Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds

Colson had recommended that the White House hire Hunt, also a former CIA agent and prolific novelist, as a consultant.

While he was Nixon campaign chief, Mitchell repeatedly and categorically denied any involvement or knowledge of the break-in incident.

When first contacted last night about the $25,000 check, Dahlberg said that he didn't "have the vaguest idea about it . . . I turn all my money over to the (Nixon) committee."

Asked if he had been contacted by the FBI and questioned about the check, Dahlberg said: "I'm a proper citizen. What I do is proper."

Dahlberg later called a reporter back and said he first denied any knowledge of the $25,000 check because he was not sure the caller was really a reporter for The Washington Post.

He said that he had just gone through an ordeal because his "dear friend and neighbor," Virginia Piper, had been kidnapped and held for two days.

Mrs. Piper's husband reportedly paid $l million ransom last week to recover his wife in the highest payment to kidnapers in U.S. history.

Dahlberg, 54, was President Nixon's Minnesota finance chairman in l968. The decision to appoint him to that post was announced by then-Rep. MacGregor and Stans.

In l970, Mr. Nixon appointed Dahlberg, who has a distinguished war record, to the board of visitors at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

A native of St. Paul, Minn., Dahlberg has apparently made his money through Dahlberg Electronics, Inc., a suburban Minneapolis firm that sells miniature hearing aids.

In l959, the company was sold to Motorola, and Dahlberg continued to operate it. In l964, he repurchased it.

In l966, the company established a subsidiary to distribute hearing aids in Latin America. The subsidiary had offices in Mexico City. Three years later, Dahlberg Electronics was named the exclusive United States and Mexican distributor for an acoustical medical device manufactured in Denmark.

Active in Minneapolis affairs, Dahlberg is a director of the National City Bank & Trust Co. of Fort Lauderdale. In l969, he was named Minneapolis' "Swede of the Year."