Rebozo Tells o Considering lige of Hughes Funds */7 By Bill McAllister Washington Post Staff 'Writer . Charles G. (Bebe) Rebozo, 's close friend, has testified that he once considered using $100,000 from a controversial campaign donation to defend some of Nixon's top aides in the ./ But Rebozo in a court !deposition made public In Miami Thursday, said he and the president never specif- ically discussed the possibility of us- ing .the Hughes money to defend the aides. :; The statement apparently -goes be- -ond testimony that Rehm gave.to the Seijate Watergate committee and appears' to parallel Nixon's version of what he once considered doing with the Hughes moner Rebozo had placed the cash in a safe deposit box at his Key- Biscayne, Fla., bank and it re- mained there after Nixon's' 1972 re- election. ; When testifying before the Senate committee, Rebozo said Nixon in- By Bob Machette—The 'Washington Post structed him in March 1973 to return Rebozo leaves chamber after, testifying before special Senate committee investigating Watergate. the money to- Hughes and warned' • him that it would be wrong to use • the money to defend the indicted aides. .r Last year when interviewed On tele- - vision by David Frost, Nixon said "as a matter of fact, I had in mind" using the Hughes money when he con- sidered treating a defense fund for his aides who were indicted in the Watergate. scandal. • Rebozo!s 'latest version a his L,dis- cussion with Nixon came In a depos'- tiou ordered unsealed by U.S. District Judge F.idriey Aronoviti in a $10 million libel suit Rebozo has filed against . The a tourist attraction despite no parking signs and other steps that local au- thorities have taken to discourage vis- itors, he said. His ties to the Nixon, family, were sometimes profitable as well as social, he indicated. Rebozo disclosed that he made a $50,000 profit on the sale of a Bethesda home he purchased and rent- ed for a time to Nixon's daughter, Julie, and her husband, David Eisen- hower. Despite his long friendship with Nixon, the rarely discussed poli- suit grows out of a 1973 story by Post tics, Rebozo. said. "People seem to reporter Ronald Kessler that an in- think that all we talked about was surance investigator had said in a government and politics and all that, sworn statement thit Rebozo cashed but that is the last thing we talked $91,500 in stolen stock certificates about, if at all." , after he was told the certificates were Rebozo's memory of his conversa- stoleni tion with Nixon about the Hughes. The' Post, citing a newspaper's right money in was sketchy. to publish court records, has moved Rebozo said he had planned to raise for a summary judgment, dismissing defense funds for the aides with ano- the case. Rebozo, a longtime friend ther wealthy Nixon friend, Robert and confidant of Nixon, is challeng- Abplanalp. "I may have told him ing the move. - (Nixon) that between us, we could In his deposition, taken in late No raise it, but I don't recall specifically vember, Rebozo renewed his charges the details nor do I think that he seeked additional assurances. I think that The Post story was "totally in- . just the statement that it could be accurate" and had damaged his per- handled was enough." sonal and business reputation. The The $100,000 donation to Nixon Justice Department, which investigat- from the late billionaire Hughes was ed the stock sale, said later Rebozo one of the key elements in the Water- did not break any criminal laws in gate scandal, which ultimately 'forced the sale and he would not have bro- Nixon from. office. The money was ken any laws if he had been told the given to Rebozo in two $50,000 install- certificates 'were stolen. ments and was never forwarded to Reboio has acknowledged meeting any of Nixon's campaign organiza- with the insurance investigator, but ' ,tions. had said he was never told that the In the desposition, Rebozo said he certificates were believed to hive also was approached by representa- been stolen. While he repeated that as- tives of Hughes. He said they asked sertion in the court deposition, Re- Rebozo to relay to White House offi- bozo went on to disclose other details cials the, reclusive Hughes' fears about of his relationship with the Nixons, tuidergro-und nuclear testing in Ne- which dates from the former presi- vada and shipments in that state of dent's days as a U.S. senator iri the Army nerve gas. early 1950s. At one point, some White House Rebozo said he was so hounded by officials considered dispatching Henry people curious over his ties to Nixon Kissinger, Nixon's secretary of state, that he would often subscribe to mag- to brief Hughes on antiballistic mis- azines and talk over his yachts radio- siles, Rebozo said. But Rebozo said he telephone, using the name "Charles later learned that "Howard Hughes Gregory." His home remains wasn't interested in that."