Wednesday, September 27, 1972

• Woodward and Bernstein meet again with Sloan in attempts to nail down who controlled the secret fund. Sloan confirms Mitchell and Stans, but says he doesn't believe Stans knew the payouts were for illegal activities. He says if someone needed money he would simply call Mitchell at the Justice Department for authorization. The reporters know this confirms Mitchell was approving funds for illegal activities while he was Attorney General of the United States. Sloan says initially Mitchell was the only authorized person, but eventually Stans and Magruder were added. The details from Sloan begin to clarify what Judy Hoback told them regarding the number of people involved - some were there to authorize payments (Mitchell, Stans, Magruder plus two unknowns) and some received payments (Porter, Liddy and Magruder). Sloan says the others did not work for CRP, but does confirm one worked at the White House and the other was not in Washington at all. The reporters are convinced the White House connection is Haldeman. Sloan does not confirm, but also does not deter that thought. Bernstein suggests Herbert Kalmbach, Nixon's personal lawyer, as the other outside of DC, but, again, Sloan will not confirm.
• After speaking with Sloan, Woodward calls a source in the Justice Department who confirms the information, but will not say anything about the other two names.
• Woodward and Bernstein explains what they knew to Ben Bradlee, Executive Editor at the Washington Post, who pushes them on how certain they are on Mitchell. When they say they are definite, he tells them to write that story and worry about the other two names later.
• Woodward and Bernstein's story says John Mitchell controlled a secret fund used to gather information on the Democrats while he was serving as US Attorney General. Bernstein calls Mitchell for a comment, but only receives agitated responses upon hearing the story ("Jesus...Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published. Good Christ!...we're going to do a story on all of you") The remarks were so stunning, Bernstein felt he should call Bradlee at home about how to handle it. Once Bradlee is satisfied Bernstein has done everything by the book, he tells him to go ahead with the quotes, adding "Leave everything in but 'her tit'."