Part of TV News Archive. It helped to reshape the public understanding of Watergate.. Mueller refutes the dubious contention that when the president exercises his Constitutional powers, he is not subject to federal criminal laws. The book claimed Dean had learned about the operation from his wife. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo. Nixon said, And, ah, because these people are playing for keeps, . Michael and John dig deep into Watergate, January 6th, and DOJ. Nixon first announced on August 29, 1973, that I had investigated the situation under his direction and found nobody presently employed at the White House had anything to do with the bizarre incident at the Watergate. Since I had conducted no such investigation, I resisted months of repeated efforts to get me to write a bogus report. I met with Kutak and his commission to provide my own insights. We still love each other, Dean said. Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of Congress who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, said in her interview he was an essential part of the criminal enterprise. Dean himself talks about how he crossed a moral line early in his White House tenure. 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. Well, John Dean has a new book. But the CNN series is the first time hes told his story in a documentary, which drills down into how and why Richard Nixon looked for dirt on his opponents and detailed accounts of his criminal actions to cover it up. By April 15, Nixon tried to tell me he was kidding about finding $1 million in hush money to pay the burglar defendants to maintain their silence. Model Rule 1.13 provides that a lawyer representing an organization represents the entity and not the individuals running the entity. 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. 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. 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. The president lauded his efforts. [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. This is based on my count of FBI 302 reports cited in the Mueller Report. After listening to Nixons March 21, 1973 secretly recorded conversation with me, Jaworski pursued more tapes as vigorously as had Cox. Dean was the first administration official to accuse Nixon of direct involvement with Watergate and the resulting cover-up in press interviews. 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. Opinion | Has the Jan. 6 committee finally found its John Dean? "I think a criminal case is going to come out of it," Dean predicted on CNN on Tuesday after hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan . Jim Robenalt and I have discussed this at length. A Look Back at John Dean's Testimony : NPR - NPR.org June 1, 2022 1:43 PM PT. Gray said he had given FBI reports to Dean, and had discussed the FBI investigation with Dean on many occasions. Transcript of White House Memo on Dean's Senate Testimony and His Dean was also receiving advice from the attorney he hired, Charles Shaffer, on matters involving the vulnerabilities of other White House staff. Watergate prosecutors & Sirica knew John Dean committed many crimes. Yeah. [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. [citation needed], On June 25, 1973, Dean began his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee. 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. [6], Dean volunteered to write position papers on crime for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968. The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It: Dean, John W MCGAHNS DILEMMA TESTIFYING BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE. His testimony attracted very high television ratings since he was breaking new ground in the investigation, and media attention grew apace, with more detailed newspaper coverage. 1976); AND IMPEACHMENT OF RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY (WASHINGTON, D.C: GOV. For whatever reason, President Trump did not follow up with the directive to fire Mueller and McGahn did not resign. 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. Anchors Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer provided summaries, commentary, and interviews to supplement each broadcast. 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. Watergate Hearings Audio : US Senate : Free Download, Borrow, and Dean's testimony before the House was watched by some 80 million Americans. [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. John W. Dean (center) with his wife, Maureen, and John's lawyer, Charles N. Shaffer, in 1974. 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. Dean is now the last man standing from that era, He is the last connection between this nation's authoritarian past and present. 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. President Richard Nixon speaks on the White House lawn prior to his trip to China in 1972. They don't know what they're looking at. If it was a county sheriff they wouldnt [stay], Dean said. Dean then served as associate director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws for approximately two years. Featuring New Interviews with John Dean, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein . 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. John Dean III, a former White House aide in the Nixon administration, is sworn in by Senate Watergate Committee Chairman Sam Ervin (D-N.C.) before testifying on Capitol Hill in this June 25, 1973. 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. Impeachment: Gordon Sondland's damning testimony is like John Dean's - Vox For a short amount of time, President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was set to appear before the House Oversight Committee to give public testimony relating to . Dean's testimony to the Senate the year before implicated Nixon in the Watergate affair. [37][38], In September 2018, Dean warned against Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the United States Supreme Court,[39][40][41] a main concern being that the appointment would result in "the most presidential-powers-friendly court" in modern times. If the Watergate scandal happened today, Dean believes Fox News and other conservative outlets would give more oxygen to Nixons defenders and perhaps enable the disgraced president to at least finish out his term instead of resigning. But Dean understands how its not so easy to walk away from the center of power. Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 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. When Dean read that testimony in the summer of 1973 in front of a massive TV audience, he became the face of the Watergate conspiracy for most of America, according to Garrett Graff, author of Watergate: A New History.. 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 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. Every and the District of Columbia have adopted a version of these rules. This is extremely important because the false information contained in "Blind Ambition" directly contradicts his sworn testimony to the Senate Watergate Committee. Granted immunity, Dean laid out in stunning detail and intricacy how the President not only knew . [9], In late March in Florida, Mitchell approved a scaled-down plan. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. Liddy presented a preliminary plan for intelligence-gathering operations during the campaign. And by early February 1974, this Committee formally commenced impeachment proceedings.) DEAN: . Shortly after the Watergate hearings, Dean wrote about his experiences in a series of books and toured the United States to lecture. Haldeman and Chief . MUELLER REPORT RE EFFORTS TO CONTROL ATTORNEY GENERAL SESSIONS (PP. In an exchange with me on March 21, 1973, Nixon conceded such a use of the pardon power was improper: DEAN: Well, thats the problem. But even then your point is that even then you couldnt do it. John Dean - Wikipedia After his plea, he was disbarred. untenable at some point. 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. I was always interested in government. Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, the last time I appeared before your committee was . Stay up to date on new exhibits, special collections, projects, and more. Mea Culpa welcomes back a very special guest, John Dean. In a corporation, for example, the attorney would report up to the board of directors or a special committee of the board. 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. Coupled with his sense of distance from Nixon's inner circle, the "Berlin Wall" of advisors Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Dean sensed he was going to become the Watergate scapegoat and returned to Washington without completing his report. 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. Stephen Battaglio writes about television and the media business for the Los Angeles Times out of New York. 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. In the summer of 1973, former White House Counsel John Dean testified as part of the Senate's investigation into the Watergate break-in. The complete Watergate timeline (it took longer than you realize) 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. John Dean's memory: A case study - ScienceDirect The image of her calmly seated behind her husband throughout the hearings became one of the most memorable tableaus of the 1970s. 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. It certainly changed my career path. The program, produced by Herzog & Company, delves into the archive of Watergate-related material Dean has accumulated and stored in his Beverly Hills home over the years, including his 60,000-word testimony to a Senate subcommittee originally written in longhand on yellow legal pads. John Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and spent a significant part of his life in Marion. Before that, I am so deep in the weeds of Watergate. Rupert Murdoch Throws His Own Company Under the Bus + A Conversation His testimony during the Watergate scandal helped bring down Nixon. The words Nixon used were strikingly like those uttered by President Trump. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. WASHINGTON, June 27 Following is the transcript of a White House memorandum analyzing John W. Dean's. testimony on Watergate, as read during the Senate Water gate committee's hearings to day by . Dean went to Camp David and did some work on a report, but since he was one of the cover-up's chief participants, the task put him in the difficult position of relating his own involvement as well as that of others; he correctly concluded that higher-ups were fitting him for the role of scapegoat. In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. This reporting out provision provides lawyers with leverage to stop wrongdoing if the client fails to take appropriate advice. Continue reading. But there is no question Mr. McGahn was a critical observer of these activities. Clearly, I am not here as a fact witness. You cant look at Watergate today without looking through the lens or at least a filter of the Trump presidency, Dean said. It also led to the creation of the PBS NewsHour.. 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. [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. All except Parkinson were convicted, largely based upon Dean's evidence. Ehrlichman said, John, youll have better job offers after Nixon gets reelected. Yeah, making license plates.. 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. On August 2, 1974, Sirica handed down a sentence to Dean of one to four years in a minimum-security prison. Legal experts weigh in, ChatGPT who? In the 2022 TV mini-series Gaslit, Dean was played by Dan Stevens. Each days hearings are broken up into multiple parts, which are linked together and named as such. (Following Coxs firing, a dozen plus bills calling for Nixons impeachment or creating a special prosecutor were filed in the House. Copyright 2008 NPR. Michael Cohen and Watergate Whistleblower Dissect HISTORIC Criminal 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. [11], On March 22, 1973, Nixon requested that Dean put together a report with everything he knew about the Watergate matter, inviting him to take a retreat to Camp David to do so.