Watergate remains the greatest political scandal in modern American
history. It culminated not only in President Nixon’s announcement of his
resignation, 39 years ago Thursday, but in the conviction and
imprisonment of his three most senior aides. Attorney General John
Mitchell, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, and Assistant to the
President for Domestic Affairs John Ehrlichman were found guilty of
conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury in the three-month
Watergate cover-up trial, which ended on January 1, 1975.
I saw it all unfold. I was a young lawyer working on the White House staff and assisting in Nixon’s defense efforts. It is true that we failed spectacularly. Of course, I’m disappointed we weren’t more successful. But whether the defendants were innocent or guilty, I’ve always worried on a more basic level that the heightened emotions of the times denied them the due process of law envisioned by our Constitution.
As a result of some recent discoveries I made while researching a book on the Watergate trials, my concern has been vindicated. It turns out that the notion that “no man is above the law” somehow didn’t apply to judges or prosecutors involved in the cover-up trial. Documents I have uncovered indicate that the efforts to punish the wrongdoings of Watergate led to further wrongdoing by the very officials given the task of bringing the Watergate defendants to justice.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-watergate-cover-up-trial-justice-denied/278522/?single_page=true
I saw it all unfold. I was a young lawyer working on the White House staff and assisting in Nixon’s defense efforts. It is true that we failed spectacularly. Of course, I’m disappointed we weren’t more successful. But whether the defendants were innocent or guilty, I’ve always worried on a more basic level that the heightened emotions of the times denied them the due process of law envisioned by our Constitution.
As a result of some recent discoveries I made while researching a book on the Watergate trials, my concern has been vindicated. It turns out that the notion that “no man is above the law” somehow didn’t apply to judges or prosecutors involved in the cover-up trial. Documents I have uncovered indicate that the efforts to punish the wrongdoings of Watergate led to further wrongdoing by the very officials given the task of bringing the Watergate defendants to justice.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-watergate-cover-up-trial-justice-denied/278522/?single_page=true
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