Ueshons for Egil Krogh
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WXPOSt AUG 1 6 1973 Rowland Evans and Robert Novak ueshons for Egil Krogh If the Democratic' majority of the his resignation as under secretary of must be impeached before he can be Ervin committee has its way, former transportation. Since then, on advice indicted. presidential aide Egil (Bud) Krogh of counsel, he has taken. the Fifth Uncorroborated testimony by de- soon will be summoned to a closed- Amendment before both a House com- is mittee and the county grand jury in posed White House counsel Dean door interview to answer this porten- that Krogh informed him that John D: tous question: Did President Nixon Los Angeles investigating the bur- personally order or authorize the 1971 glary. Ehrlichman, in over-all charge of the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychia- Although Republican members con- Plumbers, did 'not know in advance trist's office? tend the Fielding burglary is outside about the Fielding burglary but that If the answer is no, the committee the Ervin committee's scope, Chair- orders for the break in came "right out will not probe much deeper into the man Sam Ervin and chief counsel Sam of the Oval Office." When Assistant Ellsberg case. If the answer is yes, Dash want a private interview with Atty. Gen. Henry Petersen informed Krogh will have set the scene for a cri- Krogh during the present recess. If the President about the Fielding bur- sis dwarfing anything yet spawned by Krogh then reveals that the President glary last April 18, Petersen testified the Watergate scandal and, indeed, un- or some other high official authorized before the Ervin committee, Mr. Nixon precedented in this country's history. the burglary, the committee will grant told him, "That is a national security Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox is Krogh limited immunity — as it did matter. You stay out of that" (an order known to reject the White House argu- John Dean — to testify in open session later reversed on Petersen's urgings). ment that the Sept. 3, 1971, break-in by , without danger of further prosecution. Krogh's boss, White House domestic the White House Plumbers unit at the Krogh could prove •uncooperative. chief Ehrlichman, told the Ervin com- office of Dr. Lewis J. Fielding in Bev- His lawyers told us they have not de- mittee that the burglary "was totally erly Hills, Calif., was a legitimate exer- cided whether to grant Dash a private unanticipated, unauthorized by me." cise of national security powers. If fed- interview. But even if the Ervin com- Nevertheless, Ehrlichman and his at- eral charges are brought against the mittee is frustrated, the search for the torney, John Wilson, passionately de- burglars, an indictment may well be_ source of the Fielding burglary will fended the burglary on national secu- sought against the government official not end. rity grounds. The widespread interpre- who authorized the burglary — even if Much to the irritation of top White tation: they were trying to protect not it is the President of the United House aides, the special prosecutor's Ehrlichman but President Nixon. States. If Krogh fingers the President, the Plumbe The national security argument has the dormant campaign to imPeach Mr, bigoperations. staff is probing One of Cox'sall senior firs'eu- obvious flaws. Ehrlichman contended Nixon will be energized. tenants — William Merrill, former that Ellsberg had leaked the papers to Thus, Bud Krogh, once a conscien- chief assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit the Soviet embassy as well as the press tious, well-liked and publicly anony- — was recently dispatched to Los An- and that the FBI did not adequately in- mous middle-level• aide at the White geles leading a task force investigating vestigate Ellsberg. In fact, the FBI did House, can assume historical impor- the Fielding burglary. a thorough job on the case and could tance. His former colleagues agree on find no truth in the Soviet leak rumor., two points: first, he never would have Cox says nothing publicly, but his authorized the Plumbers to break into thinking is believed to follow these Accordingly, federal prosecutors are Fielding's office without approval from lines: whatever the Los Angeles grand inclined to move against the Plumbers, higher authority; second, the devoutly jury does, he considers both the bur- their supervisors and anybody in high religious Krogh ("straight arrow" is glars and ,their superiors subject to office mixed up in the burglary. the most frequent description) could federal criminal statutes., He rejects Whether Krogh puts the President in not lie under oath. both the national security rationaliza- that category is a question that may An affidavit in May by Krogh admit- tion and the White House constitu- deeply influence America's history. .• ted the Fielding burglary, leading to tional thesis that a sitting President (c) 1973, Field Enterprises, Inc. .