July 25, 1973, Letter to Sam Ervin

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON July 25, 1973 Dear Mr. Chairman: White House counsel have received on my behalf the two subpoenas issued by you, on behalf of the Select Committee, on July 23rd. One of these calls on me to furnish to the Select Committee recordings of five meetings between Mr. John Dean and myself. For the reasons stated to you in my letters of July 6th and July 23rd, I must respectfully refuse to produce those recordings. The other subpoena calls on me to furnish all records of any kind relating directly or indirectly to the "activities, partici- pation, responsibilities or involvement" of 25 named individuals "in any alleged criminal acts related to the Presidential election of 1972. 11 Some of the records that might arguably fit within that subpoena are Presidential papers that must be kept confidential for reasons stated in my letter of July 6th. It is quite possible that there are other records in my custody that would be within the ambit of that subpoena and that I could, consistent with the public interest and my Constitutional responsibilities, provide to the Select Committee. All specific requests from the Select Committee will be carefully considered and my staff and I, as we have done in the past, will cooperate with the Select Committee by making available any information and documents that can appropriately be produced. You will understand, however, I am sure, that it would simply not be feasible for my staff and me to review thousands of documents to decide which do and which do not fit within the sweeping but vague terms of the subpoena.