62-77): President Trump called Director Comey multiple times, against the advice of Don McGahn, to have him confirm that he, Trump, was not personally under investigation. Yes, Dean and Mo are still married. The words Nixon used were strikingly like those uttered by President Trump. Accordingly, I gave considerable thought to how I would present this situation to the president and try to make as dramatic a presentation as I could to tell him how serious I thought the situation was if the cover-up continue. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Thats for sure. 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. In 1973, John Dean was the star witness in the Watergate hearings. His first memoir, Blind Ambition, was turned into a TV movie in 1979. [30], In 2008, Dean co-edited Pure Goldwater, a collection of writings by the 1964 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. Gavel-to-Gavel: The Watergate Scandal and Public Television, The Watergate Files Exhibit, Ford Library Museum, Covering Watergate: 40 Years Later with MacNeil and Lehrer, PBS. 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 . After the burglars' arrest, Dean took custody of evidence and money from the White House safe of E. Howard Hunt, who had been in charge of the burglaries, and destroyed some of the evidence before investigators could find it. In his testimony, Dean asserted that Nixon covered up Watergate because he believed it was in the interest of national security. With his plea to felony offenses, Dean was disbarred as a lawyer in Virginia and the District of Columbia.[18][19]. But Dean understands how its not so easy to walk away from the center of power. In June 1973, as a young lawyer on Capitol Hill, I watched White House counsel John Dean testify before Sen. Sam Ervin's Watergate Committee from the row of seats behind the senators. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. 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 . He said, "It's a nightmare. It was a very sympathetic and very believable portrait, said Graff. 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. Every and the District of Columbia have adopted a version of these rules. 6; cf. Were friends. [26], His next book, released in 2006, was Conservatives without Conscience, a play on Barry Goldwater's book The Conscience of a Conservative. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide. Senator Russell Feingold, who sponsored the censure resolution, introduced Dean as a "patriot" who put "rule of law above the interests of the president." Chapter 14 in the book titled "The Lies, The Thefts," divulges the entire memorandum John Ehrlichman, Nixon's Domestic Affairs Advisor, wrote to Treasury Secretary David M. Kennedy and makes for an interesting read. For several reasons I believe he should testify. Nixon chose not to disclose the information he did have in order to protect his friend Mitchell, believing that revealing this truth would destroy Mitchell. In that position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent scandal and cover-up . I was always interested in government. Eight years ago, we created a course called The Watergate CLE. VS. HALDEMAN, 559 F.2D 31 (D.C. CIR. (See Separation-of-Powers Principles Support the Conclusion that Congress May Validly Prohibit Corrupt Obstructive Acts Carried Out Through the Presidents Official Powers, MUELLER REPORT, PP. DEAN: Thats right. He resides in Beverly Hills, California. Part of TV News Archive. 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. Will Dominion-Fox News lawsuit be different? Because, you know, after everybody PRESIDENT: Thats right. This reporting out provision provides lawyers with leverage to stop wrongdoing if the client fails to take appropriate advice. ". John Dean, a former White House counsel who . I 2, cl. Dean married Maureen (Mo) Kane on October 13, 1972. (Mitchell would not admit this fact, even privately, for almost a year.) Season 1, Episodes 6 and 7 of Gaslit capture the testimonies Martha, John Dean (an attorney who served as the White House counsel . For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. The case of Dean vs. Liddy was dismissed without prejudice. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1965. In reissuing Blind Ambition, which spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list and has been out of print for over two decades, author John Dean has added a powerful new Afterword, an extended essay in which he explains with the new clarity why (and how . Yet President Nixon knew that offering such pardons or giving pardons to try to control witnesses in legal proceedings was wrong. Fifty years later, that's how John Dean, the former White House counsel whose marathon testimony before the US Senate's Watergate Committee tipped the dominoes toward the ultimate resignation . 1 AND 182.). 6-7, 122-28, 131-32, 134, 147-48, ET AL):The Mueller Report addresses the question of whether President Trump dangled pardons or offered other favorable treatment to Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and Roger Stone (whose name is redacted so I assume it is him based on educated conjecture) in return for their silence or to keep them from fully cooperating with investigators. John Dean, President Richard M. Nixon's former . 90- 98): According to Mueller, in addition to McGahn, President Trump pressured former campaign aide Cory Lewandowski and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to curtail the Special Counsels investigation through Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the investigation. The couple sued and eventually reached an undisclosed settlement. Fired white House counsel John Dean testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee while his wife, Maureen, watches in Washington, June 28, 1973. I havent and maybe Im not creative enough, Dean said. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. Traduo Context Corretor Sinnimos Conjugao. Dean is now the last man standing from that era, He is the last connection between this nation's authoritarian past and present. In the 1979 TV mini-series Blind Ambition, Dean was played by Martin Sheen. PRESIDENT: Thats a problem. All rights reserved. He is also the author of three books about television, including a biography of pioneer talk show host and producer David Susskind. John Dean. [29], Dean's 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches is, as he wrote in its introduction, the third volume of an unplanned trilogy. Dean was later incarcerated for 127 days at an Army base after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice and was in witness protection for 18 months to shield him from ongoing death threats. The president lauded his efforts. [32], On September 17, 2009, Dean appeared on Countdown with new allegations about Watergate. 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. After hearing of Colodny's work, Liddy issued a revised paperback version of Will supporting Colodny's theory. a collaboration between the Library of Congress and GBH. Watergate, the Bipartisan Struggle for Media Access, and the Growth of Cable Television. [33], In speaking engagements in 2014, Dean called Watergate a "lawyers' scandal" that, for all the bad, ushered in needed legal ethics reforms. Such testimony against Nixon, while damaging to the president's credibility, had little legal impact, as it was merely his word against Nixon's. It may further involve you in a way you shouldnt be involved in this. Secondly, I believe as an attorney, he has an ethical obligation to testify. The Mueller Report also refers to corroboration of McGahn as a witness in that he made contemporaneous notes on occasions (e.g., MUELLER RPT, VOL. Meanwhile, John Dean (Dan Stevens) was reportedly aware of the break-in plans and later tried to cover it all up. Marshals and kept instead at Fort Holabird (near Baltimore, Maryland) in a special "safe house" primarily used for witnesses against the Mafia. Murdoch has survived scandal after scandal. You cant look at Watergate today without looking through the lens or at least a filter of the Trump presidency, Dean said. [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. Howard Hunt told me it would have exonerated Prez Nixon. Mueller refutes the dubious contention that when the president exercises his Constitutional powers, he is not subject to federal criminal laws. After listening to Nixons March 21, 1973 secretly recorded conversation with me, Jaworski pursued more tapes as vigorously as had Cox. It also led to the creation of the PBS NewsHour.. Dean did not complete the report. Was he hard-nosed and tough? This small piece of testimony, of course, became highly significant for it led to the discovery of the secret White House taping system. Granted immunity, Dean laid out in stunning detail and intricacy how the President not only knew . He admitted supervising payments of "hush money" to the Watergate burglars, notably E. Howard Hunt, and revealed the existence of Nixon's enemies list. Deans words on tape can be heard in the British documentary TV series Watergate. I dont think its an emotion that Donald Trump could ever muster.. After Comeys testimony to Congress on May 3, 2017, in which he declined to answer questions about whether the President was personally under investigation, the President decided to terminate Comey. It's written with Bob Altemeyer, and it's titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. For those of you who lived through Watergate, his name is synonymous with the political intrigue of the 1970s. Search by keyword or individual, or browse all episodes by clicking Explore the Collection below the search box. Modern American History, 3(2-3), 175-198. I had some unsolicited offers that I really wanted to explore. Rule 1.13 further provides that when an attorney representing an organization encounters ongoing crime or fraud, he or she must first try to solve the problem within the organization, by going up the ladder to the highest authority that can address the problem. Blind Ambition was ghostwritten by future Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Taylor Branch[20] and later made into a 1979 TV miniseries. John W Dean, who served as Mr Nixon's White House . [12], On March 23, the five Watergate burglars, along with G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, were sentenced with stiff fines and prison time of up to 40 years. He later became a commentator on contemporary politics, a book author, and a columnist for FindLaw's Writ. Watergate Hearings: John Dean's Opening Statement (1973) John Dean's statement 2011-04-07T03:55:01Z Maureen "Mo" Dean is known for sitting stoically just behind her husband during the . Stay up to date on new exhibits, special collections, projects, and more. 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. [15] A sharp critic of studying memory in a laboratory setting, Neisser saw "a valuable data trove" in Dean's recall. About two months later, on June 25, 1973, Dean started delivering his testimony in front of the Senate Watergate Committee, during which he spoke about . Now, 40 years later, then some, Dean will return to Capitol Hill to testify before a different Congress about a different president. 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. WATERGATE: In 1972, the underlying crime was a bungled break-in, illicit photographing of private documents and an attempt to bug the telephones and offices of the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, with plans to do likewise that same night with Nixons most likely Democratic opponent Senator George McGovern, which because of the arrests of five men at the Watergate, did not happen. This sparked a sharp debate with Republican South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who repeatedly asserted that Nixon authorized the break-in at Democratic headquarters. John Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and spent a significant part of his life in Marion. Well, John Dean has a new book. I think Richard Nixon had a conscience, said Dean. Accordingly, I sincerely hope that Mr. McGahn will voluntarily appear and testify. 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. PRINTING OFFICE, 1974); AND SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT S. MUELLER, III, REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION INTO RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, VOLUMES I AND II (WASHINGTON, D.C: GOV. [34], Dean later emerged as a strong critic of Donald Trump, saying in 2017 that he was even worse than Nixon. 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. Silent Coup alleged that Dean masterminded the Watergate burglaries and the Watergate coverup and that the true aim of the burglaries was to seize information implicating Dean and the former Maureen "Mo" Biner (his then-fiance) in a prostitution ring. Im learning things that I had never known about what had happened and why it happened.. 171-181). 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. In the 1999 film Dick, Dean was played by Jim Breuer. I met with Kutak and his commission to provide my own insights. Tradues em contexto de "Dean is finished" en ingls-portugus da Reverso Context : Lili, see if Miss Dean is finished dressing. March 21, 1973: Dean tells Nixon there is a "cancer" on the presidency. Continue reading. He moved to Los Angeles with wife Maureen, took business courses at UCLA and worked as an investment banker during the 1980s. 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. WATERGATE: This is much like Richard Nixons attempt to get me to write a phony report exonerating the White House from any involvement in Watergate. Deans immersion in Watergate since that time has been so deep, he never imagined what his life would have been without it. WATERGATE: Nixon used the possibility of presidential pardons to keep witnesses from fully testifying in legal proceedings, a practice that was condemned in the Articles of Impeachment drawn up by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974. It certainly changed my career path. 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. II, P. 52), and McGahn is the only witness that the Special Counsel expressly labels as reliable, calling McGahn a credible witness with no motive to lie or exaggerate given the position he held in the White House. (MUELLER RPT, VOL. 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. . 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). After four months, however, the Watergate trial judge, John J. Sirica, reduced his sentence to time . 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. Dean's testimony to the Senate the year before implicated Nixon in the Watergate affair. This is a taped except of Dean as he recalled that meeting with President Nixon. MUELLER REPORT RE EFFORTS TO INFLUENCE WITNESSES WITH PARDONS ( PP. 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. McGahn decided he would resign rather than carry out the orders, not unlike Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus when they refused to fire Cox. 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. 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. 9 Jun 2017. In 2006, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating George W. Bush's NSA warrantless wiretap program. And youre gonna have the clemency problem for the others. [citation needed], On April 6, Dean hired an attorney and began cooperating with Senate Watergate investigators, while continuing to work as Nixon's Chief White House Counsel and participating in cover-up efforts, not disclosing this obvious conflict to Nixon until some time later. John W. Dean was legal counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony lead to Nixon's resignation. In the 2022 TV mini-series Gaslit, Dean was played by Dan Stevens. They all would have expected to be out and that may put you in a position thats just . Its a fascinating place to see whats going on.. Brownell, K. (2020). [16], Neisser found that, despite Dean's confidence, the tapes proved that his memory was anything but a tape recorder. It may just be too hot. 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 administrations involvement in the burglary and subsequent cover-up; Chief of Staff H.R. First, he is a key witness in understanding the Mueller Report. Jim is a trial attorney and a partner in a major multi-state law firm. Through his lawyer, Cohen sought advice from Dean before testifying in 2019 to the House Oversight Committee, where he leveled allegations of criminal wrongdoing by Trump. MUELLER REPORT RE TERMINATION OF COMEY (PP. DEAN: Im not sure that youll ever be able to deliver clemency. Conjugao Documents Dicionrio Dicionrio Colaborativo Gramtica Expressio Reverso Corporate. [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. In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. [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. Dean's testimony before the House was watched by some 80 million Americans. In the 1995 film Nixon, directed by Oliver Stone, Dean was played by David Hyde Pierce. In the preface to his 2006 book Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean strongly denied Colodny's theory, pointing out that Colodny's chief source (Phillip Mackin Bailley) had been in and out of mental institutions. 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. Feb. 1, 2019. 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. Anchors Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer provided summaries, commentary, and interviews to supplement each broadcast. Mea Culpa welcomes back a very special guest, John Dean. Model Rule 1.13 provides that a lawyer representing an organization represents the entity and not the individuals running the entity. Why Netflix is dabbling in livestreaming, How strong is Dominions defamation case against Fox News? If it was a county sheriff they wouldnt [stay], Dean said. Dean retired from investment banking in 2000 while continuing to work as an author and lecturer, becoming a columnist for FindLaw's Writ online magazine. 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. He was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and sentenced to one to four years in prison. In July 1973, evidence mounted against the president's staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee. 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]. Ari Emanuel lets his AI alter ego open Endeavors earnings call, WGA chief negotiator David Young replaced due to illness ahead of key talks with studios, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Best coffee city in the world? Weekend Edition revisits audio from Dean's testimony. Paramount to pay $122.5 million to settle lawsuit over CBS deal. 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. And politically, itd just be impossible for, you know, you to do it. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1965. [10][pageneeded]. Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, the last time I appeared before your committee was . In many ways the Mueller Report is to President Trump what the so-called Watergate Road Map (officially titled Grand Jury Report and Recommendation Concerning Transmission of Evidence to the House of Representatives) was to President Richard Nixon. 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. A full cast of characters is available in our Gavel-to-Gavel exhibit. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. But on March 21, 1973, he went to the Oval Office and told Nixon there was "a cancer " on the presidency that would take them all down they didn't . Dean a young, highly ambitious, Porsche-driving, tassel-loafer-wearing lawyer when he joined the ultra conservative Nixon minions ended up getting fired in 1973 once it became clear he would implicate the president in the cover-up. 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. He's penned five books about Watergate and 10 books in total; including his most recent tome, Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and his Followers. Jim Robenalt and I have discussed this at length. Journalists Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Lesley Stahl also offer their recollections on the story that helped make their careers. Watergate-John-Dean-June-25-1973 . One of the major clarifications that came about through the new ABA Model Rules was with respect to an attorneys obligations when representing an organization. Dean's testimony to the senators and at the 1974 trial of the chief conspirators (excepting the President) did not get him totally off the hook. 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. You have the problem of clemency for Hunt. John Dean during the filming of Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal in 2020. 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. 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. In Starz's new Gaslit, premiering Sunday, central Watergate figure John Dean is played by Dan Stevens. April 6, 1973: White House counsel John Dean begins cooperating with federal Watergate prosecutors. [Emphasis added.]. His testimony during the Watergate scandal helped bring down Nixon. Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until Ap. 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. We were in his Executive Office Building office late on a Sunday night when he got up from his chair and walked to the corner of the room and in a stage-whisper asked me, I was wrong to offer clemency to Hunt, wasnt I? I responded, Yes, Mr. President, that would be an obstruction of justice. As I later testified, at the time it struck me his moving across the office and whispering was to keep what he was saying from being picked up by a hidden microphone in the room. LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) 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.