john dean watergate testimony john dean watergate testimony

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Five men are arrested while trying to bug the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate, a hotel and office building in Washington, D.C. A day later, White . Chapter 14 in the book titled "The Lies, The Thefts," divulges the entire memorandum John Ehrlichman, Nixon's Domestic Affairs Advisor, wrote to Treasury Secretary David M. Kennedy and makes for an interesting read. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. Dean settled the defamation suit against Colodny and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, on terms that Dean wrote in the book's preface he could not divulge under the conditions of the settlement, other than that "the Deans were satisfied." The examples that follow are illustrative rather than exhaustive, and before turning to obstruction of justice, I must make brief mention of the underlying events to place the material in context: MUELLER REPORT VOLUME I: The underlying crimes were a Russian active measures social media campaign and hacking/dumping operations, which Mueller describes as a sweeping and systematic effort to influence our 2016 presidential election. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide. The Mueller Report, like the Watergate Road Map, conveys findings, with supporting evidence, of potential criminal activity based on the work of federal prosecutors, FBI investigators, and witness testimony before a federal grand jury. . June 27, 2022 05:36 PM. MCGAHNS DILEMMA TESTIFYING BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE. [28] On March 31, 2006, Dean testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during hearings on censuring Bush over the issue. [2] He attended Colgate University and then transferred to the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he obtained his B.A. As Watergate broke, Haldeman and John Ehrlichman trusted their bright attorney to control the political fall out after the burglars were arrested, part of which involved him paying them large sums of money. The hearings, recorded by the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT), were broadcast each evening in full, or gavel to gavel, by PBS stations across the nation, so that viewers unable to watch during the day could view the complete proceedings at home. Mea Culpa welcomes back a very special guest, John Dean. II, P. At first, he shredded incriminating files. On February 28, 1973, Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his nomination to replace J. Edgar Hoover as director of the FBI. John Dean, while not a fact witness . Dean's testimony to the senators and at the 1974 trial of the chief conspirators (excepting the President) did not get him totally off the hook. Further compounding the situation in 2018, in response to press reports that McGahn had considered resigning over the direction to fire Mueller, Trump asked another White House official (Rob Porter, also an attorney serving as Staff Secretary) to tell McGahn to dispute the story and create a false record stating that he had not been ordered to have the Special Counsel removed. But I think he could experience shame. I think Richard Nixon had a conscience, said Dean. Former Trump officials have been criticized for waiting to express their misgivings over what was happening in the White House until after they left and made book deals. For whatever reason, President Trump did not follow up with the directive to fire Mueller and McGahn did not resign. Cox had been appointed after President Nixon fired his Attorney General Richard Kleindienst in April 1973 and the Senate insisted a special prosecutor be appointed by Kleindiensts replacement, Elliot Richardson. The depth of Deans Watergate insights is partly due to a defamation lawsuit he filed against St. Martins Press. Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until Ap. "My feelings about Mr. Nixon remained the same until his death a tangle of familial echoes, affections, and curiosities never satisfied," Leonard Garment wrote in his 1997 autobiography, Crazy Rhythm: From Brooklyn and Jazz to Nixon's White House, Watergate, and Beyond.At first blush, Garment appeared an odd match for President Richard M. Nixon, the former a liberal Republican who . The Oval Office exchange between the President and Haldeman was on June 23, 1972, six days after the after the arrests at the Watergate complex. . John Dean, President Richard M. Nixon's former . The Watergate Hearings, 50 Years Ago: Truth Was Not Up for Debate . He moved to Los Angeles with wife Maureen, took business courses at UCLA and worked as an investment banker during the 1980s. Rep. Collins calls John Dean the 'godfather' of obstruction of justice, John Dean considers Watergate a roadmap for Mueller Report. Model Rule 1.13 provides that a lawyer representing an organization represents the entity and not the individuals running the entity. Its a fascinating place to see whats going on.. Well, John Dean has a new book. June 25, 1973: White House counsel John Dean recounts his meetings with President Nixon to the Senate Watergate Committee: "I began by telling the President that there was a cancer growing on . PRINTING OFFICE, 2019). [citation needed], Dean continued to provide information to the prosecutors, who were able to make enormous progress on the cover-up, which until then they had virtually ignored, concentrating on the actual burglary and events preceding it. [9], In late March in Florida, Mitchell approved a scaled-down plan. [42][43], On November 7, 2018, the day after the midterm elections, Trump forced Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. All believed that they could rely on the President to offer clemency under the Presidents pardon power. In reissuing Blind Ambition, which spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list and has been out of print for over two decades, author John Dean has added a powerful new Afterword, an extended essay in which he explains with the new clarity why (and how . In his testimony, Dean asserted that Nixon covered up Watergate because he believed it was in the interest of national security. Feb. 1, 2019. McGahn decided he would resign rather than carry out the orders, not unlike Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus when they refused to fire Cox. Copyright 2008 NPR. [25] Three years later, Dean wrote a book heavily critical of the administration of George W. Bush, Worse than Watergate, in which he called for the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for allegedly lying to Congress. Dean a young, highly ambitious, Porsche-driving, tassel-loafer-wearing lawyer when he joined the ultra conservative Nixon minions ended up getting fired in 1973 once it became clear he would implicate the president in the cover-up. John Dean Predicts Criminal Case Against Trump After 'Powerful' New Testimony. II, PP. Petersen informed Nixon that this could cause problems for the prosecution of the case, but Nixon publicly announced his position that evening. Former White House Counsel John Dean, who was a key figure in the Watergate scandal, arrives to testify before the House Judiciary Committee as the panel seeks to compare the investigations during President Richard Nixon's administration and that of President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill Monday. The point is: Richard Nixon knew he could not use his pardon power, unrestricted as it is in Article II, for the improper purpose of gaining the silence of witnesses in legal proceedings. In 2006, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating George W. Bush's NSA warrantless wiretap program. 6-7, 122-28, 131-32, 134, 147-48, ET AL):The Mueller Report addresses the question of whether President Trump dangled pardons or offered other favorable treatment to Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and Roger Stone (whose name is redacted so I assume it is him based on educated conjecture) in return for their silence or to keep them from fully cooperating with investigators. [27], After it became known that Bush authorized NSA wiretaps without warrants, Dean asserted that Bush is "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense". Journalists Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Lesley Stahl also offer their recollections on the story that helped make their careers. Dean, an executive producer on the CNN project, helped wrangle some of the participants, including Alexander Butterfield, now 96, the deputy chief of staff who dropped the bombshell that Nixon had a taping system in the White House, which ultimately led to the presidents resignation in August 1974. 5; 3, cl. ART. They don't know what they're looking at. [44][45], In early June 2019, Dean testified, along with various U.S. attorneys and legal experts, before the House Judiciary Committee on the implications of, and potential actions as a result of, the Mueller report. Jim Robenalt and I have discussed this at length. Deans immersion in Watergate since that time has been so deep, he never imagined what his life would have been without it. The White House dissembled on the reason for firing Comey, but President Trump later admitted in a television interview that he made the decision because the thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. Mr. Trump made similar remarks to visiting Russians in Oval Office. Gray said he had given FBI reports to Dean, and had discussed the FBI investigation with Dean on many occasions. About two months later, on June 25, 1973, Dean started delivering his testimony in front of the Senate Watergate Committee, during which he spoke about . The Watergate "master manipulator" said the former president is in trouble after the latest revelations. In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. The Jan. 6 committee's hastily scheduled hearing for Tuesday "better be a big deal," said a key Watergate scandal figure. But on March 21, 1973, he went to the Oval Office and told Nixon there was "a cancer " on the presidency that would take them all down they didn't . John Dean. Since 2011, I have been using the mistakes I made as a young White House lawyer to teach this rule of ethics with a continuing legal education partner, Jim Robenalt, who is here today. Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, the last time I appeared before your committee was July 11, 1974, during the impeachment inquiry of President Richard Nixon. In the 2022 TV mini-series Gaslit, Dean was played by Dan Stevens. Howard Hunts lawyer sought assurances through Nixons Special Counsel Chuck Colson that Hunt would not spend years in prison if he pled guilty in the trial before Judge Sirica in January 1973. DEAN: Thats right. . It may further involve you in a way you shouldnt be involved in this. Later Nixon worked directly with Henry Petersen, the top Justice Department official in charge of the Watergate investigation, once I had broken with the White House. Thats for sure. . [32], On September 17, 2009, Dean appeared on Countdown with new allegations about Watergate. Similarly, when President Nixon met with me on April 15, 1973, after my break with the White House, he raised the concern about the Hunt pardon again. 1 AND 182.). Search by keyword or individual, or browse all episodes by clicking Explore the Collection below the search box. Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Despite Deans courageous decision to testify against a sitting president, the series does not give him a free pass for his role in the Nixon administrations nefarious activities. The targets of the hacking were the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, from which information was stolen and released to harm the Clinton campaign and in turn would help the Trump campaign. [5], Dean was employed from 1966 to 1967 as chief minority counsel to the Republicans on the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. In many ways the Mueller Report is to President Trump what the so-called Watergate Road Map (officially titled Grand Jury Report and Recommendation Concerning Transmission of Evidence to the House of Representatives) was to President Richard Nixon. Mr. Trump asked Comey to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation by saying so to the public. It's written with Bob Altemeyer, and it's titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Silent Coup alleged that Dean masterminded the Watergate burglaries and the Watergate coverup and that the true aim of the burglaries was to seize information implicating Dean and the former Maureen "Mo" Biner (his then-fiance) in a prostitution ring. Neisser, U. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. He could be embarrassed. While Nixon had a dangerous lust for power, Dean still believes the 37th president and the only one to ever resign still compares favorably to Trump. Mea Culpa welcomes back a very special guest, John Dean. Eight years ago, we created a course called The Watergate CLE. Stephen Battaglio writes about television and the media business for the Los Angeles Times out of New York. John Dean's statement to the House Judiciary Committee on June 10, 2019, as prepared for delivery. He was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and sentenced to one to four years in prison. The program also includes one of the few current day public figures who can fully understand what Dean went through Trumps former longtime attorney Michael Cohen, who went to prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations. After hearing of Colodny's work, Liddy issued a revised paperback version of Will supporting Colodny's theory. Watergate, the Bipartisan Struggle for Media Access, and the Growth of Cable Television. In that position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent scandal and cover-up . Every and the District of Columbia have adopted a version of these rules. [26], His next book, released in 2006, was Conservatives without Conscience, a play on Barry Goldwater's book The Conscience of a Conservative. Through his lawyer, Cohen sought advice from Dean before testifying in 2019 to the House Oversight Committee, where he leveled allegations of criminal wrongdoing by Trump. Had I known the trouble I was in, I would have never married her.. John W. Dean, former counsel to President Nixon, reflects on the much-anticipated testimony of former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo. I 2, cl. It's an unpleasant place. Spectators laughed, and soon the senator was "sputtering mad". [citation needed], On June 25, 1973, Dean began his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee. 6; cf. MUELLER REPORT RE TERMINATION OF COMEY (PP. Dean was also receiving advice from the attorney he hired, Charles Shaffer, on matters involving the vulnerabilities of other White House staff. Deans words on tape can be heard in the British documentary TV series Watergate. 24-48): When President Trump learned that his National Security Advisor Michael Flynn lied to the FBI and others about his telephone conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the United States regarding U. S. sanctions imposed because of Russias election interference, he met with FBI Director James Comey at a private White House dinner and asked for Comeys loyalty. II, p. 1 that one of the reasons the Special Counsel did not make charging decisions relating to obstruction of justice was because he did not want to potentially preempt [the] constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct. The report then cites at footnote 2: See U.S. CONST. I had some unsolicited offers that I really wanted to explore. DEAN: . Fifty years later, that's how John Dean, the former White House counsel whose marathon testimony before the US Senate's Watergate Committee tipped the dominoes toward the ultimate resignation . Mr. JOHN DEAN (Former White House Counsel): What I had hoped to do in this conversation was to have the president tell me we had to end the matter now. In 1973, John Dean was the star witness in the Watergate hearings. Watergate Lawyer John Dean Predicts Legacy Of Jan. 6 Investigation Into Trump. Dean tried to leave the White House in September 1971, a year after he arrived and well before the Watergate break-in. While I was an active participant in the coverup for a period of time, there is absolutely no information whatsoever that Trumps White House Counsel, Don McGahn, participated in any illegal or improper activity to the contrary, there is evidence he prevented several obstruction attempts. 88.). We respect each other. My telling the Senate Watergate Committee of how so many lawyers found themselves on the wrong side of the law during Watergate hit a chord. He shares his story in the series "Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal." It . After John Dean gave his historic 1973 testimony on the Watergate scandal that eventually brought down the Nixon White House, he wanted to move on with his life. Dean concludes that conservatism must regenerate itself to remain true to its core ideals of limited government and the rule of law. One of the major clarifications that came about through the new ABA Model Rules was with respect to an attorneys obligations when representing an organization. They all would have expected to be out and that may put you in a position thats just . . An obstruction of justice conviction prevented the former White House counsel from practicing law in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. In short, the firing of FBI Director Comey, like Nixons effort to curtail the Watergate investigation, resulted in the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller. Dean's testimony to the Senate the year before implicated Nixon in the Watergate affair. [4], After graduation, Dean joined Welch & Morgan, a law firm in Washington, D.C., where he was soon accused of conflict of interest violations and fired:[2] he was alleged to have started negotiating his own private deal for a TV station broadcast license, after his firm had assigned him to complete the same task for a client. The burglars' first break-in attempt in late May was successful, but several problems had arisen with poor-quality information from their bugs, and they wanted to photograph more documents. In White House Plumbers, an upcoming HBO limited series, Dean is portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson. Vintage video clips supplement Deans story in the CNN series, showing the news divisions of the three major broadcast networks ABC, NBC and CBS at the peak of their powerful hegemony in the 1970s. [16], Neisser found that, despite Dean's confidence, the tapes proved that his memory was anything but a tape recorder. [30], In 2008, Dean co-edited Pure Goldwater, a collection of writings by the 1964 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. A former key witness in the Watergate investigation that brought down President Richard Nixon says indictments are on their way to Donald Trump. Watergate-John-Dean-June-25-1973 . Featuring New Interviews with John Dean, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein . It was not until it was revealed that Nixon had made secret White House tape recordings (disclosed in testimony by Alexander Butterfield on July 16) and the tapes were subpoenaed and analyzed that many of Dean's accusations were largely substantiated. The words Nixon used were strikingly like those uttered by President Trump. Its the White House in the remarkable city at the top of the government. We believe Don McGahn is not in a conflict situation in testifying to this Committee, for his duty is to protect the Office of the Presidency, sometimes against the very person in charge of it. John W Dean, who served as Mr Nixon's White House . It was a very sympathetic and very believable portrait, said Graff. DEAN: Im not sure that youll ever be able to deliver clemency. Learn how and when to remove this template message, United States House Committee on the Judiciary, 1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-25; Part 1 of 6, Impeachment process against Richard Nixon, Master list of Nixon's political opponents, Committee for the Re-Election of the President, The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court, Presentation by Dean and Barry Goldwater, Jr. on, Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, "The Nation: How John Dean Came Center Stage", "1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-25; Part 1 of 6", "Virginia State Bar Attorney Records Search (citing to 12 November 1973 revocation of license following hearing of Disciplinary Board, VSB Docket No. a collaboration between the Library of Congress and GBH. Watergate prosecutors & Sirica knew John Dean committed many crimes. He's penned five books about Watergate and 10 books in total; including his most recent tome, Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and his Followers. LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) After John Dean gave his historic 1973 testimony on the Watergate scandal that eventually brought down the Nixon White House, he wanted to move on with his life. His testimony during the Watergate scandal helped bring down Nixon. [14], When it was revealed that Nixon had secretly recorded all meetings in the Oval Office, famous psychologist and memory researcher Ulric Neisser analyzed Dean's recollections of the meetings, as expressed through his testimony, in comparison to the meetings' actual recordings. This sparked a sharp debate with Republican South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who repeatedly asserted that Nixon authorized the break-in at Democratic headquarters. WATERGATE: In 1972, the underlying crime was a bungled break-in, illicit photographing of private documents and an attempt to bug the telephones and offices of the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, with plans to do likewise that same night with Nixons most likely Democratic opponent Senator George McGovern, which because of the arrests of five men at the Watergate, did not happen. If the problem cannot be solved internally, Model Rule 1.13 provides that an attorney may report out, despite his or her confidentiality, what is going on, despite his duty of confidentiality or the attorney-client privilege. First, he is a key witness in understanding the Mueller Report. Stated a bit differently, Special Counsel Mueller has provided this committee a road map. Again, McGahns testimony about these events, which are described in detail in the Mueller Report, are important for Congress to understand and, as noted later, claims of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege have been waived (because of disclosure of the Mueller Report authorized by President Trump, and the so-called crime-fraud exception to all privileges). Meanwhile, John Dean (Dan Stevens) was reportedly aware of the break-in plans and later tried to cover it all up. Michael and John dig deep into Watergate, January 6th, and DOJ. Dean finally replied, "You're showing you don't know that subject very well." Part of TV News Archive. But he was told by his immediate boss, John Ehrlichman, that his post-White House career would be difficult if he left. The day following Flynns resignation, President Trump in a one-on-one Oval Office conversation with Director Comey said, I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go., WATERGATE: In a like situation, when President Nixon learned of his re-election committees involvement in the Watergate break-in, he instructed his Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman, to have the CIA ask the FBI not to go any further into the investigation of the breakin for bogus national security reasons. "A concern . Dean insisted that Cohen be included in the series. Shortly after the Watergate hearings, Dean wrote about his experiences in a series of books and toured the United States to lecture. [17] Dean failed to recall any conversations verbatim, and often failed to recall the gist of conversations correctly. First off . Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and lived in Marion, the hometown of the 29th President of the United States, Warren Harding, whose biographer he later became. Gray's nomination failed and Dean was directly linked to the Watergate cover-up. II, P. 32); his chief of staff Annie Donaldson made contemporaneous notes of McGahns conversations with the president (e.g., MUELLER RPT, VOL. This reporting out provision provides lawyers with leverage to stop wrongdoing if the client fails to take appropriate advice. Howard Hunt told me it would have exonerated Prez Nixon. It also led to the creation of the PBS NewsHour.. I havent and maybe Im not creative enough, Dean said. Marshals and kept instead at Fort Holabird (near Baltimore, Maryland) in a special "safe house" primarily used for witnesses against the Mafia. I also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. President Nixon's aide John Dean is sworn in before the Senate committee conducting hearings on the Watergate break-in and the conduct of the Nixon administration, on June 1, 1973. Part of his decision to cooperate with investigators was self-preservation, as he believed he was being set up to take the fall for the White Houses handling of the scandal. In 2001, Dean published The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court, an expos of the White House's selection process for a new Supreme Court justice in 1971, which led to the appointment of William Rehnquist. Fired white House counsel John Dean testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee while his wife, Maureen, watches in Washington, June 28, 1973. Dean is a pretty good gem," Nixon confided to Haldeman on March 2, 1973. Murdoch has survived scandal after scandal. He places particular emphasis on the abdication of checks and balances by the Republican Congress and on the dishonesty of the conservative intellectual class in support of the Republican Party, as a result of the obedience and arrogance innate to the authoritarian mentality. Liddy was ordered to scale down his ideas, and he presented a revised plan to the same group on February 4, which was also left unapproved. Nixon met with me privately on the evening of April 15, 1973, to try to influence how I would relate the events, particularly our conversation of March 21, 1973, when I warned him of the cancer on the presidency. In the March 21 conversation, I tried to convince him to end the coverup, pointing out that paying hush money and dangling pardons constituted obstruction of justice, and that people were going to go to jail, myself included.