REQUEST FOR DECLASSIFICATION OF CIA WATERGATE MATERIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M00165A000800030008-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 18, 1977
• Content Type: MF

ER?cuHV' Regishy
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OLG 77-3439
18 August 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
Acting Legislative Counsel
Request for Declassification of CIA
Watergate Material
1. 0 Action Requested: None; for information only. We have
received a request to declassify certain Agency material
in the possession of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.
We are in the process of staffing out a position for recommendation
to you, but in the meantime, it was felt that you should have the
background in the event you are confronted with the issue, perhaps
by Senator Howard Baker.
Background:
I
a. (0 As part of the Senate Select Committee on
Presidential Campaign Activities (the Ervin Committee)
investigation of Watergate in 1974, Senator Baker
conducted an investigation centering on the theory that
CIA. had prior knowledge of Watergate and the break-in
or cover up of Dr. Fielding's office (Daniel Ellsberg's
psychiatrist);
b. II There then ensued an almost
continuous ow of information between CIA, via
OLC, and Senator Baker's investigative staff (10
volumes, involving 700 documents);
c. 0 Ultimately, 24 Agency witnesses
were interrogated, on a voluntary basis, under oath,
which produced 2, 000 pages of testimony;
d. 0 The report, prepared on the basis
of this investigation, strongly inferred that the Agency
had prior knowledge of Watergate and the Fielding
break-in or cover up, contrary to the findings of all
other investigations undertaken by other congressional
committees and the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Our citation of contrary evidence was to no avail.
The Ervin Committee did not adopt this report as
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a Committee report, but rather is was printed
in the Committee report as the separate views
of Senator Baker;
e. 0 Senator Baker requested that the
Agency sanitize and declassify the testimony of
the 24 Agency witnesses and the 10 volumes of
material which had been provided to him. In a
letter to Senator Baker and the Chairmen of our
oversight committees (Senators Stennis and
McClellan) it was explained that the publication
of this material, even in sanitized form, poses a
serious problem because it would suggest that
information provided by persons dealing with
CIA on a confidential basis may be later
published and this could impair valuable
sources and methods of intelligence;
f. 0 The Ervin Committee expired
in June of 1974 and the issue was never resolved;
g. The testimony of the 24 Agency
witnesses an the 10 volumes of material was, by
Senate resolution, placed in the custody of the
Senate Rules and Administration Committee. The
senior staffer of the Committee had previously
asked our opinion about declassifying this
information in response to a constituent request,
and accepted our recommendation that no useful
purpose would be served. On 15 August, this same
staffer raised the question again indicating that the
request was being pursued under the Executive Order
dealing with declassification of classified information
and suggesting that Senatorial interest may be
involved.
3. 0 Tentative Staff Position: We are reviewing the requirements
of the pertinent Executive Orders and implementing regulations in the
interest of providing you a staff position with respect to this request.
At this reading it would still seem to be that there would be no interest
served by declassifying this information. There is nothing in it relevant
to the break-in or cover up issues of Watergate, but obviously 2, 000
pages of testimony and 700 pages of documents represents a fertile
field for FOIA requests and mischief.
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Distribution:
Original - Addressee
1 - A/DDCI
1-IG
1-OGC
1-ER
OLC/LLM:baa (17 Aug 77)
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