E. HOWARD HUNT SAID IN FEDERAL COURT TUESDAY HE REGRETTED ORGANIZING THE WATERGATE BURGLARY AND DENIED MEETING A WOMAN A DEFENSE LAWYER CLAIMS WILL LINK HIM TO THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402730006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: January 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402730006-3
29 January 1985
HUNT
JEFF HARDY
i1IAMI
E. Howard Hunt said in federal court Tuesday he regretted organizing the
Watergate burglary and denied meetin a woman a defense lawyer claims will link
him to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Hunt spent most of the second day of his libel suit against the right-wing
tabloid The Spotlight being cross-examined by defense lawyer Mark Lane.
Hunt is suing the Washington, D.C. taboild published by the ultra-right
Liberty Lobby for a 1978 article linking him to Kennedy's slaying.
Lane led Hunt through a recounting of his career with the CIA agent and
later as one of the ' 'plumbers' involved in the burglary of the Watergate
offices of the Democratic National Party.
'' I wish I'd never heard of Watergate," Hunt said. " I wish I never worked
in the White House.''
Hunt, 66, said he was part of a special investigative for& hired by the
White House because former President Richard M. Nixon was upset by 'information
being leaked to the press.
He said his job was to organize a ''black bag'' team to take photographs of
party documents at Watergate. He said another team was supposed to install wire
taps.
As as member of the CIA, Hunt said his job consisted mainly of funding
anti-communist operations against countries unfriendly with the United States.
"I was involved in working with intermediaries to try to persuade (Cuban
President Fidel) Castro to change his Marxist ways,'' Hunt said. ''That approach
was unsuccessful and the Bay of Pigs ensued.''
Lane then asked if Hunt knew Marita Lorenz, Castro's former lover who Lane
says saw Hunt in Dallas the day before Kennedy was slain. Hunt denied ever
meeting Lorenz.
Lane asked if Hunt knew that Lorenz was Involved in a CIA plot to kill
Castro or if there ever was a plot to kill Castro.
''I suppose so,'' Hunt replied. "I would hope there were such plans. I
thought it was important to cut off the head of the snake, so its army would
lose its leadership.'
Hunt also testified Tuesday he lost thousands of dollars in income because of
a ''damnable article'' published by The Spotlight that linked him to the
assassination of Kennedy.
Hunt said he earned $78,000 in 1977, the year before the article was
published.
Coatlnir0
. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402730006-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402730006-3
''Six years after the publication of The Spotlight article my earnings were
less than 5 percent of what I had earned the year before,'' Hunt said. He also
blamed the article for the rejection by publishers of at least five of his book
manuscripts in recent years.
Hunt said only one manuscript had been rejected prior to the appearance of
the article in The Spotlight. In all, he has published 54 books.
Hunt testified he was doing well financially ''until this damnable article''
was published.
Hunt, who served 33 months in prison for his part in the Watergate break-in,
denied Monday that he was in Dallas when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. He
testified he was in his car in Washington, D.C., waiting with his infant son for
his wife to finish grocery shopping.
He said the August 1978 article by The Spotlight angered him because he
thought allegations concerning the assassination were behind him.
Hunt originally was awarded $650,000 by a jury in the case, but that verdict
was overturned on appeal because the judge's charge to the jury was flawed.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402730006-3