WATERGATE AFFAIR Law professor to lead inquiry

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33230, 21 May 1973, Page 13

WATERGATE AFFAIR Law professor to lead inquiry

(NZ.PA.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, May 20.

The United States Attorney-General-designate, Mr Elliot Richardson, has named a Harvard law school professor and former Solicitor-General, Professor Archibald Cox, as the special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate affair.

Mr Richardson told a press conference he was confident that Professor Cox, who served in the Justice Department during the Democratic Administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, would be confirmed in the post by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Professor Cox said later that his investigation would range beyond the break-in at the Democratic Party’s' national headquarters last June to “all offences arising out of the 1972 elections, and all allegations involving the President and White House employees or appointees.” Asked how long the investigation would take, Professor Cox said that it could last a year, 18 months, or more.

"This is a task of tremendous importance,” he said. “Somehow, we must restore confidence, honour, and integ. ritv in government. 1 am satisfied that the guidelines for the inquiry will permit the necessary independence to do the iob right, and, regardless of anything else, I will be independent.”

On Friday, one of the men convicted in the Watergate affair, James McCord, alleged that a former White House aide had repeatedly offered him Executive clemency, and told him that President Nixon was aware of the offer. McCord told the Senate committee investigating the affair that the aide, Mr John Caulfield, had urged him to remain silent.

Immediately after McCord’s allegation, the White House repeated previous statements that President Nixon himself had no knowledge of the cover-up, and had authorised no-one to offer Executive clemency. Senator Stuart Symington (Democrat, Montana) said that he had obtained 11 important Central Intelligence Agency documents which appeared to verify his conclusion that the White House had tried to blame the C.I.A. for the Watergate break-in.