‘Under attack for rest of term’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33433, 15 January 1974, Page 13

‘Under attack for rest of term’

>j (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter-■—Copyright) r! WASHINGTON. January 14. Hopes that the United States Administration ‘ might finally emerge j from the Watergate tur- • moil in the next few J months appeared to dim ’ today with a forecast . that President Nixon ' would be under attack ; for the rest of his term. The forecast was made by j Mr Nixon’s new Attorney- ' General, Mr William Saxbe, when he was questioned by television interviewers about ’ the President’s possible im- ; peachment and trial by Con- ’ gress—an action that could . lead to his removal from , office. i Asked “how long do you i think all this is going to

take” Mr Saxbe said: “1 would say until the end of the President’s term in about three years, because we are in a national and world-wide crisis. We want to blame somebody ... I think it’s an effort to blame somebody, and it’s going to continue.” Mr Saxbe, who was Republican senator from Ohio before he took over the nation’s top legal job 10 days ago, also forecast new legal battles over Watergate that might have to be resolved by the United States Supreme Court. He conceded the conflicts would extend the impeachment issue far beyond April —when the President’s supporters had hoped that a vote on whether to impeach would be taken by the House of Representatives. A vote for impeachment would mean the Senate would act to try the President.

Mr Saxbe said in yesterday’s interview that the Supreme Court might have to be asked to rule on—

Possible White House refusal to supply tapes and documents to the House Judiciary Committee investigating possible impeachment, on the grounds of executive privilege. Whether an incumbent President can be indicted for crimes before he has been impeached and, removed from office.

The Watergate special prosecutor, Mr Leon Jaworski said over the week-end that he was studying whether Mr Nixon could be indicted and that he might call the President as a witness in Watergate prosecutions now pending. In another television interview, Senator Barry Gold-

; water, the Republican Party’s [principal conservative spokesman. said that he believed President Nixon had started a recovery since two months earlier, when he said his credibility had reached record low point.

Both Senator Goldwater and Mr Saxbe said that they were convinced Mr Nixon would not resign. Senator Goldwater said that if Mr Nixon did leave: “I can’t believe that the Democratic Party would sit idly by and allow VicePresident Ford to become President. T think they might start an effort for a Constitutional amendment whereby they would call for a special election.

"And if anything like this came about where we didn’t have an orderly transition at this time in the world’s history, I think it could raise havoc with the whole world.” Senator Goldwater re-

:peated that people should "get off the President’s back,” and that the impeachment issue should be settled quickly. This view was echoed in interviews by the magazine, “U.S. News and World Report,” with members of Congress after they had talked with their constituents. The magazine reported on its survey yesterday. In another Watergate development, "Time” magazine reported today that a panel of electronic experts which had been examining a mysterious hum on a tape-record-ing of a conversation between President Nixon and his former chief of staff, Mr H. R. Haldeman, is expected to submit a report to Judge John Sirica pinpointing the cause of the sound.

The magazine said that the report would indicate whether the 18-minute erasure on the tape was accidental or deliberate.