Sentence today for Watergate conspirator

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33540, 22 May 1974, Page 13

Sentence today for Watergate conspirator

\\ \SIII.\GTO.\, Max 21 Judge John Sirica today will sentence Jeb Stuart Magruder, a former senior official of President Nixon's 1 ( >"2 re-election campaign, who has pleaded guilty lo helping to plan the Watergate break-in.

Magruder, who is ,39, has also admitted that he conspired to cover up high-level involvement in the break-in. lied to the Federal Bureau of invest iga I ion. commit ted perjury to the Water-

gate Grand Jury, and iqave false and misleading; testimony in the original Watergate trial. ( He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison •and a fine of SUSIO.OOO. , Magruder has also implicated a former attorneygeneral, Mr John Mitchell, in 'the planning of the break-in. (lan allegation which Mr Mil Ichell has strenuously denied I At the same time, the J House of Representatives .'Judiciary Committee will rei,some its hearings of evidence ; in its inquiry into the possible i impeachment of the President. Open meeting j The committee was expec- ■ ted this week to debate whe- ‘ ther or not to open its hear- • ings to the public. > Several members say public interest is so intense that ■ everything should be in the J open. But many others, prob- ■ ably a majority, reply that ‘ the confidentiality of much of 1 the evidence—from secret Grand Jury hearings and ’ testimony to Congressional ■ committees—should be re- - spected. No decision is ex- ! pected before the end of the j week. The sentencing of MagJ ruder, a former newspaper ' salesman who was deputy director of the Committee to 1 Re-elect the President, comes ‘ a day after Judge Sirica reiected an attempt hv President Nixon to quash a subJ poena from the Special ' Watergate Prosecutor (Mr " Leon Jaworski). , Judge Sirica gave President Nixon 11 days to provide tapes and documents on 64 ’ conversations for which a ; subpoena has been issued, but ’ said he would stay his order if Mr Nixon appealed before j Friday. No reply There was no news last night of a reply from President Nixon's Watergate lawyer, Mr James St Clair, to the judiciary committee’s request for more tapes and documents. These deal with contributions by milk producers to the 1972 re-election campaign or with alleged Government interference in an anti-trust suit against the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (1.T.T.). The committee had in-| tended to issue a subpoena for these tapes last week, but postponed its decision in order to receive a voluntary j reply from Mr St Clair, which , the committee chairman, Mr!

Peter Rodino, -aid should b' sent by Monday. But an official in Mr m Clair's office -aid last night that the staff had been concentrating on Judge Sirica' l ruling, ard no reply had beer sent to the committc.