Haldeman and Chief Advisor for Domestic Affairs John Ehrlichman, two of President Nixons closest advisors, who denied there was any White House wrongdoing; Alexander Butterfield, a former minor White House aide who revealed the existence of a secret audio tape-recording system that documented Oval Office conversations; and Rep. Barbara Jordan, a freshman member of the House Judiciary Committee, whose eloquent opening statement at the impeachment proceedings resonated throughout the hearing room and the nation. 1 AND 182.). I met with Kutak and his commission to provide my own insights. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Senator Russell Feingold, who sponsored the censure resolution, introduced Dean as a "patriot" who put "rule of law above the interests of the president." White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman later claimed that Nixon appointed Dean to take the lead role in coordinating the Watergate cover-up from an early stage and that this cover-up was working very well for many months. Following my testimony before the Senate in 1973, the American Bar Association began to look anew at its code of legal ethics. The Mueller Report also refers to corroboration of McGahn as a witness in that he made contemporaneous notes on occasions (e.g., MUELLER RPT, VOL. All believed that they could rely on the President to offer clemency under the Presidents pardon power. "A concern . In June 1973, John Wesley Dean III, former White House counsel under President Richard Nixon, transfixed the nation with his one week of testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee chaired by . | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo. 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." After the burglars' arrest, Dean took custody of evidence and money from the White House safe of E. Howard Hunt, who had been in charge of the burglaries, and destroyed some of the evidence before investigators could find it. In that posit. MUELLER REPORT RE APPOINTMENT/REMOVAL OF THE SPECIAL COUNSEL (PP. The Real Housewives of Atlanta The Bachelor Sister Wives 90 Day Fiance Wife Swap The Amazing Race Australia Married at First Sight The Real Housewives of Dallas My 600-lb Life Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. [21] This theory was subsequently the subject of the 1992 A&E Network Investigative Reports series program The Key to Watergate.[22][23]. Brownell, K. (2020). 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. "Authoritarian Nightmare": John Dean Helped Bring Down Nixon over Eisenberg, MUELLER RPT, VOL. 1976); AND IMPEACHMENT OF RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY (WASHINGTON, D.C: GOV. Starring Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, and Dan Stevens in the lead roles, Gaslit on Starz offers a glimpse into the extraordinary life of Martha Mitchell, the socialite who was kidnapped in an attempt to stop her from breaking the news about the Watergate break-in. [28] On March 31, 2006, Dean testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during hearings on censuring Bush over the issue. Had I known the trouble I was in, I would have never married her.. We were in his Executive Office Building office late on a Sunday night when he got up from his chair and walked to the corner of the room and in a stage-whisper asked me, I was wrong to offer clemency to Hunt, wasnt I? I responded, Yes, Mr. President, that would be an obstruction of justice. As I later testified, at the time it struck me his moving across the office and whispering was to keep what he was saying from being picked up by a hidden microphone in the room. June 1, 2022 1:43 PM PT. After we settled the case, I started agreeing to do television, Dean said. John Dean, a former White House counsel who . [2] He attended Colgate University and then transferred to the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he obtained his B.A. 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. "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 . Yet President Nixon knew that offering such pardons or giving pardons to try to control witnesses in legal proceedings was wrong. Jim Robenalt and I have discussed this at length. Nixon vigorously denied all accusations that he had authorized a cover-up, and Dean had no corroboration beyond various notes he had taken in his meetings with the president. The image of her calmly seated behind her husband throughout the hearings became one of the most memorable tableaus of the 1970s. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? In White House Plumbers, an upcoming HBO limited series, Dean is portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson. 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 . untenable at some point. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide. 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. [24] Also in 2006, Dean appeared as an interviewee in the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, about the Nixon administration's efforts to keep John Lennon out of the United States. Were friends. They don't know what they're looking at. 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. Speaking of Betty Gilpin, John Dean is practicing his testimony, and Mo is advising him. Trumps demands for unyielding loyalty from staff and statements such as asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes that would overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election in the state rival what was heard on Nixons tapes, but were delivered with far less discretion. Liddy presented a preliminary plan for intelligence-gathering operations during the campaign. But when Dean surrendered as scheduled on September 3, he was diverted to the custody of U.S. Richard Nixon's Political Scandal: Researching Watergate in the Journalists Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Lesley Stahl also offer their recollections on the story that helped make their careers. In the 1979 TV mini-series Blind Ambition, Dean was played by Martin Sheen. [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. Blind Ambition was ghostwritten by future Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Taylor Branch[20] and later made into a 1979 TV miniseries. Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, the last time I appeared before your committee was . March 21, 1973: Dean tells Nixon there is a "cancer" on the presidency. Gray's nomination failed and Dean was directly linked to the Watergate cover-up. John Dean - Watergate.com - Correcting the historical record John Dean, President Richard M. Nixon's former . Senator Barry Goldwater, in part as an act of fealty to the man who defined his political ideals. 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. He shares his story in the series "Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal." It . While navigating the crisis together has strengthened their bond, Dean still has regrets over putting his wife through the extraordinary experience. 78-90, 113-133): According to Muellers account, Don McGahn played a critical role in interdicting the Presidents express efforts to fire Special Counsel Mueller. 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. All rights reserved. In short, the firing of FBI Director Comey, like Nixons effort to curtail the Watergate investigation, resulted in the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller. 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. John Dean, who served as White House counsel to President Richard Nixon and played a key role in the Watergate hearings in the 1970s, compared the findings in the Mueller report to Watergate . The materials were contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) by the Library of Congress in 2017. Meanwhile, John Dean (Dan Stevens) was reportedly aware of the break-in plans and later tried to cover it all up. John W. Dean was legal counsel to president Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony helped lead to Nixon's resignation. 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. And politically, itd just be impossible for, you know, you to do it. [10][pageneeded]. Weekend Edition revisits audio from Dean's testimony. [5], Dean was employed from 1966 to 1967 as chief minority counsel to the Republicans on the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. 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. Did John Dean Go to Jail After Watergate? Details Inside - Distractify Dean married Maureen (Mo) Kane on October 13, 1972. In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. . (Following Coxs firing, a dozen plus bills calling for Nixons impeachment or creating a special prosecutor were filed in the House. CNN Original Series Returns to the Scene of the Crime in "Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal," Debuting Sunday, June 5. [9], In late March in Florida, Mitchell approved a scaled-down plan. He resides in Beverly Hills, California. This press statement put a coverup in place immediately, by claiming the men arrested at the Democratic headquarters were not operating either in our behalf or with our consent in the alleged bugging attempt. 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. For several reasons I believe he should testify. In Watergate, the lesson learned was that no person, even the President, was above the law. 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. [32], On September 17, 2009, Dean appeared on Countdown with new allegations about Watergate. Shortly after the Watergate hearings, Dean wrote about his experiences in a series of books and toured the United States to lecture. Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Former Watergate witness says Trump will be indicted in 'days' 88.). [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. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) Shortly after Watergate, Dean became an investment banker, author and lecturer based in Beverly Hills, California. in 1961. And I hasten to add that I learned about obstruction of justice the hard way, by finding myself on the wrong side of the law. WATERGATE: This is much like Richard Nixons attempt to get me to write a phony report exonerating the White House from any involvement in Watergate. 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. Dean also appeared before the Watergate grand jury, where he took the Fifth Amendment numerous times to avoid incriminating himself, and in order to save his testimony for the Senate Watergate hearings.[12]. John Dean Predicts Criminal Case Against Trump After 'Powerful' New [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". Post-Watergate reforms may frame DOJ decision over prosecuting Trump $23.91 4 Used from $8.00 3 New from $23.91 1 Collectible from $59.95. John Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and spent a significant part of his life in Marion. Season 1, Episodes 6 and 7 of Gaslit capture the testimonies Martha, John Dean (an attorney who served as the White House counsel . 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. 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. Did John Dean and John Mitchell Go to Jail? - The Cinemaholic 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 . 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. This sparked a sharp debate with Republican South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who repeatedly asserted that Nixon authorized the break-in at Democratic headquarters. Richard Nixon resigned as president the next year. Murdoch has survived scandal after scandal. 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. Rupert Murdoch Throws His Own Company Under the Bus + A Conversation Who is Nixon White House counsel John Dean and why do Democrats want The words Nixon used were strikingly like those uttered by President Trump. [33], In speaking engagements in 2014, Dean called Watergate a "lawyers' scandal" that, for all the bad, ushered in needed legal ethics reforms. His silence is perpetuating an ongoing coverup, and while his testimony will create a few political enemies, based on almost 50 years of experience I can assure him he will make far more real friends. 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. It's an unpleasant place. DEAN: Im not sure that youll ever be able to deliver clemency. 50 years after the Watergate break-in, John Dean relives the scandal A former key witness in the Watergate investigation that brought down President Richard Nixon says indictments are on their way to Donald Trump. 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. It's written with Bob Altemeyer, and it's titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. "[35][36], In February 2018, Dean warned that Rick Gates's testimony may be "the end" of Trump's presidency. Dean cites the behavior of key members of the Republican leadership, including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, Newt Gingrich and Bill Frist, as clear evidence of a relationship between modern right-wing conservatism and this authoritarian approach to governance. (See Separation-of-Powers Principles Support the Conclusion that Congress May Validly Prohibit Corrupt Obstructive Acts Carried Out Through the Presidents Official Powers, MUELLER REPORT, PP. (Mitchell would not admit this fact, even privately, for almost a year.) 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. Weekend Edition revisits audio from Dean's testimony. In July 1973, evidence mounted against the president's staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee. 'Everything changed': This Watergate testimony captivated the - CNN Spectators laughed, and soon the senator was "sputtering mad". The Mueller Report offers a powerful legal analysis that, notwithstanding the fact the pardon power is one of the most unrestricted of presidential powers, it cannot be used for improper purposes. . Nixon also sought to influence my testimony after I openly broke with the White House and began cooperating with prosecutors and the Senate Watergate Committee. Its a fascinating place to see whats going on.. In the 1995 film Nixon, directed by Oliver Stone, Dean was played by David Hyde Pierce. . Now, 40 years later, then some, Dean will return to Capitol Hill to testify before a different Congress about a different president. But Deans inside knowledge on how the bungled burglary of Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972, ultimately revealed an organized-crime-type mind-set within the Nixon administration has kept him on the contact list of TV news guest bookers for decades. 8. I would like to address a few of the remarkable parallels I find in the Mueller Report that echo Watergate, particularly those related to obstruction of justice. Feb. 1, 2019. Well, John Dean has a new book. McGahn refused to follow the Presidents order, recalling the opprobrium that met Robert Bork following the Saturday Night Massacre. Nine months into the mushrooming scandal, Dean bargained for immunity and won himself a lenient prison term by delivering the sensational, if deeply flawed, testimonybefore the klieg lights of the Senate Watergate committee (1973), the House Judiciary Committee (1974), and the trial of U.S. v. Mitchell (1974)that helped convict Nixon's . [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. In the preface to his 2006 book Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean strongly denied Colodny's theory, pointing out that Colodny's chief source (Phillip Mackin Bailley) had been in and out of mental institutions. Ehrlichman said, If you leave, youll be persona non grata with this administration, so dont take a job where you need any connections to us. Of course, the jobs did want me to have relationships with the Nixon White House. 7 min read. Watergate Hearings: John Dean's Opening Statement (1973) John Dean's statement 2011-04-07T03:55:01Z Maureen "Mo" Dean is known for sitting stoically just behind her husband during the . Impeachment: Gordon Sondland's damning testimony is like John Dean's - Vox 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. Hence, it is now clear that White House Counsel represents the Office of the Presidency and not the current occupant of that office. II, PP. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. The Watergate "master manipulator" said the former president is in trouble after the latest revelations. 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. Dean then served as associate director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws for approximately two years. Ari Emanuel lets his AI alter ego open Endeavors earnings call, WGA chief negotiator David Young replaced due to illness ahead of key talks with studios, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Best coffee city in the world? Opinion | Has the Jan. 6 committee finally found its John Dean? He has been a go-to talking head whenever a presidential scandal is brewing, and the twice-impeached Donald Trump whose desperate attempt to stay in the White House after losing the 2020 election remains under investigation has kept him busy as a CNN contributor. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. The turning point came with the testimony of former White House counsel John Dean, whose weeklong account of Nixon's .