>> until jawarski came on. all that happened was they now become formally the department of justice attorneys. peterson and i went over to talk to him, stay in these offices, continue doing what you're doing, but now you're no longer known officially as the watergate special prosecution force. that's all that changed. then when jawarski came in and there was a new special prosecutor, there was no special prosecutor before. when he came in, we re-establ h re-established it as a special prosecution force and i issued a new charter. >> during that period of i don't know how long it was, two weeks or so between these two moments, what did you do to make sure you didn't put yourself in jeopardy of an obstruction of justice charge? >> i told them to continue with their investigation. what more am i supposed to do? >> you had just mentioned earlier that you avoided firing them. >> oh, yeah. at one point somebody over there, a couple of them -- you get a special prosecution force, what you do is get enemies of the pers

>> until jawarski came on. all that happened was they now become formally the department of justice attorneys. peterson and i went over to talk to him, stay in these offices, continue doing what you're doing, but now you're no longer known officially as the watergate special prosecution force. that's all that changed. then when jawarski came in and there was a new special prosecutor, there was no special prosecutor before. when he came in, we re-establ h re-established it as a special prosecution force and i issued a new charter. >>

>> until jawarski came on. all that happened was they now become formally the department of justice attorneys. peterson and i went over to talk to him, stay in these offices, continue doing what you're doing, but now you're no longer known officially as the watergate special prosecution force. that's all that changed. then when jawarski came in and there was a new special prosecutor, there was no special prosecutor before. when he came in, we re-establ h re-established it as a special prosecution force and i issued a new charter. >> during that period of i don't know how long it was, two weeks or so between these two moments, what did you do to make sure you didn't put yourself in jeopardy of an obstruction of justice charge? >> i told them to continue with their investigation. what more am i supposed to do? >> you had just mentioned earlier that you avoided firing them. >> oh, yeah. at one point somebody over there, a couple of them -- you get a special prosecution force, what you do is get enemies of the pers

and the one we came up with was jawarski and at the same time the white house came up with jawarski. people think with one or the other told the other what to do but it's not true. we all came up with him. i called around and the lawyers i all knew said he would be fine. and he was. but hague said at last we're going to get a pearo in here. that's good. i refrained from saying i don't know why you should want a pro. that's the last thing you should want. because by that time i think it was going down. jawarski came over, he went to see hague and then came to see me and henry peterson. it requires background. when i came down from yale, a professor with a beard, i was suspect. i remember when i first got over there, i was standing at a reception with norm carlson, head of the federal bureau of prisons and henry peterson, head of the criminal division. they began talking about their days at good old camp lejeune. i said i was at camp lejeune and they said you were in the corps? right away their attitude changed. as long as i had been in the corps. jawarski came in and handed the chief

>> until jawarski came on. all that happened was they now become formally the department of justice attorneys. peterson and i went over to talk to him, stay in these offices, continue doing what you're doing, but now you're no longer known officially as the watergate special prosecution force. that's all that changed. then when jawarski came in and there was a new special prosecutor, there was no special prosecutor before. when he came in, we re-establ h re-established it as a special prosecution force and i issued a new charter. >> during that period of i don't know how long it was, two weeks or so between these two moments, what did you do to make sure you didn't put yourself in jeopardy of an obstruction of justice charge? >> i told them to continue with their investigation. what more am i supposed to do? >> you had just mentioned earlier that you avoided firing them. >> oh, yeah. at one point somebody over there, a couple of them -- you get a special prosecution force, what you do is get enemies of the pers