But I think he could experience shame. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. An obstruction of justice conviction prevented the former White House counsel from practicing law in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. 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. WATERGATE: The Comey firing echoes Nixons firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973. He said, "It's a nightmare. Im learning things that I had never known about what had happened and why it happened.. Part of TV News Archive. Dean's lawyer moved to have his sentence reduced and on January 8, Sirica granted the motion, adjusting Dean's sentence to time served, which was four months. [21] This theory was subsequently the subject of the 1992 A&E Network Investigative Reports series program The Key to Watergate.[22][23]. In the summer of 1973, the Watergate hearings held the country spellbound. Dean finally replied, "You're showing you don't know that subject very well." WATERGATE: I am aware of no evidence that Nixon was involved with or had advance knowledge of the Watergate break-in and bugging, or the similar plans for Senator McGovern. John W. Dean on the second day of testimony in front of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973. Dean insisted that Cohen be included in the series. McGahn decided he would resign rather than carry out the orders, not unlike Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus when they refused to fire Cox. 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]. Anchors Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer provided summaries, commentary, and interviews to supplement each broadcast. In a corporation, for example, the attorney would report up to the board of directors or a special committee of the board. All believed that they could rely on the President to offer clemency under the Presidents pardon power. 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. CNN Original Series Returns to the Scene of the Crime in "Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal," Debuting Sunday, June 5. Granted immunity, Dean laid out in stunning detail and intricacy how the President not only knew . . Don McGahn represented the Office of the Presidency, not Donald Trump personally. . Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. [46][47], In 2022, Dean said the January 6 Committee had an overwhelming case against Trump.[48]. Gjon Mili . John W. Dean was legal counsel to president Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony helped lead to Nixon's resignation. The president lauded his efforts. Dean's testimony before the House was watched by some 80 million Americans. The couple sued and eventually reached an undisclosed settlement. First, he is a key witness in understanding the Mueller Report. 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. John W. Dean (center) with his wife, Maureen, and John's lawyer, Charles N. Shaffer, in 1974. Deans immersion in Watergate since that time has been so deep, he never imagined what his life would have been without it. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) 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. 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. 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). $23.91 4 Used from $8.00 3 New from $23.91 1 Collectible from $59.95. On their second break-in, on the night of June 16, hotel security discovered the burglars. For several reasons I believe he should testify. Richard Nixon resigned as president the next year. Yes, Dean and Mo are still married. . According to the Mueller Report, President Trump directed Mr. McGahn to have the Special Counsel removed on June 17, 2017, over purported conflicts of interest. Let me briefly address the ethics question. Watergate Lawyer John Dean Predicts Legacy Of Jan. 6 Investigation Into Trump. Clearly, I am not here as a fact witness. 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. 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. Watergate prosecutors & Sirica knew John Dean committed many crimes. 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. It's an unpleasant place. MCGAHNS DILEMMA TESTIFYING BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE. The following year, he became an associate deputy in the office of the Attorney General of the United States, serving under Attorney General John N. Mitchell, with whom he was on friendly terms. Dean briefly summarizes the takeaways from Comey's testimony and discusses the response by President Trump and his lawyer. Dean is now the last man standing from that era, He is the last connection between this nation's authoritarian past and present. They don't know if they're a part of a conspiracy that might unfold. [8][pageneeded], On January 27, 1972, Dean, the White House Counsel, met with Jeb Magruder (Deputy Director of the Committee to Re-Elect the President, or CRP and CREEP) and Mitchell (Attorney General of the United States, and soon-to-be Director of CRP), in Mitchell's office, for a presentation by G. Gordon Liddy (counsel for CRP and a former FBI agent). PRINTING OFFICE, 2019). Thats for sure. In the 1979 TV mini-series Blind Ambition, Dean was played by Martin Sheen. Former White House Counsel John Dean's testimony in the Watergate investigation helped topple Richard Nixon's presidency. [34], Dean later emerged as a strong critic of Donald Trump, saying in 2017 that he was even worse than Nixon. [15] A sharp critic of studying memory in a laboratory setting, Neisser saw "a valuable data trove" in Dean's recall. The coverage includes testimony from James McCord and E. Howard Hunt, two of the men arrested for breaking into the Watergate complex; John Dean, White House counsel from July 1970 to April 1973, who detailed the extent of the Nixon administration's involvement in the burglary and subsequent cover-up; Chief of Staff H.R. Howard Hunt told me it would have exonerated Prez Nixon. "A concern . Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. I havent and maybe Im not creative enough, Dean said. OLC Op. [17] Dean failed to recall any conversations verbatim, and often failed to recall the gist of conversations correctly. 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 . 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.. 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. ". Dean also asserts that Nixon did not directly order the break-in, but that Ehrlichman ordered it on Nixon's behalf. 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. 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. John Deans statement to the House Judiciary Committee on June 10, 2019, as prepared for delivery. Because, you know, after everybody PRESIDENT: Thats right. Deans words on tape can be heard in the British documentary TV series Watergate. His co-editor was Goldwater's son Barry Goldwater, Jr.[31], Historian Stanley Kutler was accused of editing the Nixon tapes to make Dean appear in a more favorable light. But the litigation gave Dean access to files from the Watergate special prosecution archives, intensifying his expertise, and he entered the pundit class that emerged when cable news expanded in the mid-1990s. The image of her calmly seated behind her husband throughout the hearings became one of the most memorable tableaus of the 1970s. Dean commented on the removal in colorful terms, saying it "seems to be planned like a murder" and that Special Counsel Robert Mueller likely had contingency plans, possibly including sealed indictments. They don't know what they're looking at. Watergate-John-Dean-June-25-1973 . In addition, it has long been the rule there is no executive privilege attached to criminal or fraudulent activity. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Granted immunity, Dean laid out in stunning detail . 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 Watergate hearings were produced by the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT), public televisions Washington hub for national news and public affairs programming. Jim is a trial attorney and a partner in a major multi-state law firm.