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At the Jammary wpeeting of the full committee the undersigned were requested to see Mr. Cassels, and Mr. Milton King stated ue had soge frilende with the United Press and that he woulda endeavor to get xr. Cassels! address. Myr. Xing called a member of the comwittee that sane night and advised that Mr. Cassela lived in Bethesda, dd., and was norking with the United Press in the Mationai Press Building, Weahin,t., The undersigned made an appointment with Mr. Cassels and cet hin om February 9th at his office. Mr. Cassels took full responsibility for the writing of the ar- ticle. He stated thet o# received a letter from one of the officers of Marper's, stating that because of the public interest in Washi neton law firms, the activities of "Five Percenters™ and the publicity which Arnold, Fortas and Porter nad received in cunnection with their det. of a nuspber cf persons charged with Gisioyalty, darpec's wantea hic, Cassels, to write an article of arnold, Fortes anc Porter; that afte: some prodding from Harper's ne agreed to write the article and began to wake investigations, inguirles, ete., amd accumulated quite a oft of inforsation. Mr. Cassels stated that ne started off wits the thougnt that ve would probably do a hatchet jo», for frow what ne had heard in @ genere: way, he hac assumed that the firm sight well be engaged in the wor. : "Five Percenters®, influence, etc. He added that after making his 1 vestigation he called the firm, talked to Mr. Porter, and told Mr. Porter he was writing an article about the firm for ‘larper's. de said Porter took a Pather high and signty pesition to the effect that he just could not write any such article avout them; that Porter anta.-: - iaed his, rubbed his the wrong way, amd he told Porter that the articl« wae going to be written; thst he hed quite a bit of information and ..e¢ thought it was to Porter's interest to talk to his, for he did not wan‘ to publish any information which might be in errer and sight do the fire en injustice. Finally, Porter agreed to see him; he went to see Porter anu at that conference saw all three of the gentlemsen in question. He stated that all three of them took the position that he should not write the article, but that he insisted that the article was going to be written and that he deliberately, intentionally, and purposely, baited the rtners and asked questions, which, undoubtedly they may have resent-d, or some of his questions did nave barbs which indicated perhaps ris- tondect on the part of the partners. He stated that the answers given by the mewvers of tue firm resi iy were in the nature of statewents in self-defense; that sume of the answers were given probably at a tise when they ware wad with bie on accoumt of the questions he asked and that the responsilility for ire story is his and not theirs. “ 3. nS . - ad PEE ee we Me fete ue marverey