Mr. Liebeler. Have you discussed this situation with Schmidt recently?
Mr. Lehrer. No; actually, I talked to him about it briefly this morning.
He was somewhat—he didn't recall who was sitting next to him and I told him I had, because I didn't think there was any problem, and I just mentioned that. Now, the FBI—one thing—as far as that's concerned—and as far as the fact that somebody might think that Hunter and I got together on this—the day the FBI got this, and apparently it was sent down by the Commission who said, "Check this out"—that Ryder apparently—there was some question about it—and the FBI came up there and a guy by the name of—well, there were two agents from Oklahoma City who were working a special on the assassination at that time—just the assassination story. It was Petrakis and some other guy—I don't remember the other guy's name, but they came up and talked to Ken Smart. You see, there was no byline on the story and they said, "Who wrote the story?" and Smart apparently said he didn't know and they went back and looked in the files and that indicated who wrote it and so Ken came over to me and showed me the story with Petrakis and this other guy there, and he said, "Did you write the story?" And I said, "No, Hunter Schmidt wrote the story"; that's how they found out Hunter even wrote it—where he got the information was when I told him and so then we talked about this thing briefly, you know, and Ken said, "Apparently Ryder is saying that he didn't talk to anybody at the time," and I told Smart and Petrakis and this other fellow here that I was sitting right next to the fellow and that he was talking to somebody and I assumed it was Ryder and then I hadn't even mentioned it to Hunter, because Hunter was not in the office that day and Petrakis finally got ahold of him at home on the phone, I believe, or talked to him later and Hunter didn't even know until this morning.
As I say, then Hunter told me that—it was you, I believe, that told him that there was a witness who could verify that there was such a conversation and he said, "Who is that, what are you talking about?" And he said, "Why didn't you tell me before?" I said I didn't think there would be any problem—I just mentioned it to Martha Jo in passing here one day.
Mr. Liebeler. You say this morning Schmidt told you he had been over here last night and he had been questioned?
Mr. Lehrer. Yes.
Mr. Liebeler. Did he tell you the details of his experience last night?
Mr. Lehrer. A little bit.
Mr. Liebeler. He told you that Mr. Ryder had been in here?
Mr. Lehrer. Yes; that Ryder was here.