Nixon lawyer who engineered the Watergate cover-up states that there is no way Paul Manafort can escape criminal prosecution.
If anyone knows his way around White House scandals it has to be President Nixon’s former Chief Counsel and the “master manipulator of the [Watergate] cover-up,” John Dean.
Dean has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, going as far as stating that Trump’s unpredictability made him more dangerous than Nixon during in interview with The Telegraph, published on January 14th of this year.
Noting that Nixon, like Trump, was an “an authoritarian personality,” he stated that Nixon knew what he was doing, unlike Trump.
“They’re very different in their perception of the president’s authority,” Dean said, adding that: “Trump is more dangerous because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The danger is he could do anything.”
CNN reported last week that: “Former Donald Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleaded guilty Friday to two criminal charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign and related activities.”
Ken Dilanian, an intelligence and national security reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit, weighed in on the news on Friday tweeting: “While the charges to which Gates pleaded guilty carry a prison term of up to 71 months under federal guidelines, his agreement could result in probation if he cooperates substantially.”
Dean responded, tweeting: “Mueller is throwing everything he can against Manafort, including Gates who can nail him. Increasingly it appears Manafort is the link to Russian collusion. If Gates can testify that Manafort was acting with Trump’s blessings, it’s the end of his presidency. That’s substantial.”
Dean also addressed concerns raised by many in the media and elsewhere that Trump could simply pardon Manafort.
“A number of folks have expressed concern in this Manafort thread that Trump will pardon him. Many of the counts in both the VA and DC indictments have state law counterparts that can be charged in NY and VA, where Trump had no pardon power. Checkmate is coming for Paul Manafort,” he tweeted.
A number of folks have expressed concern in this Manafort thread that Trump will pardon him. Many of the counts in both the VA and DC indictments have state law counterparts that can be charged in NY and VA, where Trump had no pardon power. Checkmate is coming for Paul Manafort.
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) February 25, 2018
Dean also took the time to mock Trump for his well-known aversion to reading.
Trump tweeted over the weekend that: “The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!”
Dean responded: “No one believes you Donald because it’s a 10 page document so you have no idea what is in it. You’re our first president who doesn’t read, so it is out of your league. No chart, pixs or maps either. The document is both politically and legally persuasive to any objective reader.”
No one believes you Donald because it’s a 10 page document so you have no idea what is in it. You’re our first president who doesn’t read, so it is out of your league. No chart, pixs or maps either. The document is both politically and legally persuasive to any objective reader. https://t.co/53LF1VkGWq
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) February 25, 2018
John Dean’s Background
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library detailed Dean’s background as it related to government service prior to his appointment as White House Counsel.
During the period 1966-67, Dean served as chief minority council for the Judiciary Committee in the United States House of Representatives. He then spent the next two years as Associate Director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws before working as an Associate Deputy Attorney, General Office of Criminal Justice, Department of Justice, between 1969 and 1970.
Dean served as Nixon’s White House Counsel from July 1970 until April 1973 at which time he began cooperating with Senate Watergate investigators.
White House Chief of Staff H.R. Halderman claimed that Dean was appointed special counsel by Nixon to take the lead role in coordinating the effort to cover-up the Watergate break-in.
Indeed, the FBI’s Office of Planning and Evaluation (OPE) referred to Dean as the “master manipulator of the cover-up” in their official analysis of the Watergate investigation, published on July 5, 1974 and later declassified on July 17, 1980.
As the OPE noted in their report, Dean went on to become a “principal witness against Richard Nixon,” and the “only individual” at the time of their report “with first-hand knowledge” who “accused the President of any illegal activities. In exchange, Dean received a reduced prison sentence after pleading guilty to Obstruction of Justice on November 30, 1973.
As the Nixon Library reported, Dean “began his sentence under the supervision of the United States Marshals at Fort Holabird, Maryland on September 3, 1974. During part of his time in custody, October 16-25, 1974, Dean testified in the Watergate cover-up trial, United States v. John N. Mitchell, et al. For his cooperation, Dean’s sentence was reduced to time served and he was released after four months on January 8, 1975.”
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