Posted on 07/05/2022 7:56:07 PM PDT by T Ruth
It has been fifty years since that momentous break-in at the Watergate office complex, and it seems a good time to revisit that episode, especially in light of the current abuses of power that seem so ubiquitous. Geoff Shepard's book, The Real Watergate Scandal and the just published book by Garrett Graff, Watergate, a New History, offer different perspectives. Shepard is more interested in the legal process and its abuse, while Graff's book relies more on the infamous White House tapes. It is the more comprehensive of the two. Here are some of observations based on these histories.
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Most seriously, and in violation of any standards of judicial and prosecutorial behavior, Sirica had many private meetings with prosecutors (both Cox and Jaworski) with no defense counsel present. Here they discussed tactics and strategies for the trials, Sirica acting more as co-counsel than judge. Sirica even provided a list of more persons he wanted the special counsel to indict. So much for due process and trials overseen by an impartial judge.
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In a blatantly unethical meeting, Archibald Cox met with [Judge David Bazelon was chief judge of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals] with no defense counsel present. He was able to get Bazelon to agree that all appeals from any Watergate case coming out of the DC District Court would be heard "en banc," or before all nine judges. By so agreeing, Bazelon guaranteed that there would never be a case where there could be a three-judge panel with a Republican majority. The Democrats would always have the majority and the prosecutors would win any appeal. Not surprisingly, no appeals of Watergate defendants were successful.
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(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Not sure but I think this was the man I heard interviewed recently. The total corruption of the investigation having biased cronies pretending to be even handed was stunning even for someone like me who lived through the 1970s and the news coverage.
We were told so little of the truth back then. And today they don’t even pretend to tell the truth that Trump is innocent of Jan.6 slanders.
True. One thing that has improved since the 1970's is that the big-C and the little-c communists no longer have a monopoly on the news.
“Both books portray John Dean as a self-serving weasel”
Lizard is the spawn of Dean?
[I have never admired Richard Nixon, and I have always thought he did a lot of long-term damage to the country beyond Watergate itself: wage and price controls, the enhancement of EPA’s often arbitrary power, institutionalized racial quotas in the name of “affirmative action,” arms control agreements that the Soviets were violating before the ink was dry, “detente” that the Soviets manipulated to their advantage]
The most important thing about “Watergate” was that the President who was removed had just gotten >500 electoral votes and >60% of the popular vote.
Forget what you think about Nixon per se. The same forces that went after Trump went after Nixon, and for the same reason - his enormous victory with popular issues - out of control urban crime, a/k/a “law and order” and ending foreign wars - threatened to upset the applecart of the powers that skillfully divide us 51-49 time after time, getting us to hate each other - instead of them.
You cannot consider the outcome in vietnam without taking into account congressional funding, or lack thereof. To place the outcome and fallout at the feet of nixon is historically inaccurate.
... He conducted cursory and even ridiculous “voir dire” of potential jurors that guaranteed biased juries. (Could there be any other kind in DC when Republicans are charged?) ...
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The most important point in the article. Somehow, we need to allow trial venue changes more freely. Talk to Roger Stone and Scooter Libby about their experiences.
Yes, this is true.
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