LETTER TO HOWARD H. BAKER FROM W. E. COLBY REDISCUSSIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE STAFF REPORT WHICH IS TO BE RELEASED ON YOUR "CIA INVESTIGATION"

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01435035
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2017
• Case Number: F-2007-00094
• Publication Date: June 28, 1974

Approved for Release: 2017/01/18 C01435035
CENTRAL. INTELLIGENCE AGi:NCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
, / 7
28 June 1974 '
lic norable Howard H. Baker, Vice Chairman
Sciect Colmnittee on Presidential Campaign Activities
United States Senate
Washington, D. C. 20510
Dear Senator Baker:
My staL: has advised me of the rather extensive discussions
flicy have had with your staff with respect to the staff report which is
to b�..: released on your "CIA Investigation." This report presumably
eY,e;,.psnloter..; the results of the process we started last January when
I assured you of our complete cooperation. In subsequent meetings,
we provided information, some of extreme sensitivity, so that you
could evaluate data from other soure� !;. There then ensued a-- aimost
c.ont.nuous exchange of information between our respective stalfs.
L-veutually, in this spirit of cooperation, 24 Agency witnesses appeared
before your staff on a voluntary basis to answer questions under oath,
Our contribution consisted of over 700 CIA documents and 2, 000 pages
of testimony.
We have received a revision of the staff report with a request
that it be sanitized by bracketing material to be deleted on security
grounds. I understand that your 'staff is preparing ..supplements to the
report which are to be submitted to us for sanitization and comment,
and that the report and the supplements will be made a part of the
Committee's open record although they will not be included in the
Committee's formal report. It is my further understanding that the
transcripts and ten volumes of Agency material will not be released
but will be removed from Committee records and placed under seal
in an appropriate repository and will not be released without CIA
approval.
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. .
It had been my hope that sufficient concrete evidence would have
been produced to assure you that CIA had no prior knowledge of the
Watergate or Ellsberg break-ins or coverups. However, when I reviewed
� the summary staff report submitted to me on 1 April, I realized that you
had not been so assured. In some 160 comments we attempted, by citation
to the evidence available to us, to communicate our thoughts in this respect.
I have now been advised that practically none of our comments which we
prepared on 3 April have been reflected in the revision of the staff report.
If the revised report is released with its present thrust it implies that there
is reason to believe that the Agency and its officers and employees had.
prior knowledge of and were wittingly involved in the break-ins and the
cove rup.
I recognize that you have every right to subscribe to conclusions
in the staff report which are at variance with those I have drawn from
the evidence presented during your investigation, which I have developed
as a result of my own intensive internal investigations and which has been
reviewed independently by other investigative bodies within both Houses of
the Congress, and by the Special Prosecutor and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
It thus appears we have come to differing views on this subject.
If thB. report is made available to the public in the form proposed, I am
concerned th, ' the Agency can be the subject of what I deem to be unjusti-
fiable conclut.,.ons that Agency officers or employees were knowingly
involved in the break-ins in the Watergate or Dr. Fielding's office4or
subsequent coverups. In such case, I may feel it necessary to take an
appropriate public :position to- assure that the conclusions from my investi-
gation and the results of other investigations are also known.
I, am . returning, herewith the revised report "CIA Investigation"
which was given a� member of my staff by Mr. Liebengood in the late
afternoon of 27 June 1974 without repeating our substantive comments
but with security deletions.
Sincerely,
Enclosure
cc: Chairman Sam Ervin
WE. ol y
Director
Approved for Release: 2017/01/18 C01435035