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Nixon Tells Editors, 'I'm Not a Crook'
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But he said it "probably doesn't make any difference whether the grand jury indicts them or not, because unfortunately they have already been convicted in the minds of millions of Americans by what happened before the Senate (Watergate) committee."
It was in this context that the President seriously misspoke himself, saying, "I hold that both men and others who have been charged are guilty until we have evidence that they are not guilty."
His press secretary arranged for a subsequent questioner to make a correction.
The President recalled that Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen said six months ago that the Watergate cases were 90 per cent completed. Yet former Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox never brought the cases to conclusion, Mr. Nixon said. He urged that the cases be brought to trial as quickly as possible to clear those who are innocent and fix the blame on those who are guilty.
The President said he did not know until March 17, 1973, that the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist had been broken into by White House "plumbers."
"I personally thought it was a stupid thing to do, apart from being an illegal thing to do," he said.
The President remarked toward the end of his scheduled hour that the editors had not raised some of the subjects that he had obviously expected, including milk prices and the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. case.
He said he would raise these questions himself and hoped that he could answer them "through the medium of a television conference like this."
He went on to say he would send to the "editors of the nation's newspapers, all 10,000 of them, the facts. I trust that you will use them . . . but if you feel you need more information, write to me and I will give it to you."
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