May 23, 1973

One upshot from Nixon's May 22 statement was that Silber and Glanzer advised the new Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, that Richard Nixon should be on the list of witnesses to be questioned.

Meanwhile, a rare break in the tone of Watergate: Tony Ulasewicz, the bagman of the hush money payoffs, testifies to the Ervin Committee and breaks everyone up. In a story which produced more than it's fair share of characters, Ulasewicz, the former New York City cop who Nixon's White House had hired as in-house private investigator, was the most comical.

Inside the White House, Nixon and Haig are pleased with the May 22 statement -- and Nixon continues to rail against John Dean, and worry about Dean, and worry about the Walters memos on the intervention to get the CIA to turn off the FBI: "Those are really very bad. But what the hell can you do about it?"

He also talks to Rose Mary Woods, his longtime secretary, about Thomas Pappas -- that Pappas should have his story straight about Nixon's supposed lack of knowledge about what Pappas was raising money for.