Recontextualization (Voloshinor/Bakhtin), the process whereby an utterance from one situation of speaking is refitted to another context as a report of speech, is explored in a study, of the form and function of reported speech in the Watergate hearingstestimony of Mr. John Dean. Direct and indirect reports of speech are analyzed quantitatively, stylistically, and functionally. The author also proposes rhetorical and pragmatic functions of reported speech.