Just hours after a national address promising “no whitewash” of
Watergate, President Richard M. Nixon privately urged his new attorney
general not to appoint a special prosecutor and suggested that a former
aide avoid questions by asserting national security.
A series of secret tapes released on Wednesday, the final ones to be
made public, shed new light on Nixon’s efforts to stanch the mushrooming
scandal in the spring of 1973. On the same night he pushed out top
aides and gave his first speech on the episode, Nixon stayed up late
making and taking a series of phone calls that planted the seeds for
further cover-up.
While he received supportive calls from the likes of Ronald Reagan,
George Bush and Billy Graham, Nixon also made a point of talking with Elliot L. Richardson,
his choice to take over as attorney general. In the prime-time speech,
Nixon told Americans that he had granted Mr. Richardson “the authority
to name a special supervising prosecutor.” But now on the phone, he
privately told Mr. Richardson not to do so.
“The one thing they’re going to be hitting you on is about the special
prosecutor,” Nixon said. “The point is I’m not sure you should have
one.” Instead, Nixon said, Mr. Richardson should “assume responsibility
for the investigation” himself.
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