Dean's first wife is Karla Ann Hennings, whom he married in 1962. [citation needed], On June 25, 1973, Dean began his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee. MUELLER REPORT RE APPOINTMENT/REMOVAL OF THE SPECIAL COUNSEL (PP. In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. [2] He attended Colgate University and then transferred to the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he obtained his B.A. John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Well, John Dean has a new book. Legal experts weigh in, ChatGPT who? The investigation revealed that Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. In the summer of 1973, former White House Counsel John Dean testified as part of the Senate's investigation into the Watergate break-in. He admitted supervising payments of "hush money" to the Watergate burglars, notably E. Howard Hunt, and revealed the existence of Nixon's enemies list. Watergate-John-Dean-June-25-1973 . Im learning things that I had never known about what had happened and why it happened.. John W Dean, who served as Mr Nixon's White House . 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. McGahn decided he would resign rather than carry out the orders, not unlike Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus when they refused to fire Cox. 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. 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. 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. 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. In Watergate, the lesson learned was that no person, even the President, was above the law. 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. Anchors Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer provided summaries, commentary, and interviews to supplement each broadcast. 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. 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. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide. DEAN: Thats right. Howard Hunt told me it would have exonerated Prez Nixon. MUELLER REPORT VOLUME I: The Mueller Reports finds no illegal conspiracy, or criminal aiding and abetting, by candidate Trump with the Russians. This small piece of testimony, of course, became highly significant for it led to the discovery of the secret White House taping system. 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. The couple sued and eventually reached an undisclosed settlement. 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 . 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. Rep. Collins calls John Dean the 'godfather' of obstruction of justice, John Dean considers Watergate a roadmap for Mueller Report. John Dean's third day of testimony at the Watergate hearings in 1973. . If it was a county sheriff they wouldnt [stay], Dean said. In the summer of 1973, the Watergate hearings held the country spellbound. Yeah. 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. 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. His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Part of TV News Archive. And by early February 1974, this Committee formally commenced impeachment proceedings.) 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. When Nixon learned that Dean had begun cooperating with federal prosecutors, he pressed Attorney General Richard Kleindienst not to give Dean immunity from prosecution by telling Kleindienst that Dean was lying to the Justice Department about his conversations with the president. March 23, 1973: The McCord letter is made public by Judge Sirica in open court at McCord's sentencing hearing. Every and the District of Columbia have adopted a version of these rules. Michael and John dig deep into Watergate, January 6th, and DOJ. In his testimony, Dean asserted that Nixon covered up Watergate because he believed it was in the interest of national security. . Former White House Counsel John Dean's testimony in the Watergate investigation helped topple Richard Nixon's presidency. [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). Dean tried to leave the White House in September 1971, a year after he arrived and well before the Watergate break-in. Dean had had suspicions that Nixon was taping conversations, and he tipped prosecutors to question witnesses along this line, leading to Butterfield's revelations. 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. I was always interested in government. Now he thinks Donald Trump is even worse", "Former White House counsel for Nixon: Trump scarier than Nixon", "John Dean warns Gates's testimony may be 'the end' of Trump's presidency", "Watergate Figure John Dean Says Rick Gates' Testimony Could Be The End Of The Trump Presidency", "Here Is What Brett Kavanaugh Said About Sexual Misconduct In His Hearings", "Kavanaugh hearing: John Dean warns of a Supreme Court overly deferential to presidential power", "John Dean: If Kavanaugh's confirmed, a president who shoots someone on Fifth Avenue can't be prosecuted in office", "Former Nixon White House Counsel Case Against Kavanaugh", "Richard Nixon's White House counsel says Jeff Sessions' ousting 'like a planned murder', "Watergate's John Dean Explains How Trump Planned Sessions' Firing 'Like a Murder' And Details How Mueller Could Protect the Probe", "House Judiciary Committee sets hearing on Mueller report with Nixon White House counsel John Dean", "Dems to call Watergate star John Dean to testify on Mueller report", "Nixon's Watergate lawyer says Trump's 2024 bid is 'a defense of sorts' against Jan 6 indictment but it won't matter because the committee has an 'overwhelming case', John Dean testifying at the Watergate Hearings, Worse Than Watergate: Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Says Bush Should Be Impeached, Doing Legal, Political, and Historical Research on the Internet Using Blog Forums, Open Source Dictionaries, and More, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Dean&oldid=1136144627, 20th-century American non-fiction writers, 21st-century American non-fiction writers, Lawyers disbarred in the Watergate scandal, People convicted in the Watergate scandal, People convicted of obstruction of justice, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from May 2021, BLP articles lacking sources from May 2021, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from May 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from May 2021, BLP articles lacking sources from October 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 January 2023, at 23:30. DEAN: Thats right. In that posit. 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. . Former Trump officials have been criticized for waiting to express their misgivings over what was happening in the White House until after they left and made book deals. "A concern . Because, you know, after everybody PRESIDENT: Thats right. He is also the author of three books about television, including a biography of pioneer talk show host and producer David Susskind. Murdoch has survived scandal after scandal. Season 1, Episodes 6 and 7 of Gaslit capture the testimonies Martha, John Dean (an attorney who served as the White House counsel . It's written with Bob Altemeyer, and it's titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. MCGAHNS DILEMMA TESTIFYING BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE. 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. Dean finally replied, "You're showing you don't know that subject very well." John W. Dean was legal counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony lead to Nixon's resignation. Watergate Lawyer John Dean Predicts Legacy Of Jan. 6 Investigation Into Trump. John W. Dean on the second day of testimony in front of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973. They don't know what their jeopardy is. Fired white House counsel John Dean testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee while his wife, Maureen, watches in Washington, June 28, 1973. After his plea, he was disbarred. With his plea to felony offenses, Dean was disbarred as a lawyer in Virginia and the District of Columbia.[18][19]. Neisser, U. WATERGATE: The Comey firing echoes Nixons firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973. Paperback. 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. We respect each other. President Richard Nixon speaks on the White House lawn prior to his trip to China in 1972. John Dean's statement to the House Judiciary Committee on June 10, 2019, as prepared for delivery. 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. It's written with Bob Altemeyer, and it's titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. Dean briefly summarizes the takeaways from Comey's testimony and discusses the response by President Trump and his lawyer. [15] A sharp critic of studying memory in a laboratory setting, Neisser saw "a valuable data trove" in Dean's recall. 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. Yet President Nixon knew that offering such pardons or giving pardons to try to control witnesses in legal proceedings was wrong. For high school, he attended Staunton Military Academy with Barry Goldwater Jr., the son of Sen. Barry Goldwater, and became a close friend of the family. 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. Records are described at an item level and all records contain brief descriptions and subject terms. Feb. 1, 2019. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Mea Culpa welcomes back a very special guest, John Dean. Accuracy and availability may vary. And that destroys the case.. [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. All except Parkinson were convicted, largely based upon Dean's evidence. It helped to reshape the public understanding of Watergate.. 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 . He later became a commentator on contemporary politics, a book author, and a columnist for FindLaw's Writ. 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. Michael and John dig deep into Watergate, January 6th, and DOJ. The Oval Office exchange between the President and Haldeman was on June 23, 1972, six days after the after the arrests at the Watergate complex. [6], Dean volunteered to write position papers on crime for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968. 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. And if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it. [13] It was alleged[who?] 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. 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. [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. Watergate prosecutors & Sirica knew John Dean committed many crimes. The Watergate "master manipulator" said the former president is in trouble after the latest revelations. I learned this fact from Robert Kutak, with whom I had a friendship from our days when we worked as staffers for Congress. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. The materials were contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) by the Library of Congress in 2017. [3], Dean married Karla Ann Hennings on February 4, 1962; they had one child, John Wesley Dean IV, before divorcing in 1970. MUELLER REPORT RE EFFORTS TO INFLUENCE WITNESSES WITH PARDONS ( PP. No one has sought to control this narrative more than former White House Counsel John Dean. (Following Coxs firing, a dozen plus bills calling for Nixons impeachment or creating a special prosecutor were filed in the House. Deans immersion in Watergate since that time has been so deep, he never imagined what his life would have been without it. Search by keyword or individual, or browse all episodes by clicking Explore the Collection below the search box. The Watergate Hearings, 50 Years Ago: Truth Was Not Up for Debate . John Dean, the former White House counsel to Richard Nixon, testified Monday that he sees "remarkable parallels" between Watergate and the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report . And politically, itd just be impossible for, you know, you to do it. 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. It may further involve you in a way you shouldnt be involved in this. First off . Mueller refutes the dubious contention that when the president exercises his Constitutional powers, he is not subject to federal criminal laws. Senator Barry Goldwater, in part as an act of fealty to the man who defined his political ideals. 6; cf. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Mr. McGahn has expressed concern about being caught between two branches of government in responding to this Committees subpoena for his documents and testimony. President Nixon's aide John Dean is sworn in before the Senate committee conducting hearings on the Watergate break-in and the conduct of the Nixon administration, on June 1, 1973. 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. In the 2022 TV mini-series Gaslit, Dean was played by Dan Stevens. John Dean's testimony this week before the House Judiciary Committee squarely placed the Mueller report's findings in the historical context of Watergate. . An . Such testimony against Nixon, while damaging to the president's credibility, had little legal impact, as it was merely his word against Nixon's. First, he is a key witness in understanding the Mueller Report. Dean frequently served as a guest on the former MSNBC and Current TV news program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and The Randi Rhodes Show on Premiere Radio Networks.