminal division inadvertently conceded the North Carolina Democrat's point last week.

Ervin's questions at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing suggested that investigators headed by Petersen could have solved the Watergate case two years ago, if they had not shown undue deference to top White House and political associates of President Nixon. Petersen admitted: "While I recognize that everybody is equal before the law, I also recognize that not everybody can be treated equally, and that applies to Senators and Congressmen and Government officials--not because of the person but because of the office."

The hearing was on Nixon's nomination of Earl J. Silbert to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He was a member of the original Justice Department team that investigated the Watergate breakin, and the Senators were far from happy with its performance. But Ervin made it clear that he felt the blame for the original investigation's failure should rest primarily on Petersen and Richard Kleindienst, who was Attorney General at the time.

Terrible, Terrible. The imputation, and Ervin's barrage of questions, outraged Petersen. He shouted, banged his fist on the table, protested that the Senator was being unfair. He complained: "It is fine for you to be critical--this is a terrible, terrible, terrible thing--but do us justice, will you?"

The outbursts did not divert Ervin. He asked one question after another about why investigators had not followed up evidence pointing to the likelihood that Nixon's re-election committee and the White House were deeply involved in the planning and financing of the Watergate breakin. Petersen replied that he had let White House and campaign officials avoid testifying before the Watergate grand jury to spare them publicity, and that he had called Silbert off other aspects of the case out of caution. Perhaps, he allowed, he had showed "too much restraint."

Petersen said he was still baffled by the Watergate affair. "I have not fixed the motive for it, or any rational motive," he declared. But Ervin hinted that Petersen might have found the case easier to understand if he had not been so intent on serving the President. Petersen remarked: "If you mean we accepted the lies of all those people who lied to us, I guess we did. You know, sir, we were snookered."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.