The Ziegler Memorandum: A Five Point Plan to Prevent Impeachment
Shapiro, Walter
The Ziegler Memorandum: A Five-Point Plan to Prevent Impeachment To : Richard Nixon From: Ron Ziegler Subject: Emergency Powers of the President As we face the possibility...
...Much of this material is confusing and could easily be misinterpreted by our adversaries...
...Take Section 332 of Title 10 of the U. S. Code, which states: Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages...
...The Ziegler Memorandum: A Five-Point Plan to Prevent Impeachment To : Richard Nixon From: Ron Ziegler Subject: Emergency Powers of the President As we face the possibility of impeachment, it might be a good idea to review the emergency powers available to you during a crisis...
...There may be a certain “populist” flavor to this move that may help revive our flagging support among urban ethnics...
...It seems that all you have to do is issue a proclamation...
...Under Section 4780 of Title 10 of the U. S. Code, “In time of war or when war is imminent, the Secretary of the Army may...
...be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than a year, or both...
...The memo is fictitious, but the statutes it mentions are real...
...Of course, we will take some heat from the liberal press...
...This move will not make New York’s financial community very happy, but we never had their wholehearted support anyway...
...A Plunging Stock Market Wall Street is in bad enough shape with the energy crisis...
...I am, for example, currently searching for a law under which we could cut off mail service to Congressional offices and thereby lessen the political pressures about impeachment...
...in the District of Columbia, other than-1) a dwelling house occupied by such...
...My list of recommended actions under your emergency powers is by no means complete...
...The Destruction of Ambiguous Records We have discussed the possibility of destroying unsubpoenaed material relating to the Watergate matter, the ITT matter, the Milk Fund, the Agnew resignation, the Ellsberg break-in, the Rebozo matter, and the Hughes campaign contribution...
...For example, in a predawn maneuver, Army units could occupy the Washington headquarters of these groups...
...Three different emergency statutes give us the power to take effective action against the media...
...2) a building occupied by any other agency of the United States...
...Congress did away with the clause that allowed you to set up detention camps during national emergencies...
...If, however, the story should come out, Jerry Warren should acknowledge the elimination of the ambiguous records, but emphasize that a summary of the documents involved would be presented to the head of the General Services Administration within six months, as required under law...
...Even if we don’t re-enter Cambodia under the 90-day escape clause in the War Powers Bill, the statute covers our current situation anyway...
...To use these special powers, you don’t have to declare an emergency...
...Of course, certain files relating to impeachment might become lost in transit...
...The Hostility of the Media Our goal must be to do what we can to dictate the tone of the country while Congress considers impeachment...
...The first time was when you called out the Ready Reserve to deliver the mail during the postal strike in 1970...
...Rather, the deliberations should reflect the solemnity of the proceeding to determine the fate of the Leader‘of the Free World...
...capable of emitting electromagnetic radiations within the jurisdiction of the United States...
...But I think our position is relatively solid...
...In a national emergency not only are you allowed to call up the Ready Reserve and the Standby Reserve, but under Section 675 of Title 10 of the U. S. Code, “A member in the Retired Reserve may, if qualified, be ordered to active duty without ’ his consent...
...What I propose are ways to take effective action against our three leading adversaries-CBS, The Washington Post and The New York Times-and thereby spark voluntary compliance by the rest of the media...
...by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State and use such armed forces...
...And to do it legally...
...Using the same provision of the Trading With the Enemy Act that Roosevelt used to declare a bank holiday, you can close the stock exchange for the duration of the impeachment proceedings...
...Armed with this clause, all you have to do is announce that you are suspending the licenses of the five television stations owned by CBS, the Post-Newsweek stations and radio station WQXR, owned by The New York Times...
...Since it is a well-known fact (figures can be supplied by the SEC) that foreign investors own substantial blocs of stock in American corporations, this should be sufficient justification for the suspension of trading...
...You also declared one in 1971 to justify the 1 0-percent surcharge on imports that accompanied wage-andprice controls as Phase One of your economic policy...
...Section 331 1 of Title 44 of the U. S. Code reads like this: During a state of war between the United States and another nation, or when hostile action by an enemy power appears imminent, the head of an agency of the United States Government may authorize the destruction of records in his legal custody situationed in a military or naval establishment, ship or other depository outside the territorial limits of the continental United States...
...prohibit any acquisition, holding, use, transfer, withdrawal...
...For example, you could declare Cambridge, Massachusetts, a “military zone” and forbid any of those Harvard professors from leaving...
...The only way for us to prevail is if the deliberations are conducted in an atmosphere of stately calm...
...may cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication...
...Your power over them is not diminished by the fact that less than one-quarter of these Congressional Reservists are on active or stand-by duty...
...Firial Note The above five recommendations should enable us to finally take the initiative against our adversaries in the Congress and the press...
...Perhaps you can make a television address to announce this action and include lines like, “Do we want Wall Street speculators getting rich during one of our gravest national crises in the last century...
...That should do the trick...
...Obviously this move will inspire some criticism on Capitol Hill and in the press...
...Warren should also stress that each of these men accepted the risk of activation when he decided to remain in the Reserves...
...But there are other emergency powers that may be of considerable assistance in easing our current difficulties...
...Moreover, Bill Tirnmons tells us that our standard lobbying techniques (federal projects and White House dinner invitations) will probably pay few dividends on a subject like impeachment...
...This statute obviously goes well beyond the simple power to declare martial law...
...Without unnecessary vandalism, the files and other office materials could be moved into the hallway or lobby...
...The Senators certain to vote for your conviction who would be affected by this call-up are Brooke, Cannon, Church, Hart, Hartke, Inouye, Javits, McIntyre, Magnuson, Mathias, Moss, Pell, and Williams...
...Of course, once the job is completed, the authorization letter could also be placed in the shredder...
...longer seems to be a problem...
...Here our goal is to dismantle the wire services operated by the Post (along with the Los Angeles Times) and the one run by The New York Times...
...We can argue that these powers were approved by Democratic Congresses to deal with national emergencies...
...Television: Section 606(c) of Title 47 of the U. S. Code states that “upon proclamation by the President that there exists...
...Such a speech would also enable you to claim that you were closing the stock exchanges primarily “to protect the small investor whose entire portfolio could be wiped out in a market plunge triggered by the unwise and intemperate actions of Congress...
...Meanwhile, perhaps Jerry Ford could begin to attack the activities of these special interest groups with lines like, “I personally see no difference between their lobbying for impeachment and my trying to convince jurors in a murder trial to vote for conviction...
...In addition, when you took office, you inherited two still unrepealed national emergenciesone declared by Roosevelt in 1933 as a rationale for the bank holiday, the other invoked by Truman in 1950 for the Korean War...
...If questioned, Jerry Warren can refuse to comment on the grounds that “this is an internal Army matter.’’ The following day we should make public a letter to Bo Calloway, urging him “to provide just compensation to those forced to relocate as required under law...
...This no...
...But we do seem to have the power to limit the newsprint available to papers like the Post and the Times...
...With the Senate we should emphasize the right to a fair trial and emphasize that a number of European democracies forbid press coverage of judicial proceedings...
...The way I read this, it entitles you to do almost anything...
...S. Code...
...To put it bluntly-each point the market drops is another vote for impeachment...
...The Reservists in the House include 22 Northern Democrats and Pete McCloskey...
...with respect to...
...Limited coverage should dampen public hysteria and thereby lessen the political pressures on Congress to vote impeachment...
...If a “military zone” could be as small as a single building, this would make it virtually identical to house arrest...
...Currently there are 470 different statutes defining your powers in time of war, national emergency, or such ambiguous situations as “when hostile action by a foreign power is imminent...
...Legislation like this could have been used to justify the mass arrests that were needed to thwart the 1971 “May Day” anti-war demonstrations...
...We should stress that the House is analogous to a grand jury and that we deplore all’ “leaks” by grand juries...
...We should justify our efforts by continually likening impeachment to a judicial proceeding...
...Remember the fanfare two years ago when the liberals in This memorandum was prepared for Mr...
...We cannot afford to have Walter Cronkite saying every night...
...Our goal should be voluntary compliance and self-censorship, rather than governmental action against all television stations, wire services and newspapers...
...make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State...
...The Dow Jones was off 32.17 today as the wave of panic selling continued for the fifth day in a row...
...This maneuver may, however, be more help in the House than in the Senate, since Governors can fill Senatorial vacancies, but empty House seats must await special elections...
...Louis Post-Dispatch...
...All these groups are operating out of Washington headquarters...
...The ambiguous material should be immediately placed aboard the Presidential yacht which should then proceed a few miles outside of our territorial waters...
...To give you some idea of the powers available under these statutes, take a look at Section 1383 of Title 18 of the LJ...
...Since some of these Reservists were being paid or receiving pensions from the Pentagon on top of their Congressional salaries, it seems only fair that they should accept the hazards, as well as the benefits of Reserve duty...
...Obviously, ‘we don’t want to go this far now...
...But the above material seems enough for now...
...Taken together these special powers represent a strategic reserve that may see us through the current crisis...
...And we should not underestimate our difficulties in fighting a conviction in the Senate...
...Jerry Warren should take the line that these men have been called up to help the Army cope with the fuel crisis without diverting too much energy from the civilian sector...
...Analysts attribute one of the worst declines in history to new revelations in the Nixon impeachment trial...
...The next morning office workers arriving in the lobby of the AFL-CIO’s new headquarters could be greeted by a grimy Army motor pool disassembling a pair of jeeps...
...Although the media is covered by another proposal, it occurs to me that The Washington Post’s lavish new offices would make an ideal site for an officers’ club...
...The relevant statute reads as follows: “During the time of war or any other period of national emergency declared by the President, the President may, through any agency that he may designate...
...national emergency...
...Although under our Constitutional set-up there is no way we can prevent the House from voting impeachment or the Senate from holding the trial, your emergency powers do allow us considerable room to maneuver...
...The pro testers blocking traffic were clearly creating “unlawful obstructions,” and their sheer numbers clogged the arresting machinery so much that it made “it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States...
...In fact, news coverage of the opening of their new headquarters in the Washington suburbs should underline to the public that we have no intention of repressing dissent...
...Until we see what kind of reaction develops over this operation, the White House should say nothing...
...As near as I can tell-and I have been doing some checking around on this-nowhere is there a definition of “military zone” or under what conditions one might be‘set up...
...Therefore, it seems apparent that this is a reasonable time to invoke these Presidential powers...
...Newspapers: Obviously, under the First Amendment, we cannot close down any papers...
...If the market continues to plunge while Congress is considering impeachment, it could really add to the climate of hysteria in the country...
...Once anchored there, any staff member armed with a letter of authorization from you could feed these documents into a shredder...
...For example, I have sketched out below five problems that could be alleviated by the prudent use of these powers...
...However, up to now it has been impossible to establish a legal justification for discarding these potentially misleading documents...
...Ziegler by Walter Shapiro, an editor of The Washington Monthly...
...As you may recall, you already did that twice during your First Term...
...Our aim in taking action against the media at this time would be to try to minimize their coverage of the impeachment proceedings...
...This statute opens up all sorts of possibilities...
...any property in which any foreign country or national has any interest...
...Our goai is not to put them out of business, but to hamstring their operations so much that their major emphasis is on reestablishing their filing systems, rather than impeachment...
...The key fact here is that 27 Senators and 78 Representatives are also members of the Reserves...
...Curtailing Lobbying for Impeucliment Bill Timmons reports that groups like AFL-CIO, UAW, Common Cause, and the ACLU are being particularly effective on Capitol Hill in lobbying for impeachment...
...Under Section 2664 of Title 10 of the U. S. Code, the Secretary of Commerce “in time of war or when war is imminent” has the power to acquire all facilities related to timber production...
...The Arab oil boycott apparently could qualify as “hostile action by an enemy power...
...Since the Constitution makes it clear that a member of Congress cannot hold a job in the Executive Branch without resigning his seat, this clause may enable you to remove some of your adversaries from Congress...
...Wire Services: Section 606(d) states, “Upon proclamation by the President that there exists a state or threat of war involving the United States, the President...
...This law seems to permit you to do almost the same thing...
...the rules and regulations applicable to any or all stations...
...may suspend...
...Reussembling u Working Mujority in Congress We may no longer have the votes to prevent the House from beginning impeachment proceedings...
...Equally vague and open-ended are your powers to put down insurrections...
...The legal basis for all this is a statute apparently designed to cover such contingencies as the seizure of the Pueblo by the North Koreans...
...There should be no shrill newscasts nightly, no mobs in the street...
...These wires are important because they supply a large portion of the national news in such hostile papers as The Boston Globe and The St...
...The relevant part reads like this: “Who remains in, leaves or commits any act in any military area or military zone prescribed under the authority of an Executive order of the President...
...Since retirees are not attached to *a particular unit, it should be possible to call up these liberals without affecting the position of Senate supporters like Dole, Dominick, Fong, Goldwater, and Gurney, who are also retired Reservists...
...And if demonstrations are threatened, you could declare the whole Washington metropolitan area a “military zone” and refuse to let them enter...
...Impeachment of a President is perhaps the most divisive thing that could happen to this country, short of civil war...
...for purposes of the Department of the Army, requisition the use and take possession of any building or space in any building...
...Obviously, after a few evictions, these groups will relocate in either Maryland or Northern Virginia-areas not covered by the above statute...
...Although there is no Constitutional way to forbid them to operate, your emergency powers may give us a lever to curtail their operations and divert their energies elsewhere...
...It appears unlikely that the press will get hold of this story, since to the best of our knowledge the existence of these papers is unknown outside the White House...
...shall...
...to suppress the rebellion...
Vol. 5 • January 1974 • No. 11
