Tag: John Dean

John Dean Warns Trump That Prosecutors Are Closing In: ‘Only A Matter Of Days’

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The Watergate figure reveals a key sign the former president’s in deep.

John Dean, the White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon who was once dubbed the “master manipulator” of the Watergate scandal, says he knows legal trouble and former President Donald Trump is in it deep. 

Dean shared a report on former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, who has been meeting with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is investigating Trump for potential fraud, including tax fraud. It was Cohen’s seventh meeting with the DA’s office.

Dean pointed out on Twitter the significance of all those meetings:  Continue reading.

Trump may have ‘dictated’ part of his impeachment defense because arguments are ‘not legally sophisticated’: Former Nixon White House Counsel

AlterNet logoJohn Dean is a veteran of the Watergate era who has been offering insights on President Donald Trump’s many scandals. After having a lot to say about former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Dean (who served as White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon) has recently been weighing in on the president’s Ukraine scandal. And Dean, during an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera on Sunday, speculated that Trump might have “dictated” some of his impeachment defense brief because the arguments used are “not legally sophisticated.”

The 81-year-old Dean told Cabrera, “I actually thought Trump might have dictated part of this brief like he did the letter that (White House Counsel) Cipollone sent to Congress that said that what they were doing was not proper. It’s of that vernacular. It’s not legally sophisticated. It actually plays to the base.”

In the impeachment defense brief, Trump’s attorneys argued that none of Trump’s actions with Ukraine amounted to impeachable offenses and asserted that Democrats are attempting a “brazen and unlawful” campaign to hurt his chances of being reelected in November. Continue reading.

In an Echo of Watergate and John Dean, an Adviser Points to Trump

New York Times logoTestimony by Gordon D. Sondland gave Democrats the crisp, accusatory lines they sought. But Republicans elicited an account of one conversation that they hope will help exonerate President Trump.

WASHINGTON — Gordon D. Sondland had not even finished his testimony on Wednesday before it was being called the “John Dean moment” of the President Trump impeachment drama. With the presidency on the line, a once-trusted lieutenant pointed the finger at Mr. Trump in a proceeding that could lead to Watergate-style charges of high crimes and misdemeanors.

For the first time, Mr. Trump’s critics got the sort of viral moments they have craved, crisp accusatory cancer-on-the-presidency lines uttered on camera that can now be played over and over again on social media and cable television, making clear just who was in charge of the campaign to pressure a foreign power to help bring down the president’s domestic political rivals.

“We followed the president’s orders.”

View the complete November 20 article by Peter Baker on The New York Times website here.

John Dean’s compelling case for parallels between Trump and Watergate

The star witness of Watergate took a turn as the star witness for House Democrats’ inquiries into President Trump on Monday. And in doing so, he laid out a compelling series of parallels between the two situations.

Former White House counsel John Dean acknowledged at the start of Monday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing that he wasn’t there as a “fact witness.” Instead, he noted in his opening statement several ways in which he sees the report of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III echoing Watergate.

Dean didn’t run through each of those verbally during his testimony, but his written statement lays his case out in detail.

View the complete June 10 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Congress will have to ‘start impeachment’ process after Cohen filings, former Nixon counsel says

Federal prosecutors filed new court papers on Dec. 7 that revealed a previously unreported contact from a Russian to Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. (Melissa Macaya , Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

John Dean, a White House counsel under President Richard M. Nixon convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal, said Friday that allegations against President Trump detailed in new court filings give Congress “little choice” other than to begin impeachment proceedings.

Dean’s comments, made during CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” segment, follow the release of a legal memo from federal prosecutors in New York regarding Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Prosecutors wrote Cohen had implicated Trump in the arrangement of hush-money payments to women during the 2016 election.

“I don’t know that this will forever disappear into some dark hole of unprosecutable presidents,” Dean said. “I think it will resurface in the Congress. I think what this totality of today’s filings show that the House is going to have little choice, the way this is going, other than to start impeachment proceedings.”

View the complete December 8 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.

Watergate’s John Dean Explains How Trump Planned Sessions’ Firing ‘Like a Murder’ — And Details How Mueller Could Protect the Probe

John Dean Credit: CNN Screengrab

Trump’s move on Wednesday was both predictable and shocking.

John Dean, President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel who eventually turned against his boss in the Watergate scandal, has a unique perspective on investigations of presidents.

After President Donald Trump announced the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, to be replaced by a person who had been publicly critical of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, Dean called in to CNN to give his opinion.

Dean said the firing of Sessions was “planned like a murder. I say that given that the president was asked a question at the press conference this morning, he brushed it off, said ‘We’ll deal with it later.’ And he’s clearly been thinking about it — and ‘later’ meant he’s not necessarily going to fire Mueller, he’s going to undercut him by the people around him.”

View the complete November 7 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

Watergate’s John Dean Explains How Trump Planned Sessions’ Firing ‘Like a Murder’ — And Details How Mueller Could Protect the Probe

Trump’s move on Wednesday was both predictable and shocking.

John Dean, President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel who eventually turned against his boss in the Watergate scandal, has a unique perspective on investigations of presidents.

After President Donald Trump announced the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, to be replaced by a person who had been publicly critical of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, Dean called in to CNN to give his opinion.

Dean said the firing of Sessions was “planned like a murder. I say that given that the president was asked a question at the press conference this morning, he brushed it off, said ‘We’ll deal with it later.’ And he’s clearly been thinking about it — and ‘later’ meant he’s not necessarily going to fire Mueller, he’s going to undercut him by the people around him.”

View the complete November 7 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

Kavanaugh hearing: John Dean warns of a Supreme Court overly deferential to presidential power

The following article by Seung Min Kim was posted on the Washington Post website September 7, 2018:

John Dean, the former Nixon White House counsel who played a crucial role in the Watergate scandal, testified Friday that confirming Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as a justice will lead to the “most presidential-powers friendly” Supreme Court in the modern age.

The sharp criticism was laid out in Dean’s remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the last day of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. More than two dozen witnesses testified in favor of and against President Trump’s Supreme Court pick.

Dean argued in his testimony that conservatives have “slowly done a 180-degree turn” on executive power and that a Supreme Court that is overly deferential to the president is “deeply troubling,” with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate.

View the complete article here.

John Dean Among the Witnesses at Brett Kavanaugh Hearing

The following article by Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website August 30, 2018:

List is replete with law professors galore, as well as a couple solicitors general

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee next week for his confirmation hearing. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

Senate Judiciary Democrats are calling John W. Dean, best known as Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, as one of their witnesses for the confirmation hearings of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee next week.

Dean might well be the headliner for the minority side, who have questions about nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s views about the limits of executive power.

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin Tuesday morning with opening statements and introductions from former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and prominent lawyer Lisa S. Blatt, as well as Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman.