Chapter 11
SECTION 11 OF THE WATERGATE REPORT, VOLUME 3 For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Greg Giordano, Newport Ritchie, FL Final Report of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities Volume 3
Chapter 8 The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters Part 4 B. An Analysis of Possible Sources of the Contributions 1. Pre-Election, 1968
As discussed elsewhere in this report, there was, during the summer and fall of 1968, an unsuccessful attempt to arrange a $50,000 cash contribution from Hughes to then-candidate Nixon. Rebozo, Danner, and Robert Mayhew, key figures in the actual deliveries, were also heavily involved in the 1968 attempt. The committee has no evidence that there was $50,000 in cash put together for a contribution before the election in 1968. 2. The Sands Hotel Cage, early December 1968 In early December 1968, two Hughes employees, Lawrence T. Rillick and John Ianni, withdrew $50,000 in $100 notes from the casino cage at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
Rylick was then the controller at the Sands, and Ianni was the executive assistant to General Edward Negro, a top use aide, now deceased, in whose direction the cash was withdrawn. Ianni delivered the cash to Robert Mayhew. Footnote. Rylick telephone interview.
Ianni interview note. Supra. Reilich says he was not present at the delivery to Mayhew, but that immediately after making the delivery, Yanni reported his success to Reilich and Negro. End of footnote. This transaction was unknown to the select committee until recently, and the evidence gathered on the withdrawal is consequently incomplete.
However, the available evidence suggests that this is a likely source of one of the deliveries. During interviews with staff members, Robert Mayhew did not list this transaction when responding to general questions about political contributions. as explanations of the Sands withdrawal given to the Internal Revenue Service have not been consistent, ranging from no recall to detailed recollection. See above. The details of this withdrawal are particularly important vis-à-vis documentary evidence on the money Rebozo returned, as explained below.
The check for $50,000, which was cashed by Reilich, is dated December 4, 1968. The request for the disbursement, signed by General Negro and Reilich, is dated November 30, 1968. Reilich prepared another request for disbursement for his own record-keeping purpose, not a carbon or photostatic copy of the request. Reilich remembered preparing his disbursement record a day or two after receiving the check.
And his disbursement record is dated December 5, 1968. Footnote A copy of the form is in the files of the IRS. End of footnote In statements to the IRS, Iani and Reilich place the date of the withdrawal is December 5, 1968.
However, Reilich has recently indicated that December 5 was only an approximate date of withdrawal. His best recollection was that the check was cashed up to four days after December 4, on the date of one of General Negro's staff meetings. The exact date of that meeting has not yet been determined. The check cleared the bank of Las Vegas on Monday, December 9,
so it was cashed sometime between December 4 and December 9. Reilich is sure that it was not cashed on a Saturday or Sunday, December 7 or 8. The significance of these dates is as follows. In the money Rebozo returned and identified as the first delivery, there are 50 consecutively numbered $100 bills that arrived at the Bank of Las Vegas,
now the Valley Bank of Nevada, on December 5, 1968, as part of a large money shipment from the Los Angeles Federal Reserve Branch Bank. Footnote. See 26 Hearings Exhibit 24. The bills were delivered by the Federal Reserve to Brinks, Inc. for shipment at 3.50 p.m. on December 4, 1968,
according to R.H. Wynn, Sr., Vice President of the Valley Bank. The shipment would have arrived at the Las Vegas Bank on the afternoon of Thursday, December 5. Wynn Interview, June 20, 1974 End of footnote The bills were shipped to the office of the Bank of Las Vegas that was used by the Sands and other used casinos.
The money would have been available for bank customers at 9 a.m. on Friday, December 6. According to a Valley Bank official, most of the $100 bills available for customers go out to the customers for weekend use by the end of the day each Friday. The Valley Bank does not keep serial number records on bills it provides to commercial customers, but it is quite possible that the string of 50 bills could have been picked up from the bank by the Sands on December 6.
If the December 4 check were not cashed until December 6, these 50 bills could, therefore, have been in the $50,000 packet Mayhew received from Ianni. If the 50 bills were in the packet that was delivered to Robert Mayhew, then their presence in the money Rebozo returned and identified as the first delivery would establish the Sands as the source for that delivery to Rebozo. If the Sands withdrawal was the source, the Federal Reserve evidence shows that not all the money returned and identified as the first delivery could have been the same money assembled at the Sands. There are 88 bills in the money returned and identified as the first delivery that were not available for commercial distribution until after the time of the Sands withdrawal. This circumstantial possibility is particularly interesting in light of the attempted delivery in Palm Springs of cash to the Nixon campaign on December 6 and Danner's visit to Las Vegas on December 5-8.
In addition, Mayhew's earliest recollection, according to a September 21, 1971, IRS memorandum of a meeting between IRS agents and James Rogers, a tax lawyer for Robert Mayhew, was that the Sands was the source for delivery to Rebozo. The IRS memorandum stated, instead later turned the money over to an aide of President Nixon's. This recollection of Mayhew's is important in several respects. First, it is the earliest record available on the subject.
Thus, it presumably reflected a fresher recollection than, for example, Mayhew's lack of recall about the transaction in an IRS interview some two years later. Second, Mayhew's recollection that he sent someone to the cage for the money matches Reilich's observation that Negroes' order to withdraw the money, following standard operating procedure, would have been prompted by a Mayhew to Negro order.
Similarly, Mayhew's recollection that he received the money comports with what Reilich and Ianni have said. Third, the reference in the memorandum to Mayhew, missing connections in the planned delivery to a Nixon aide, corresponds to the unsuccessful Palm Springs delivery that occurred about the time of the withdrawal from the Sands.
Finally, Mayhew's recollection that he gave the money to Richard Danner, who delivered it to, quote, an aide of President Nixon, end quote, would, if correct, firmly establish this transaction, as the source of one of the deliveries to Rebozo.
3. Nadine Henley, December 5, 1968 In addition to the $50,000 from the Sands, Robert Mayhew received two deliveries of $25,000 each in $100 notes on December 5 and 6, 1968, from Nadine Henley, a Hughes aide who withdrew it on December 5 from Hugh's personal account in a Hollywood branch of the Bank of America. Henley said that Mayhew requested the $50,000 for a political contribution to President-elect
Nixon. Mr. Nixon was in Palm Springs on December 6, 1968. A note written by Henley on December 5, 1968, says that the money she sent to Mayhew on December 5 and 6 was for, quote, state committees, Nixon's deficit, end quote. Mayhew is always acknowledged receiving the above cash. Footnote, IRS interviews from 1971 to 73. Select committee interviews, January 2021, 1974, Los Angeles Testimony. Mayhew signed receipts for the cash on December 5 and 6,
which were labeled as receipts for non-deductible contributions. Henley Exhibit 4, Note 32, Supra. End of footnote. But he has given a number of differing statements of what he did with it. In March 1973, he told the IRS that it was delivered to campaign aides of Hubert Humphrey for use in the 1968 presidential campaign. By early December 1968, of course, the election had already occurred.
On January 20 and 21, 1974, Mayhew told select committee investigators that this $50,000 was taken to Palm Springs for the unsuccessful delivery to President-elect Nixon, and that it later became the first successful delivery to Rebozo. He questioned that statement on January 21, however, and a few days later stated that, after returning from Palm Springs with his cash obtained from Henley,
he used it to reimburse himself for a $50,000 campaign contribution he made directly to Hubert Humphrey earlier in 1968. Footnote. Robert Mayhew interview, January 28, 1974. That contention conflicts with Henley's note of December 5, 1968, which indicates that part of the $150,000 in checks
Mayhew received on September 9, 1968, was to cover the Humphrey contribution. Henley Exhibit 4, Note 32 Supra Humphrey had denied personally receiving a cash contribution from Mayhew. End of footnote.
In sum, the evidence reflects that Mayhew did receive $100,000 on December 5 and 6, 1968, from the Sands and from Henley, the disposition of which has never been conclusively determined. Once regarding the Sands' money, and once regarding the Henley money.
Mayhew stated that the same money was later used for the first delivery of $50,000 to Rebozo. Dinner corroborated this possibility by testifying that Mayhew told him the first delivery contained the same money that was undelivered in 1968. Footnote Hearings 9532
Dinner's recollection is not now clear. He stated that he cannot testify with certainty that one of the $50,000 deliveries consisted of exactly the same money as was available in 1968. 24 hearings, 11542. End of footnote. A telephone message taken by one of Mayhew's secretaries on November 22, 1968, showed a call from one Stephen Craig with the Nixon election campaign in New York City.
The message reads, quote, Re-contribution, have deficit of $800,000, end quote. The select committee learned of this note shortly before June 28, and therefore had no time to explore its full significance. Taken at face value, however, it shows a post-election interest of the Nixon campaign, and soliciting funds from Hughes. On December 17, 1968, Mayhew received a form letter from President-elect Nixon thanking, quote, all of those who contributed so generously to our cause, end quote.
In early December, Mayhew received $100,000 in cash in two days, traveled to Palm Springs, and, Mayhew has stated, tried unsuccessfully to deliver the money to Richard Nixon or an aide of his. In addition, Richard Danner was in Las Vegas from December 5-8, 1968, talking with Mayhew and other Hughes aides about possibly joining the Hughes Nevada operations. Danner is not sure whether he was aware of Mayhew's trip to Palm Springs at the time it occurred,
and he denied receiving any money from Mayhew or other Hughes agents at that time. Further, Danner testified that this visit to Las Vegas, his only visit to the U's operation, in 1968, had nothing to do with campaign, campaign contributions, none whatsoever. However, on November 29, 1972, Danner told IRS Special Agent Donald Skelton that he thought he and Mayhew began discussing the prospective contribution shortly after the 1968 election,
which preceded his employment with Hughes Tool Company. 4. Nadine Henley, June 27-July 11, 1969 On July 11, 1969, Robert Mayhew acknowledged in writing the receipt of $50,000 cash from Howard Hughes, quote, for non-deductible contributions, end quote, the phrase used to cover money for political contributions.
Nadine Henley acknowledged sending the cash to Mayhew at his request. She did not, however, know why Mayhew requested the money, and apparently did not make a note of the purpose of the transaction, as she had done on the December 5, 1968, withdrawal. Mayhew told the select committee investigators that this cash may have been the source of the first contribution to Rebozo. When first asked about the source of the first delivery, Mayhew said that the source was
the December 5, 1968, money from Henley, which he said he gave to his son Peter immediately after his return from Palm Springs on December 6 or 7. In a later staff interview, Mayhew stated that, based upon his son's recollection, that he held the money he received from his father only a short time. Footnote. Peter Mayhew Interview. November 29, 1973. End of footnote. The June-July 1969 money was the source of the delivery.
Mayhew was not able to place the July 1969 date in relation to any other events as he had done for the December 1968 money he received from Henley. He assumed it was the date only because he rejected the December 1968 date. There is no independent evidence corroborating the date. When questioned about the July 11 money by the IRS,
in March 1973. Mayhew, through his lawyer, professed complete ignorance of the transaction. Nevertheless, less than one year later, he said it was the source of a delivery to Rebozo. Further, when he told the select committee investigators that the July 11 money was the source of the first delivery after discounting the December 5 money from Henley, the investigators were not yet aware of the Sands withdrawal, and Mayhew did not mention it. As the discussion on
the Sands withdrawal showed, it is a likely source for the first delivery. 5. Silver Slipper Casino, October 26, 1970. On October 26, 1970, Thomas Bell, a used lawyer in Las Vegas, withdrew $115,000 from the Silver Slipper Casino in Las Vegas. Footnote. See withdrawal slip at 26 hearings, Exhibit 26.
Bell related his version of the withdrawal in an interview on December 17, 1973. A fuller explanation of Bell's story is set forth at page 953. End of footnote. According to Bell,
he immediately gave $50,000 of that sum, to Richard Danner in Danner's office, with no one else present. Bell's withdrawal and delivery to Danner were made at Robert Mayhew's request, according both to Bell and Mayhew. This was the only time Bell said that he was asked to deliver money to Danner. Bell assumed, but was not told by Mayhew or Danner, that the money was for a political contribution. Bell had no idea what
Danner did with the money. In his latest testimony, Danner denied ever receiving any money from Bell, although he earlier testified that it was possible that Bell had delivered money to him. Danner and Mayhew were in Key Biscayne shortly after the $50,000 was allegedly given to Danner. This money could be the source only of the second delivery. All other potential delivery dates were before October 26, 1970.
6. A Note on Storage of the Money Before Delivery to Rebozo As the earlier section on the roles of key participants shows, there is some question about where the money for at least one of the deliveries, most likely the first, was held and for how long, between the time it was put together and the time it was delivered to Rebozo.
Before the select committee, Danner testified as follows. My recollection is that one, perhaps the first one, had been locked in a box in the frontier cage, and it was obtained from that source. Whether I got it, or Mr. Mayhew got it, or one of the secretaries got it, I don't recall. The second contribution, again, I don't recall whether it was Robert Mayhew or his son Peter Mayhew,
who delivered it to me, either in their office or my office, but I am reasonably certain that this is the way the two deliveries were made to me. In his November 29, 1972 telephone conversation with IRS Special Agent Skelton, according to the IRS memorandum, Danner told Skelton that the first delivery was in Key Biscayne in September 1969, and that the money that was delivered that had kept intact in the frontier cage, quote, for at least six months, end quote. Footnote.
Ibid. Danner told the Select Committee that Mayhew told him the undelivered money from 1968 was in a safe deposit box at the frontier, and that he, Danner, was, quote, fairly certain, end quote, that it was the 1968 money, 20 hearings, 9532. End of footnote. Which would mean at least since March 1969. The spring of 1969 was about the same time, according to Danner, that Rebozo was chiding him about Hughes's failure to support President Nixon. Danner was apparently personally
involved in storing the money. He told Skelton that he, Danner, had personally supervised the transfer of the money, while it was in the cage from a manila envelope to a locked box. The only sources for money that was intact as early as March 1969 were a. The Sands on early December 1968, or b. Nadine Henley on December 5, 1968. Thus, Danner's story to Skelton tends to support the view that the money for the first delivery
was the same money that had been obtained in December 1968.
