[30], In 2008, Dean co-edited Pure Goldwater, a collection of writings by the 1964 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. PRESIDENT: You cant do it, till after the 74 elections, thats for sure. [15], Dean pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice before Watergate trial judge John Sirica on October 19, 1973. April 6, 1973: White House counsel John Dean begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors. 1973, Nixon fired Dean. Dean briefly summarizes the takeaways from Comey's testimony and discusses the response by President Trump and his lawyer. Was he hard-nosed and tough? Following my testimony before the Senate in 1973, the American Bar Association began to look anew at its code of legal ethics. June 17, 1972. [17] Dean failed to recall any conversations verbatim, and often failed to recall the gist of conversations correctly. Modern American History, 3(2-3), 175-198. This revised plan eventually led to attempts to eavesdrop on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., and to the Watergate scandal. Senator Russell Feingold, who sponsored the censure resolution, introduced Dean as a "patriot" who put "rule of law above the interests of the president." With his plea to felony offenses, Dean was disbarred as a lawyer in Virginia and the District of Columbia.[18][19]. He moved to Los Angeles with wife Maureen, took business courses at UCLA and worked as an investment banker during the 1980s. John Dean, the White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon who was once dubbed the "master manipulator" of the Watergate scandal by the FBI, predicts . Dean insisted that Cohen be included in the series. Blind Ambition was ghostwritten by future Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Taylor Branch[20] and later made into a 1979 TV miniseries. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide. They don't know if they're a part of a conspiracy that might unfold. Mea Culpa welcomes back a very special guest, John Dean. The Mueller Report explains in Vol. But when Dean surrendered as scheduled on September 3, he was diverted to the custody of U.S. You cant look at Watergate today without looking through the lens or at least a filter of the Trump presidency, Dean said. (1981). Feb. 1, 2019. Dean concludes that conservatism must regenerate itself to remain true to its core ideals of limited government and the rule of law. Search by keyword or individual, or browse all episodes by clicking Explore the Collection below the search box. John Dean, former counsel to President Richard M. Nixon, testifies before the Senate committee on the Watergate hearing in D.C. on June 27, 1973. They don't know whether to hire lawyers or not, how they're going to pay for them if they do. [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. [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. Stated a bit differently, Special Counsel Mueller has provided this committee a road map. [1] His family moved to Flossmoor, Illinois, where he attended grade school. A Woman's View of Watergate, which came out in 1975, and I will highlight a few moments. 62-77): President Trump called Director Comey multiple times, against the advice of Don McGahn, to have him confirm that he, Trump, was not personally under investigation. ART. John Dean, the White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon who was once dubbed the "master manipulator" of the Watergate scandal by the FBI, predicts former President Donald Trump may finally be about to face some serious consequences. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. But there is no question Mr. McGahn was a critical observer of these activities. Jim Robenalt and I have discussed this at length. In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. Reaction to Liddy's plan was highly unfavorable. 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 . . [citation needed], On June 25, 1973, Dean began his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee. 74-CCC-7004)", Doing Legal, Political, and Historical Research on the Internet: Using Blog Forums, Open Source Dictionaries, and More, "John Dean's Role at Issue in Nixon Tapes Feud", "Watergate's lasting legacy is to legal ethics reform, says John Dean", "John Dean helped bring down Richard Nixon. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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 had only a limited attorney-client privilege when interacting with the President and advisors and the privilege belongs to the Office in any event. An obstruction of justice conviction prevented the former White House counsel from practicing law in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Don McGahn represented the Office of the Presidency, not Donald Trump personally. Yes, Dean and Mo are still married. 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. 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 . Deans immersion in Watergate since that time has been so deep, he never imagined what his life would have been without it. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. MUELLER REPORT RE APPOINTMENT/REMOVAL OF THE SPECIAL COUNSEL (PP. An . I always envisioned going in and out of government. Continuous coverage of the Watergate hearings in 1973 drew big audiences and viewer contributions. John Dean's memory: A case study. He later became a commentator on contemporary politics, a book author, and a columnist for FindLaw's Writ. A few specific examples of the Mueller findings and the Watergate parallels (HEADER CITES ARE TO VOLUME II): MUELLER REPORT RE MICHAEL FLYNN (PP. 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. After listening to Nixons March 21, 1973 secretly recorded conversation with me, Jaworski pursued more tapes as vigorously as had Cox. He was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and sentenced to one to four years in prison. Like Comey, Cox was charged with investigating wrongdoing by the President and his advisors and Cox refused an ultimatum from the White House to limit his access to the secret White House tapes by accepting written transcripts, prepared by the White House and verified by a near deaf senior member of the U.S. Senate, former judge John Stennis, rather than allowing Cox to listen to the tapes. II, PP. I also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. WATERGATE: The Comey firing echoes Nixons firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973. When Colson relayed President Nixons positive response, Hunt pled guilty and the so-called Cuban American defendants followed his lead and pled guilty, as well. Neither of the two volumes are formally titled, but the first sentence of the second paragraph, on page 1 of Volume II states its focus: Beginning in 2017, the President of the United States took a variety of actions towards the ongoing FBI investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election and related matters that raised questions about whether he had obstructed justice. Volume II concludes on page 182: [I]f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. However, the Special Counsels office was unable to reach that conclusion, so the report neither alleges criminal behavior by the president nor, as the report states, does it exonerate him. (SEE MUELLER REPORT, VOL. 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. Part of TV News Archive. 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. All except Parkinson were convicted, largely based upon Dean's evidence. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1965. John W Dean, who served as Mr Nixon's White House . 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. [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. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. In short, McGahns loyalty is to his client, the Office of the Presidency, not the occupant. 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. Dean is now the last man standing from that era, He is the last connection between this nation's authoritarian past and present. . All believed that they could rely on the President to offer clemency under the Presidents pardon power. But I think he could experience shame. Armed with newspaper articles indicating the White House had possession of FBI Watergate files, committee chair Sam Ervin asked Gray what he knew about the White House obtaining the files. 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. On August 2, 1974, Sirica handed down a sentence to Dean of one to four years in a minimum-security prison. Nixon said, And, ah, because these people are playing for keeps, . Dean retired from investment banking in 2000 while continuing to work as an author and lecturer, becoming a columnist for FindLaw's Writ online magazine. 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. 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.