171-181). . [citation needed], On June 25, 1973, Dean began his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee. 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. One was destroying evidence. There is no one alive closer to the Watergate scandal than Dean, and now he offers a definitive and deeply personal look at the events that changed his life forever in the four-part documentary series Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal. The program premieres Sunday on CNN. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. Los Angeles, David Lindley, guitarist best known for work with Jackson Browne, dies at 78, WGA asks members to vote on key demands in bargaining with studios, Alec Baldwin and Rust producers sued by crew members over fatal shooting, Rupert Murdoch admits he knew Fox News hosts endorsed false election fraud claims, deposition shows, Historic movie lot that gave Studio City its name to get $1-billion makeover. While navigating the crisis together has strengthened their bond, Dean still has regrets over putting his wife through the extraordinary experience. Dean also asserts that Nixon did not directly order the break-in, but that Ehrlichman ordered it on Nixon's behalf. Shortly after Watergate, Dean became an investment banker, author and lecturer based in Beverly Hills, California. According to Dean, modern conservatism, specifically on the Christian Right, embraces obedience, inequality, intolerance, and strong intrusive government, in stark contrast to Goldwater's philosophies and policies. Using Altemeyer's scholarly work, he contends that there is a tendency toward ethically questionable political practices when authoritarians are in power and that the current political situation is dangerously unsound because of it. John W. Dean (center) with his wife, Maureen, and John's lawyer, Charles N. Shaffer, in 1974. [17] Neisser did not explain the difference as one of deception; rather, he thought that the evidence supported the theory that memory is not akin to a tape recorder and instead should be thought of as reconstructions of information that are greatly affected by rehearsal, or attempts at replay. I was always interested in government. Dean is a pretty good gem," Nixon confided to Haldeman on March 2, 1973. Petersen informed Nixon that this could cause problems for the prosecution of the case, but Nixon publicly announced his position that evening. DEAN: Thats right. Mr. McGahn is the most prominent fact witness regarding obstruction of justice cited in the Mueller Report. [1] His family moved to Flossmoor, Illinois, where he attended grade school. [29], Dean's 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches is, as he wrote in its introduction, the third volume of an unplanned trilogy. Continue reading. Modern American History, 3(2-3), 175-198. 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. Dean finally replied, "You're showing you don't know that subject very well." PRESIDENT: Thats a problem. II, P. All except Parkinson were convicted, largely based upon Dean's evidence. Specifically, the burglars were interested in information they thought was held by DNC head Lawrence F. O'Brien. $23.91 4 Used from $8.00 3 New from $23.91 1 Collectible from $59.95. 8. 98-103): According to the report, in June 2017 after emails setting up a June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians became known in the White House, the President engaged in efforts to prevent disclosure of the emails and then dictated a false or misleading statement characterizing the meeting as about adoptions in order to protect his son, Don, Jr. WATERGATE: On the weekend that the Nixon reelection committee men were arrested in the DNC offices at the Watergate, Nixons campaign manager, and former attorney general, John Mitchell, along with his chief of staff, Bob Haldeman and former White House Counsel, John Ehrlichman, drafted a false press release about the men arrested at the Watergate. 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. a collaboration between the Library of Congress and GBH. 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. The public pressure was so great, Nixon had to appoint a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo. As Dan mentioned, in the summer of 1973, former White House counsel John Dean testified as part of the Senate's investigation into the Watergate break-in. This is a taped except of Dean as he recalled that meeting with President Nixon. 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). Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Marshals and kept instead at Fort Holabird (near Baltimore, Maryland) in a special "safe house" primarily used for witnesses against the Mafia. Dean has been particularly critical of the party's support of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and of neoconservatism, strong executive power, mass surveillance, and the Iraq War. Yet President Nixon knew that offering such pardons or giving pardons to try to control witnesses in legal proceedings was wrong. A full cast of characters is available in our Gavel-to-Gavel exhibit. II, P. 52), and McGahn is the only witness that the Special Counsel expressly labels as reliable, calling McGahn a credible witness with no motive to lie or exaggerate given the position he held in the White House. (MUELLER RPT, VOL. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? Its a fascinating place to see whats going on.. 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. In 1991, the publisher released Silent Coup: The Removal of a President, which included an unfounded allegation that Dean ordered the break-in to remove information about a call-girl ring that serviced Democratic Party members. 7 min read. I also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. 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. 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. Since we began, we have presented over 150 programs throughout the United States, reaching somewhere between 45,000 to 50,000 attorneys. You cant look at Watergate today without looking through the lens or at least a filter of the Trump presidency, Dean said. His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland. The mainstream media narrative about Watergate is a grotesque and fantastic distortion of historical fact. McGahn refused to follow the Presidents order, recalling the opprobrium that met Robert Bork following the Saturday Night Massacre. The couple sued and eventually reached an undisclosed settlement. In July 1970, he accepted an appointment to serve as counsel to the president, after the previous holder of this post, John Ehrlichman, became the president's chief domestic adviser. Ehrlichman said, John, youll have better job offers after Nixon gets reelected. Yeah, making license plates.. 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. This is extremely important because the false information contained in "Blind Ambition" directly contradicts his sworn testimony to the Senate Watergate Committee. OLC Op. Bob, as a leading legal scholar, was asked to chair an ABA commission to reconsider the ABAs Code of Professional Conduct in light of the Watergate scandal. It also prompts the interview subjects to note how the public based their opinions on Watergate on an agreed upon set of facts, a major difference from todays polarized and partisan media landscape. [6], Dean volunteered to write position papers on crime for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968. 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. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide. His deputy, William Ruckelshaus, also refused to fire Cox and also resigned, with the next man in succession, Solicitor General Robert Bork carrying out the presidents order to terminate Cox. MCGAHNS DILEMMA TESTIFYING BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE. II, P.117); McGahn discussed matters with others (e.g. 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. In the 2022 TV mini-series Gaslit, Dean was played by Dan Stevens. John Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and spent a significant part of his life in Marion. . Granted immunity, Dean laid out in stunning detail . The president lauded his efforts. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. [9], In late March in Florida, Mitchell approved a scaled-down plan. Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. But I think he could experience shame. On April 17, 1973, Nixon told Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen (who was overseeing the Watergate investigation) that he did not want any member of the White House granted immunity from prosecution.
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