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Key Nixon Accuser Returns To Capitol With Sights Set On Another President

Ron Elving at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., May 22, 2018. (photo by Allison Shelley)

June 10, 20195:01 AM ET
Ron Elving



Former White House aide John Dean III, pauses while reading a long prepared statement before the Senate Watergate Committee Monday, June 25, 1973.
Dean has returned to public view as a CNN contributor and vocal critic of President Trump.
Associated Press

America is about to be reintroduced to John Dean, the man whose cool, calm and controversial testimony in the Watergate investigation began the public demolition of President Richard Nixon.

As he spoke to the Senate's special investigating committee on June 25, 1973, Dean and his owlish glasses were imprinted on the national consciousness, his appearance carried live on all three TV networks and watched by tens of millions.

Dean had been the White House counsel when he had warned Nixon there was "a cancer growing on the presidency" that could prove fatal. Dean's diagnosis was based on his own involvement, and by turning against his boss, he was helping his prognosis come true as well.

Dean will be back on Capitol Hill Monday, called by the House Judiciary Committee, where he briefly worked as junior staffer for the Republican members more than 50 years ago.

That was before he worked for Nixon, and before the scandal that would send Dean to prison and create a lifetime of curious notoriety. Before the 1970s were over, Dean's memoir (Blind Ambition) had spawned a TV miniseries in which Dean was played by a young Martin Sheen.

Dean is being called because the House Judiciary committee and its chairman, Democrat Jerry Nadler of New York, are looking into the substance of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — and the actions of President Trump in response to Mueller's investigation.

Some of those actions showed up in Mueller's report as potential instances of obstruction of justice. That category of offense was the focus of Dean's days of testimony under the bright TV lights 46 years ago this month.

Monday's hearing is not part of a formal impeachment proceeding against Trump, and Chairman Nadler has complied with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's preference for terms such as "inquiry." At least, so far.

Still, it is worth noting that when Dean had his celebrated moment of accusing Nixon in 1973 he was also not testifying before an impeachment proceeding. It was, rather, a committee of the Senate seeking information on "campaign practices."

That Senate panel had no power to commence a formal impeachment process (which must begin in the House). But over the course of that long summer, the findings of that panel changed many minds and made impeachment all but inevitable.


John Dean, former White House counsel to President Nixon, speaks during a hearing on the nomination of federal appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, on Sept. 7, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images

For viewers of cable news, Dean should need no reintroduction. Now 80, he has been a regular contributor on CNN and a frequent guest on other news programs as well. (He has been interviewed on NPR several times, most recently on Weekend Edition Sunday on Dec. 2, 2018.)

Dean has been a sharp critic of the Trump administration, calling the president "worse than Nixon," especially with regard to Trump's handling of Mueller.

So Nadler & Company want some of that perspective for their own purposes. And if they also hoped Dean would get the president's goat, they didn't have long to wait. The president tweeted his reaction on Sunday, saying the Democrats wanted a do-over on the Mueller report so badly they "are even bringing in CNN sleazebag attorney John Dean."

Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
For two years all the Democrats talked about was the Mueller Report, because they knew that it was loaded up with 13 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, later increased to 18. But despite the bias, when the Report came out, the findings were No Collusion and facts that led to........

Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
....No Obstruction. The Dems were devastated - after all this time and money spent ($40,000,000), the Mueller Report was a disaster for them. But they want a Redo, or Do Over. They are even bringing in @CNN sleazebag attorney John Dean. Sorry, no Do Overs - Go back to work!
79.2K
5:50 PM - Jun 9, 2019

In January 2018, in one of his CNN appearances, Dean compared the Russian election interference to the burglary at the Watergate office complex in 1972 that began the Watergate scandal. He said presidential efforts to frustrate investigators in both cases could be considered obstruction of justice.

Obstruction was one of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" alleged in the impeachment articles against Nixon. Obstruction was also a key charge against President Bill Clinton when he was impeached by the House in 1998 (he survived a trial in the Senate early in 1999).

In that same CNN appearance in January 2018, Dean predicted Democrats would win control of the House in the November midterm elections, as they did, and "start the education process so the people are ready to deal with the very serious issue we have with this president" – meaning Trump.

Dean noted that, given the Justice Department's official policy against indicting a president, both in the Watergate era and today, the only remedy was impeachment.

Dean's willingness to compare Nixon and Trump, and to link their handling of investigations into their election campaigns, explains why he is expected to prompt live TV coverage again.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/06/10/731119019/key-nixon-accuser-returns-to-capitol-with-sights-set-on-another-president?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter