The Smoking Gun Tape, 23 June 1972 Oval Office Conversation between President Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman

Haldeman: okay -that's fine. Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to the-in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray [acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray] doesn't exactly know how to control them, and they have, their investigation is now leading into some productive areas, because they've been able to trace the money, not through the money itself, but through the bank, you know, sources - the banker himself. And, and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go. Ah, also there have been some things, like an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami, who was a photographer or has a friend who is a photographer who developed some films through this guy, Barker [Watergate burglar Bernard Barker], and the films had pictures of Democratic National Committee letter head documents and things. So I guess, so it's things like that that are gonna, that are filtering in. Mitchell came up with yesterday, and John Dean [White House Counsel John Dean] analyzed very carefully last night and concludes, concurs now with Mitchell's [Nixon Campaign Chairman and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell] recommendation that the only way to solve this, and we're set up beautifully to do it, ah, in that and that...the only network that paid any attention to it last night was NBC...they did a massive story on the Cuban...