Perjury by Gerald Ford
Tracy Riddle
hypocritical reactions about it from the usual suspects, it's
important to put it in some historical perspective:
11/5/1973 During his confirmation hearings for Vice President, Gerald
Ford was asked about using excerpts from the top secret 1/27/1964
Warren Commission meeting in his book, PORTRAIT OF THE ASSASSIN. At
the time PORTRAIT was released, the transcript was still classified.
Ford's reply under oath was an utter falsehood.
Chairman: Now, Mr. Ford, it has been stated that as a member of the
Warren Commission you voluntarily accepted the constraints which all
the members of the commission accepted, providing that you would not
publish or release any of the proceedings of the Commission. You did,
however, in association with another, publish a book and provide
material for a Life magazine article on the proceedings of the
Commission. Do you feel this was a violation of your agreement?
Ford: To the best of my recollection, Mr. Chairman, there was no such
agreement, but, even if there was, the book I published in conjunction
with a member of my staff...we wrote the book, but we did not use in
that book any material other than the material that was in the 26
volumes of testimony and exhibits that were subsequently made
public...
A comparison of his account of that WC meeting (from PORTRAIT) with
the official transcript can be found in Weisberg's WHITEWASH IV p124.
Later a member of a House committee suggested to Ford that he might
have committed perjury during his Senate testimony; Ford said that he
hadn't understood the meaning of the chairman's question. (Rolling
Stone 4/24/1975, New York Times 11/6/1973)