Lifting the Cloud Over the President

Gerald Ford was ebullient. With justifiable satisfaction, the President called a televised press conference--his first since February--to drive home the point that he had been cleared by Watergate Special Prosecutor Charles Ruff of any possible charge of illegality in the handling of his congressional campaign funds since 1964. 'The special prosecutor has finally put this matter to rest once and for all," declared Ford. Indeed, Ruff had said flatly: "The matter has now been closed."

An allegation that Ford had put political funds in his own pocket had been lodged with the FBI last July by an undisclosed informer. It had hung unfairly over the President's campaign, casting doubt on his reputation for integrity. The informer had passed along the rumor that Ford had illegally used contributions given to two Kent County Republican committees in Michigan by two unions: the National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association and the Seafarers International Union.

No Vendetta. Ruffs clearing statement said that the FBI had examined records of the Michigan committees and the two unions, both of which are heavy political contributors (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS). Officials of those groups had been interviewed. At Ruffs request, Ford had supplied financial records and authorized Ruff to examine an audit of his finances for the years 1967-72 made by the Internal Revenue Service and the Congressional Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation. Concluded Ruff: "The evidence developed during this investigation was not corroborative of the allegation on which it was predicated. Nor did evidence ... give reason to believe that any other violations of law had occurred."

Had Ford been the victim of a political plot to smear him? Apparently not. As one investigator told TIME, "Right from the start, everyone was very sensitive to that possibility. But there never was any indication of a political vendetta." Ruff concluded that there was "no apparent motive" of the informer "to fabricate." TIME has also learned that the informer was not directly connected with either of the two unions. But he was once in a position to know the internal affairs of at least one of them.

Considering the accusing tone of some reporters, Ford handled other questions involving his personal finances with surprising good humor. Asked how he had managed to get along on something like $5 in pocket money per week in 1972, as his recently disclosed IRS audit indicated, Ford replied: "I write checks." He explained away his withdrawal of $1,167 from his Fifth District bank account, which contained political contributions and fees from speaking engagements, for a 1972 family vacation trip to Vail, Colo. The President reiterated that he had promptly reimbursed the account by writing a check, even though he had not deposited it until his next payday, because his personal account was apparently overdrawn. Said Ford with a smile: "I think a few people in this country have written checks and then waited until the end of the month and then mailed the checks."

Other Allegations. The President claimed he had also promptly repaid his Fifth District account for the use of $871.44 in 1972 to buy some clothing for himself and Wife Betty to wear at the 1972 Republican Convention. (Presidential Press Secretary Ron Nessen later corrected him, saying that only the cost of the plane tickets had been repaid.) Though no crime had ever been alleged in either expense, both violated the House Code of Official Conduct, which directs that campaign and personal funds be kept clearly separated.

Ford was not yet free of two other allegations. One, which seemed farfetched, nevertheless remained on Ruffs desk. It was the three-year-old assertion by William Perry, a former assistant to the president of the National Maritime Union, that the N.M.U. made regular secret monthly payments to a number of Congressmen, including Ford. Ruff must decide whether his office will pursue this apparently wild allegation.

At his press conference, Ford was surprisingly evasive about the second lingering matter. It is the old question of whether he had acted in response to the urging of Richard Nixon's aides in effectively aborting an early investigation, in 1972, by Texas Congressman Wright Patman's Banking Committee into the Watergate bugging-burglary. Ford has readily conceded that he did help persuade Republicans on the committee to deny subpoena power for the planned investigation, thereby crippling it. But he denied at his vice-presidential confirmation hearings in 1973 that he had acted under White House direction. Even if he had, it would have been routine and reasonable for Ford, who was House Republican leader at the time, to do so because the Patman probe would have been politically embarrassing to the G.O.P. Ford then presumably had no knowledge that the White House was trying to cover up its own criminal involvement in Watergate.

At his confirmation hearings Ford claimed that he had "never talked" to Nixon or Aides H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Dean about the Patman inquiry. He testified that he could "not recall" any conversations about it with William Timmons, then Nixon's legislative aide, or anyone else in Timmons' office. Later in the hearings Ford said more flatly, "I did not discuss the action that I took ... with Mr. Timmons or anybody else." Last week Ford refused to go beyond those statements, noting that since he was approved as Vice President by substantial votes in two committees, his word had been accepted.

But that evasive stand missed the point that those committees had been unaware of either the existence of a White House taping system or new claims made last week by Dean. He charged on the NBC Today show that Ford had repeatedly discussed the Patman problem with Richard Cook, a Timmons aide. Dean later named some 15 specific dates between Sept. 6 and Oct. 12, 1972, on which, he said, he had talked about the Patman matter with Cook, and claimed that Cook had reported to him at least six times on his conversations with Ford about the Patman investigation. Cook, now a Washington lobbyist for Lockheed Corp., called Dean's charges "vicious lies." Although asked twice about the Dean charges, Ford declined to deny directly that he had talked to Cook about the subject, again standing on his testimony in the hearings. If Ford had not spoken with Cook, it seemed odd that he was unwilling to make this clearer.

Three House Democrats (Michigan's John Conyers, New York's Elizabeth Holtzman and Wisconsin's Henry Reuss) last week asked Ruff to examine tape recordings of Nixon's phone conversations and meetings with Ford in the fall of 1972, roughly three months after the Watergate breakin. A previously released White House tape indicates that Nixon directed his aides to get Ford to help kill the Patman study. "Jerry has really got to lead on this," Nixon told Haldeman and Dean on Sept. 15, 1972. Conyers called on Ruff to listen to tapes after Sept. 15 (they are in Government custody but most remain unexamined) to see if Nixon's White House had pressed Ford into service.

At week's end Ruff informed both Conyers and Holtzman that he did not intend to probe the matter. He suggested to Conyers that the subject should be pursued first with Attorney General Edward Levi. Conyers said he would turn to Levi. Holtzman claimed that perjury may have been committed by Ford and that "only the special prosecutor can resolve these questions." She urged him to reconsider. Having already weighed the matter, there was little likelihood that Ruff would do so.

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