The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Carswell, you have been sworn, have you not?
Mr. CARSWELL. Yes, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well. You may proceed.
Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Chief Justice, if the Commission will bear with me
just a minute, I would like to tell about my own conversation with
the Speaker about this matter prior to his answering in regard to
correction of the record.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well. You may proceed.
Mr. RANKIN. After the matter came up before the Commission, I was asked
by one of the Commissioners to see the Speaker, Mr. McCormack, and I
did that at his office. And he informed me that the Secret Service
and also the FBI had undertaken to try to give him protection because
of his position in the line of succession, and that because of the
interference that he felt and his wife felt with their relationship
over the years in being alone and together in their family life, he
did not like to have that interference, and he asked them not to
participate any more in furnishing that protection for him. He said it
was his own responsibility in taking that action, and he wanted that to
be clear, and that he thought that as far as any protection he needed,
he had plenty of protection with the kind of protection that the
Congress had around him in the performance of his duty.
It came to Mr. Carswell's attention, right immediately after he had
testified, that his statements in that regard were inaccurate because
of the change that had occurred that had not come to his attention. He
called me and he said he would like to correct the record.
Mr. Carswell, will you tell us now what the facts are as you have
learned?
Mr. CARSWELL. When I testified here before I was asked, I believe, what
protection the Secret Service was providing the Speaker. I said that we
were providing protection comparable to that previously provided to the
Vice President. I did that on the basis of checking with Chief Rowley
immediately after the assassination of President Kennedy, and he told
me at that time such protection was being provided to the Speaker.
I understood that that was the case the next day--because at that time
we were not certain what was going on. I had not heard anything about
it after that. And I assumed that the situation continued as it was
immediately after the assassination. But that was not the case.
As Mr. Rankin has stated, the Speaker requested the Secret Service to
discontinue assigning agents to him for protection, and we did what he
requested. That is the present situation.
Mr. RANKIN. That is all I have.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well.
Thank you, Mr. Carswell.
Well, gentlemen, I think that will be all today. The Commission will
adjourn now.
(Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m., the President's Commission recessed.)
_Tuesday, June 23, 1964_