Grant said Martin explained that Peroff had been an informant in a counterfeit case in Europe and that he knew the man. Martin told Grant there had previously been warrants out on Peroff, Grant said. Martin instructed him to contact Robert Connelly, the Secret Service agent in Orlando, Florida, Grant said, and have him "find out if there was an existing warrant" on Peroff (pp. 838, 839).

It was about 3 p.m. when he spoke with Martin, Grant said. At about 4 p.m., he called Connelly. Connelly confirmed the warrants were still in effect, Grant said (pp. 839, 840).

The testimony of Peter Grant was inconclusive on the question of precisely what happened after Connelly confirmed that there were outstanding warrants out on Peroff. Grant said he gave no instructions to Connelly. Grant said no one at the Secret Service had anything to do with Frank Peroff's being arrested. "That decision was not in our hands," Grant testified (p. 840).

Grant said he did not ask any person at DEA to decide whether or not to have Peroff arrested. In fact, Grant said, he did not know what finally did happen. He said he learned of Peroff's arrest from the Investigations Subcommittee staff many months later (pp. 840, 841).

DOS SANTOS CONTRADICTS GRANT

When Secret Service Agent Peter Grant testified, he said he received three phone calls from Frank Peroff but did not place any calls himself to Peroff (p. 842).

But Richard Dos Santos testified that Grant told him he, Grant, did call Peroff at the Hilton Inn at Kennedy Airport (p. 432). Dos Santos said he spoke on the phone with Grant to learn more about the complaints Peroff was lodging at the White House. It was during this Grant-Dos Santos discussion that Grant said he called Peroff, Dos Santos testified (pp. 430, 432).

Dos Santos did not specify how many calls took place between Grant and Peroff but Dos Santos did say:

I know there were many conversations or many phone calls. I believe Peroff made most of the phone calls (p. 432, 433).

GRANT'S NOVEMBER 28 MEMORANDUM

Peter Grant's testimony differed with information contained in a memorandum he wrote November 28, 1973 in which he said that Robert Connelly had quite a lot to do with Peroff's arrest. In fact, it is apparent from the Grant memorandum that Peroff would not have been arrested had the Secret Service not taken the initiative.

The Subcommittee obtained a copy of the November 28 memorandum and it was made a part of the hearing record. Grant was shown a copy of it at the hearings. He said it was a memorandum he wrote and he said that everything in it was true to the best of his knowledge (p. 849).

In the November 28 memorandum entitled "Frank Peroff," Peter Grant wrote that he called Robert Connelly July 18 to discuss the

Peroff warrants. Grant wrote in his memo that Connelly checked with the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando.

Grant wrote that Connelly called back to report that the Sheriff's Office wanted to have Peroff arrested and requested to know where Peroff was. "I then advised RA [Resident Agent] Connally of the subject's location," Grant wrote in the memorandum. It was apparent from Grant's November 28, 1973 memorandum, then, that Florida authorities wanted to find out where Peroff was so they could have him arrested. Accordingly, the Secret Service provided this information. The next day, July 19, the wire, specifying Peroff's location, including his hotel room number, was sent from the Florida authorities to New York. The information in the wire came from the Secret Service.

GRANT MEMORANDUM CONFLICTS WITH TESTIMONY

There is another consideration to the Grant memorandum of November 28 which was of interest to the Subcommittee. That factor is the precision of the November 28 memorandum as Grant recalled the details of his conversations with Frank Peroff. This precision contrasted sharply with Grant's testimony before the Subcommittee in which he led Senators to believe that there was very little about the Peroff calls he remembered.

The opening paragraph of the memorandum, for example, reported facts that Grant did not give the Subcommittee-that, first, he kept notes on the Peroff talks and, second, that he wrote a memorandum on the Peroff calls. That memo was destroyed within 30 to 60 days after July 18 "in the normal course of administrative detail," Grant wrote. Because the original memorandum was destroyed, Grant wrote, he was putting the new one together based on "handwritten notes" he took while talking to Peroff.

But in his testimony before the Subcommittee, Grant had a somewhat different recollection on the subject of any notes he took on Peroff.

For example, Manuel asked Grant:

Did you write a memorandum or report with respect to the information you received from Mr. Peroff during that first telephone call?

Grant replied, "No, sir, I did not."

Manuel asked, "At any time, did you?"

Grant replied, "No, sir." (P. 823.)

When Grant testified that it was July 18 that Richard Dos Santos called him, Manuel asked him how he could remember so precisely. "Did you keep any notes, memoranda or reports on any of that activity?"

Grant replied, "I remember the [Dos Santos] conversation because it was just subsequent events of the day." (P. 830.)

At another point, Manuel asked, “Have you a report of the [Peroff] conversation?"

Grant's reply was, "I have no really idea." (P. 826.)

In his testimony, Grant said Peroff was more or less rambling all over, making one unsubstantiated allegation after another and that none of them made very much sense. For instance, on the subject of Robert Vesco's role in the alleged heroin plot, Grant testified:

In the way he mentioned Robert Vesco was he said you know the name Vesco and at that time it really didn't mean that much to me. He says something to do with the effect of the President, the President's brother or something like that. It really didn't dawn on me what his point was. He was making a lot of allegations (p. 821).

But, according to the November 28 memorandum, Grant understood quite well what Peroff was trying to say. Grant wrote in his memo that Pero claimed to be involved in a 100- to 200-kilogram heroin effort and that to finance the project "$50,000 was being put up by Robert Vesco and that the remainder was being put up by Mr. LeBlanc." A man named "Giuseppe Cotrone" and another named "Bouchard" were also participants in the plot, Grant wrote, adding that Peroff was supposed to fly in a Lear jet to a Latin American country and that the heroin was to be purchased for $300,000.

This detailed description of the purported Bouchard heroin conspiracy was given November 28, 1973 by the same Peter B. Grant who on June 14, 1974 testified to Senators that:

He [Peroff] relayed a lot of information, sir. He was just continually talking. I just had a very difficult time understanding (p. 822).

Grant's ability to understand Peroff was much better November 28 for, according to his memorandum of that date, some of the other specific points he understood Peroff to have made were that Peroff and his family had arrived in New York from Puerto Rico July 16; that Peroff's wife was named Judy; that they were staying in room. 636 at the Hilton Inn, telephone 322-8700; that Peroff claimed to have worked in a "major narcotics case" for Customs and BNDD in Paris in which "numerous arrests" had been made; that Peroff claimed to have helped Frank Leyva and Harris Martin of the Secret Service capture $100,000 in counterfeit currency in Europe; that Peroff's address in Rome had been "at Vaba Gallo #16;" that the Peroffs had once lived in Florida; that DEA agents he had worked with included "Octavio Pinno" and "Rick DeSantis and Dennis J. Perry;" that Peroff felt he was owed money by federal agencies; and that he feared he would be killed either at the direction of the mob or Federal officials. Grant wrote that Peroff claimed to be trying to take his case to Senators Sam J. Ervin, Jr. and Henry M. Jackson to insure that “a high level decision" was made.

MARTIN DENIES ANY ROLE IN PEROFF ARREST

In the Subcommittee inquiry, there were differing accounts of how the decision was made to set in motion the legal machinery to have Frank Peroff arrested.

Secret Service Agent Peter Grant testified that he did not know who made the decision or how it was implemented. But in his Novem

ber 28, 1973 memorandum he made clear that he told Secret Service Agent Robert Connelly where Peroff was and Connelly was to tell the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando. Shortly thereafter, Peroff was in jail.

Harris J. Martin of the Secret Service testified that he knew that warrants had been placed on Peroff prior to July 18 (pp. 863, 864) but that he played no role in any of the subsequent actions taken by Peter Grant such as calling Robert Connelly and providing him with Peroff's location, enabling the Florida authorities to have Peroff arrested (p. 871).

Martin's testimony on this issue was that Grant came to him with the story of Peroff calling the White House. Martin said he remembered the name Peroff and his previous dealings with him on the European counterfeit case. Martin said he and Grant "would have pulled the file" on Peroff and found the existence of the warrants. But, Martin said, he gave Peter Grant no instructions on what to do now that he, Grant, knew about the warrants (p. 871).

This aspect of Martin's testimony differed with what Peter Grant had testified to. Grant said his initial call to Connelly was at the direction of Martin (pp. 838, 839). Martin said nothing about having Grant check with Connelly. In fact, Martin meant to give Senators the understanding that when Grant came to him with information about Frank Peroff's calls he. Martin, did nothing in the way of giving Grant instructions as to how to proceed. Manuel questioned Martin on this point. It should be noted that in Manuel's fourth question in this exchange, he referred to Martin when he meant to say Grant.

MANUEL. Could you relate to the Subcommittee how you became aware of these telephone calls?

MARTIN. I believe Peter Grant came down to my office, asked me if I knew a guy named Frank Peroff.

MANUEL. You say he came to your office personally?

MARTIN. I believe he did. Maybe he called on the phone first, but it is just down the hall. He told me this fellow Peroff was on the phone, that he had mentioned my name, that he had done some work for us at one time. Of course, then I recognized his name. So I said yes and told him what I knew of Peroff.

MANUEL. Did you tell him specifically of the existence of the warrants?

MARTIN. I would think that at that time we would have pulled the file and in looking through the file would have said there were some warrants outstanding for this guy in Orlando. MANUEL. Did you instruct Mr. Martin in any way whatsoever on how to proceed with respect to the warrants?

MARTIN. No.

MANUEL. Did Mr. Grant advise you in any way that the name of Robert Vesco had been relayed to him by Mr. Peroff? MARTIN. I don't recall. I don't think so.

MANUEL. Did Mr. Grant relay to you any information whatever about the fact that Mr. Peroff was a current, active informant for a federal agency, specifically the DEA? MARTIN. Yes, I believe yes.

MANUEL. Did you instruct him in any way whatever on how to proceed to corroborate that information or how to get in touch with the DEA?

MARTIN. NO (pp. 871, 872).

Later in the hearing, Manuel again asked Martin:

Do you have any knowledge whatever, Mr. Martin, as to how Mr. Peroff was arrested?

Martin replied, "No." (P. 874.)

O'NEILL SAYS HE WAS THE ONE WHO HAD PEROFF ARRESTED

With Grant's testimony brought into question by his November 28 memorandum and with Martin's testimony differing from Grant's, the Subcommittee, in trying to find out how and why Frank Peroff was arrested July 22, 1973, reviewed the testimony of Richard Dos Santos and John J. O'Neill.

Dos Santos said pointedly that he had nothing to do with Frank Peroff being arrested and he didn't know who did (p. 437).

But his boss, John J. O'Neill, said he thought Dos Santos had Peroff arrested (p. 584). But, O'Neill said, Dos Santos took these steps because he was ordered to-by O'Neill (pp. 584, 585).

O'Neill said he did not know of the existence of the warrants until July 18, 1973 (p. 579). But when O'Neill learned of the warrants he immediately initiated action to have Peroff arrested. O'Neill took this course, he said, "Because he was a fugitive. The warrants called for his arrest." (P. 583.)

O'Neill testified:

I told him [Dos Santos] to find out if the warrants were still outstanding and would the State of Florida, I believe it was, I forget what county, if they would extradite him. He checked and came back and told me that they did. I told him to find out where Peroff was living, determine what precinct he was in, go to the New York City Police Department precinct where Peroff was living and give them the information (p. 584).

O'Neill said he assumed upon giving Dos Santos these orders that Dos Santos carried them out. But, being advised by Subcommittee staff that Dos Santos denied having anything to do with Peroff's arrest, O'Neill said it was now his understanding that Dos Santos had not done what he was told to do (p.584).

O'Neill said he learned from Subcommittee investigators that Dos Santos denied having Peroff arrested (pp. 584, 585). That means that from July 22, 1973, the date of Peroff's arrest, until O'Neill's first contact with Subcommittee staff, which was in February of 1974, O'Neill thought Dos Santos had effected Peroff's arrest. Now, with Dos Santos' denial, O'Neill could offer no other explanation as to how it was that O'Neill's directions to have Peroff arrested were carried out.