U.S. v. Chapin

• Decision Date: 14 July 1975
• Docket Number: No. 74-1648,74-1648
• Citation: 169 U.S. App. D.C. 303,515 F.2d 1274
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Dwight L. CHAPIN, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 1274

515 F.2d 1274

169 U.S.App.D.C. 303

UNITED STATES of America v. Dwight L. CHAPIN, Appellant.

No. 74-1648.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Feb. 7, 1975.

Decided July 14, 1975.

Jacob Stein, Washington, D. C., with whom Gerard E. Mitchell, Washington, D. C., was on the brief for appellant.

Richard D. Weinberg, Asst. Sp. Prosecutor, with whom Leon Jaworski, Sp. Prosecutor, at the time the brief was filed, Philip A. Lacovara, Counsel to the Sp. Prosecutor, at the time the brief was filed and Richard J. Davis, Asst. Sp. Prosecutor, was on the brief for appellee.

Before WRIGHT and LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, ^* Judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Judge DAVIS.

DAVIS, Judge:

Following a jury trial, appellant Dwight L. Chapin was convicted of two counts of making "false material declarations", 18 U.S.C. § 1623 (1970), before the grand jury investigating "dirty tricks" engaged in by Donald Segretti on behalf of President Nixon during the 1972 Presidential campaign. Specifically, appellant was convicted of falsely stating that he was not "familiar with" any distribution of campaign literature by Segretti, and that he did not recall "express(ing) any interest . . . or giv(ing Segretti) any directions or instructions with respect to any single or particular candidate." ¹ The Government's contention, which the jury accepted, was that appellant did in fact know of distributions of literature by Segretti, was aware of this knowledge when he testified before the grand jury, and yet falsely responded that he was not familiar with any such distribution. On the second count on which appellant was convicted, the prosecution theory was that Chapin had given Segretti specific instructions about Senator Edmund Muskie, that Chapin understood the question to refer to such instructions, and remembered at the time of his grand jury appearance having given such instructions. On appeal, appellant claims that the "distribution" question was vague, and that he answered it truthfully because he was not in fact familiar with any "personal distribution" by Segretti, in the sense of passing out literature on street corners. Chapin also asserts that the second question was compound and therefore improper and likewise vague, and that again he answered truthfully in that he never gave directions about one candidate to the exclusion of all others. Appellant also claims error in the trial court's admission of certain evidence and that court's failure to grant a change of venue or to conduct a thorough enough voir dire. ²

I.

Chapin was Appointments Secretary to President Nixon from the start of the President's term in January 1969 until March 1973. While his duties in that position were largely administrative, he also participated in political activities, particularly during the President's 1970 campaign for Congressional candidates. In 1971, Chapin conceived the idea of hiring someone to play "political pranks" on the various contenders for the Democratic Presidential nomination for 1972, with the aim of creating so much dissension among the candidates that they would not be able to unite effectively behind the party's nominee after the convention. The proposal received the approval of White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, who insisted however that no such activities be traceable back to the White House. Armed with Haldeman's approval, in the summer of 1971 Chapin hired Donald Segretti, a college friend just leaving the Army Judge Advocate Corps, for this job. Chapin instructed Segretti about the types of activities he was to engage in, using examples of having a train pull out of the station while a candidate was still talking and distributing false baggage calls, and warned him to do as little as possible himself and to use false names so as not to have his work attributable to the White House.

During the last part of 1971 and the first half of 1972, Segretti engaged in such disruptive activities as printing and distributing large posters saying "Help Muskie Support Bussing (sic) More Children Now," supposedly distributed by the Mothers Backing Muskie Committee; writing a letter on Citizens for Muskie stationery accusing Senator Jackson of being a homosexual and Senator Humphrey of cavorting with prostitutes at the expense of lobbyists; and putting out a "Humphrey" press release stating that Representative Shirley Chisholm had been committed to a mental institution in the early 1950's after being detained in Richmond, Virginia as a transvestite and that she was still under psychiatric care. While it is undenied that Chapin had nothing to do with the exact "pranks" to be played and saw none of the items mentioned above before Segretti used them, it is also clear that the latter regularly sent copies of his output to Chapin at home and that Chapin was aware of at least these documents shortly after they were used.

After the burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building was discovered on June 17, 1972, Chapin immediately instructed Segretti to cease his activities and to "get lost." The Segretti-Chapin project had been conducted solely out of the White House and not from the Committee to Reelect the President, the home base of the "Watergate" burglars. However, Segretti's activities had induced G. Gordon Liddy, one of those arrested in connection with the Watergate break-in, to check him out, and as a result Liddy's address book contained Segretti's name. In late June, Segretti was interviewed by the FBI. On the advice of John Dean, Counsel to the President, Segretti discussed generally what he had been doing but did not disclose that Chapin had hired him. In August 1972, Segretti was called before the Watergate grand jury. As with the FBI interview, on Dean's advice he attempted to avoid naming Chapin as his employer. However, in response to a question by a juror, Segretti admitted that he had been retained by Chapin. Chapin was concerned about his possible legal liability for Segretti's activities and consulted with Dean who thought Chapin's only "problem" would be with the federal campaign act provisions on attribution of campaign literature. Newspaper reports of Chapin's connection with Segretti were published beginning October 10, 1972, but were denied by the White House. Segretti was indicted in May 1973 for distributing the Jackson-Humphrey "sex letter" without proper attribution.

Between August 1972 and February 1973, Chapin was himself interviewed three times by the FBI concerning his relationship with Segretti. According to the testimony of the agent who saw him, Chapin admitted knowledge of some of Segretti's more minor "antics", but denied ever receiving any of the latter's documents and denied knowing, before the FBI began its investigation of Segretti, that Segretti had published false information about various candidates. Chapin testified at the trial that his denials were in fact false, but that he had been less than truthful because he was concerned, particularly at the time of the February meeting, that FBI interviews were being leaked to the press.

In April 1973, John Dean began talking to the Watergate prosecutors about the burglary itself and attempts to cover up both that episode and some earlier activities on behalf of the President. On April 11, 1973, Chapin appeared before the grand jury investigating campaign law violations. Questioning centered around Segretti's activities, the role of people in the White House in sponsoring and approving what Segretti had done, and how Segretti was paid and by whom. Chapin testified that he had gone into the grand jury intending to keep secret the fact that Haldeman had approved the plan, but denied any intent to limit his testimony on any other aspect of the inquiry. Under prodding, Chapin did eventually reveal Haldeman's role. However, appellant stands convicted of falsely answering questions in two other areas. He was found guilty of giving the untrue responses emphasized in the following exchanges:

1. Q. To your knowledge did Mr. Segretti ever distribute any statements of any kind, or any campaign literature of any kind?

A. Not that I am familiar with.

2. Q. What candidates do you recall receiving information about? Senator Muskie was he one?

A. Yes. I think virtually Muskie and Humphrey, Wallace.

Q. Senator McGovern?

A. Jackson, McGovern. I think virtually all of them. I forget now who all the candidates were. I think that covers it.

Q. At one time or another during this period of time, in the early months of 1972, you received information from Mr. Segretti relating to all these candidates?

A. As I recall, two of them may be mentioned in one little note or something. But they were not documents or reports what you and I would consider reports.

Q. Did you ever express any interest to him, or give him any directions or instructions with respect to any single or particular candidate?

A. Not that I recall.

II.

Appellant's first argument for reversal is that the two questions form improper bases for a perjury indictment in that they are so vague and ambiguous that only "(b)y groundless surmise . . . could the jury determine which definition (of the crucial words) defendant had in mind" when he responded. United States v. Lattimore, 127 F.Supp. 405, 409 (D.D.C.), aff'd, 98 U.S.App.D.C. 77, 232 F.2d 334 (1955). Specifically, appellant claims that the words "distribute" and "express any interest" are subject to a number of possible interpretations, any one of which someone in Chapin's position might have reasonably understood to be that the questioner intended. Since, appellant contends, a proper perjury prosecution requires that the government prove that the defendant knowingly answered falsely the question as he understood it, a vague question requires too much speculation by the jury as to the meaning the accused gave it when he answered.

The Lattimore case is...