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[scion]

Trump: In Watergate, FBI reported to DOJ as a courtesy

By Jon Greenberg on Friday, July 21st, 2017 at 3:41 p.m.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jul/21/donald-trump/trump-watergate-fbi-reported-doj-courtesy/


Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. (National Archives)

President Donald Trump talked about how the FBI handled its findings as it investigated the Watergate break-in and its ties to the Nixon White House in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times.

Here’s the transcript from that moment in the conversation with three reporters:

"When Nixon came along (inaudible) was pretty brutal, and out of courtesy, the FBI started reporting to the Department of Justice. But there was nothing official, there was nothing from Congress. There was nothing — anything. But the FBI person really reports directly to the president of the United States, which is interesting."

Watergate began when a team from the re-election campaign of President Richard Nixon broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, photographed documents and bugged the phones. Police caught several team members at about 2:30 a.m. June 17, 1972, and an FBI investigation began that same night.

The break-in, the cover-up and efforts by the White House to obstruct the work of the FBI led to multiple convictions and Nixon’s resignation in August 1974.

In Trump’s view, as the investigation moved forward, the FBI kept the Justice Department informed as a courtesy.

Trump’s statement runs into some problems with history.

Cleveland attorney James Robenalt, who runs a course on the lessons of Watergate, said there is no basis for Trump’s claim.

"The director of the FBI reports to the Attorney General, and it was not a matter of ‘courtesy during Watergate’ to report to the Department of Justice, rather standard operating procedure," he said. "For verification look at the organization chart of the Department of Justice."

The full chart clearly shows that the FBI answers to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General.
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http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jul/21/donald-trump/trump-watergate-fbi-reported-doj-courtesy/