Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 66
RESPONSE OF PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON TO A SUBPOENA OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR PRO- DUCTION OF RECORDED PRESIDENTIAL CONVERSATIONS On April 11, 1974, the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives of the Congress caused a subpoena to be issued to the President of the United States, returnable on April 25, 1974. The subpoena called for the production of tapes and other materials relating to forty-two Presidential conversations. With respect to all but three of these conversations, the subpoena called for the production of the tapes and related materials without regard to the subject matter, or matters, dealt with in these conversations. In the President's view, such a broad scale subpoena is unwarranted. As. the U. S. Court of Appeals in Nixon vs. Sirica has stated, "whole- sale public access to Executive deliberations and documents would cripple the Executive as a co-equal branch", and as the President has repeatedly stated, he will not participate in the destruction of the office of the Presidency of the United States by permitting unlimited access to Presidential conversations and documents. The President, on the other hand, does recognize that the House Committee on the Judiciary has constitutional responsibilities to examine fully into his conduct and therefore the President has