Watergate, page 85
“This is a task of tremendous importance”: George Lardner, Jr., “Cox Is Chosen as Special Prosecutor,” Washington Post, May 19, 1973, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/051973–1.htm.
The next day, Leonard Garment appeared: Garment, Crazy Rhythm, 273.
The statement had grown out of days of labor: Ibid., 271.
Nixon again argued: Richard Nixon, “Statements About the Watergate Investigations,” May 22, 1973, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statements-about-the-watergate-investigations.
“The assumption was that I would get to see”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 244.
“A kind of sleaziness”: John W. Finney, “Richardson Determined to Get ‘Sleaziness’ Out,” New York Times, May 25, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/05/25/79857311.html?pageNumber=17.
“The attorney general would be happy”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 47.
the Richard M. Nixon Foundation announced: Everett R. Holless, “Watergate Halts Nixon Library Plan,” New York Times, May 23, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/05/23/90441300.html?pageNumber=1.
“Wouldn’t it really be better”: Locker, Haig’s Coup, 90.
“Do you think I should resign?”: Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Pat Nixon: The Untold Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 372–75.
Next to it was another headline: Ben A. Franklin, “A House Member Apparent Suicide,” New York Times, May 25, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/05/25/79857215.html?pageNumber=1.
Chapter 32 “A Russian Novel”
“I fed them and watched them”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 249.
In D.C., Cox started to build: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 49.
“Prosecutors are supposed to have the instincts”: Ibid., 48.
“being asked to play god”: Ibid., 49.
Cox also met with Earl Silbert: Seymour M. Hersh, “3 Prosecutors Nearly Quit,” New York Times, May 23, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/05/23/90441298.html?pageNumber=1.
“I have had [it] with the case”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 257.
“It doesn’t seem to make any sense”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 141.
Cox doubted Buzhardt’s version: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 83.
During their first days organizing: Samantha Raphelson, “Glen E. Pommerening, Justice Dept. Lawyer,” Washington Post, October 7, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/glen-e-pommerening-justice-dept-lawyer/2013/10/07/8164cf9c-2f8a-11e3-8906-3daa2bcde110_story.html.
the operation would eventually be larger: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 59.
“This is the first case I’ve worked”: Ibid., 54.
“You S.O.B., you started this!”: Lukas, Nightmare, 159.
“it began to take on the characteristics”: Drew, Washington Journal, 15.
“Who thought you up?”: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, Vols. 4–6, 6:2263, https://books.google.com/books?id=TfCTLSY21i0C.
“It was like going to church”: Magruder, An American Life, 304.
“He appeared totally insensitive”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 147.
“No witness in my experience”: Jill Wine-Banks, The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President (New York: Henry Holt, 2020), 30.
“This won’t do”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 148.
“You’ve got to tell”: Ibid., 149.
“Dean, I felt, was re-creating”: Nixon, RN, 890.
“Counsel will call the first witness”: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, 3:911–15.
“The effeminate Pretty-Boy image”: Mary McCarthy, Mask of State: Watergate Portraits (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), 40.
“I do not know how well I carried off”: Schorr, Clearing the Air, 89.
“The worst fears of most Americans”: Sussman, The Great Cover-Up, 243.
but now to the Senate, he had given: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, 3:915.
“He left us no explanation”: Hughes, Chasing Shadows, 162.
As he emerged at the public center: Breslin, How the Good Guys Finally Won, 31.
“I know damn well that if Dean”: Fields, High Crimes and Misdemeanors, 33.
“Conspiracy to obstruct justice”: “Excerpts from Dean’s Testimony Before Senate Panel Investigating Watergate,” New York Times, June 29, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/06/29/101020890.html?pageNumber=23.
“I say before you and before the American people”: David E. Rosenbaum, “G.O.P. Senator Charges Effort to Intimidate Him,” New York Times, June 29, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/06/29/101020780.html?pageNumber=1.
“How could you be proud”: Weicker, Maverick, 77.
“Tip realized he was going to have to act”: Farrell, Tip O’Neill, 341.
The rest would just be process: Breslin, How the Good Guys Finally Won, 43.
“the fullest cooperation possible”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 167.
That said, Dash reminded them: Fields, High Crimes and Misdemeanors, 34.
With Dean’s testimony still rippling: Ben-Veniste and Frampton, Stonewall, 62.
“The president was involved”: Van Atta, With Honor, 444–45.
“the morning after”: Ibid., 445.
However, as historian Ray Locker traced: Locker, Haig’s Coup, 111.
Chapter 33 “We Need You Today”
Finally, they settled on Hank Ruth: Matt Schudel, “Henry S. Ruth, Special Prosecutor During Watergate Probe, Dies at 80,” Washington Post, March 24, 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/henry-s-ruth-special-prosecutor-during-watergate-probe-dies-at-80/2012/03/23/gIQADKQuYS_story.html.
“Cox tends to be”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 65.
Beyond the deputy, the rest of the team: Anthony Ripley, “Cox Names Former Hogan Aide to Watergate Staff,” New York Times, June 1, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/06/01/99147751.html?pageNumber=17.
“I’ll take mine black”: Wine-Banks, The Watergate Girl, 27.
“We need you today”: Ibid., 12.
“He was one of those people who finished”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 63.
“He had a short attention span”: Ben-Veniste and Frampton, Stonewall, 38.
Enduring Neal’s work sessions: Wine-Banks, The Watergate Girl, 17.
“[Cox] seemed like a scholarly, calm, objective professional”: Garment, Crazy Rhythm, 261–62.
“I disagree,” Cox said: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 76.
“malicious, ill-founded”: John Herbers, “Ziegler Scores Articles in Press on Nixon Estate as ‘Malicious,’ ” New York Times, July 4, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/07/04/99152296.html?pageNumber=22.
In Washington, Sam Dash announced: Seymour M. Hersh, “Senators Will Recall Dean on Nixon Estate Purchase,” New York Times, July 4, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/07/04/99152078.html?&pageNumber=1.
“the struggle to preserve my independence”: Richardson, The Creative Balance, 36.
“The President, it seemed, could not or would not”: Ibid., 16.
“I never did know much about Watergate”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 294.
Each day, as the Watergate Special Prosecution Force: Ibid., 264; NSA Security Education Program, Loose Talk Is Explosive… Anytime (1972), poster, https://www.wrc.noaa.gov/wrso/posters/Security_Awareness_Posters-i0151.htm.
Their defense lawyers promptly protested the leak: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 263.
“Archie Cox is a bit of a softie”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 73.
“He’s too quiet”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 263.
“diligence and judgment”: Ibid., 330.
“Cox’s predominant characteristic”: Ben-Veniste and Frampton, Stonewall, 22.
“Lincoln’s Rule”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 330.
“Each of the three ‘witnesses’ ”: Ben-Veniste and Frampton, Stonewall, 81.
“Guilt or innocence in the political-corruption case”: Ibid., 57.
“More frustrating than the lack of hard evidence”: Ibid., 90.
“I’m afraid I didn’t sleep”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 82.
In July, Seymour Hersh began reporting: Hersh, Reporter, 193.
Crewdson struck more journalistic gold: Phelps, God and the Editor, 192.
“the Republican party’s effort to sabotage”: Crewdson, “Sabotaging the G.O.P.’s Rivals.”
Around the same time, Archibald Cox announced: Seymour M. Hersh, “Airline Discloses Illegal Donation to Nixon Drive,” New York Times, July 7, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/07/07/90449942.html?pageNumber=1.
“It is fair to say”: Statement of Information, 9:334, https://books.google.com/books?id=gVjc_wCPt5gC.
“Somebody has tried to make”: United Press, “Mitchell Rejects Role of ‘Fall Guy,’ ” New York Times, May 20, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/05/20/90439103.html?pageNumber=1.
“You are part of the Communists”: McLendon, Martha, 240–41.
“Young man, that was very kind”: Rufus Edmisten, That’s Rufus: A Memoir of Tar Heel Politics, Watergate, and Public Life (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2019), 91.
“Throughout his long testimony”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 194.
“He gave the impression”: Thompson, At That Point in Time, 71.
“Did you at any time tell the President”: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, 5:1865.
“You tell Howard to get John so mad”: Thompson, At That Point in Time, 75.
“No attempt was made”: McCarthy, Mask of State, 57.
“The way I see it”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 169–70.
“I’m sorry we can’t work this out,” Edmisten, That’s Rufus, 102.
“I’m glad I was so tough on him”: “949,” audio, July 12, 1973, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/949.
“The hell with [Ervin’s committee]”: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 628–36.
Chapter 34 Butterfield’s Bombshell
Alexander Butterfield had spent nearly all: Woodward, The Last of the President’s Men, 147.
“I think the best thing for me to do”: Ibid., 151.
The man had abused him: Ibid.
“I have to agree”: Haldeman, The Ends of Power, 203.
Butterfield’s interview in Room G-334: Thelen, “Remembering the Discovery.”
On Sunday, while Nixon was still in the hospital: Thompson, At That Point in Time, 87.
“Just between us, I have a record of everything”: Locker, Haig’s Coup, 44.
“This is going to be quite a blow”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 182.
“We’ve got a bombshell for you”: McCarthy, Mask of State, 72.
“There was no doubt in my mind”: “Excerpts from Testimony.”
“I was no longer the sole accuser”: Dean, Blind Ambition, 334.
“Suddenly, a debate that appeared”: Philip Allen Lacovara, “United States v. Nixon: The Prelude,” Minnesota Law Review 83 (1999), https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3093&context=mlr.
“Let’s get started”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 91–93.
“The immediate problem was to pinpoint”: Ibid., 96.
“Once you convinced the courts”: Ibid.
“We could not even make up our minds”: Ben-Veniste and Frampton, Stonewall, 116.
“I had believed that the existence”: Nixon, RN, 900.
“Destroy the tapes”: Haig, Inner Circles, 378.
Spiro Agnew, in another meeting: Strober and Strober, Nixon, 395.
Garment cautioned that anyone who destroyed: Garment, Crazy Rhythm, 278.
“We know that Dean lied”: Haig, Inner Circles, 379.
“[Nixon] didn’t believe he could survive”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 190.
“[Nixon] relied in the end”: Garment, Crazy Rhythm, 282.
“just plain poppy cock”: R. W. Apple, Jr., “Nixon Denounces Resignation Talk; Taping Is Halted,” New York Times, July 21, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/07/21/90454975.html?pageNumber=1.
“The president is uptight about Cox”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 101.
“I think you are heading for trouble”: Ibid.
“You are subject to the instructions”: Ibid., 102; Lacovara, “United States v. Nixon.”
“the impartial pursuit”: “A Sense of the Inevitable,” New York Times, July 29, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/07/29/404911781.html?pageNumber=18.
“I love my country”: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, 5:2480.
“I guess all we can do is keep”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 289.
“The subpoenas, as Nixon himself put it”: Haig, Inner Circles, 383.
Everyone involved knew that the case: Lacovara, “United States v. Nixon.”
“For a man who had devoted”: Ibid.
It was the first time the country: Associated Press, “Public Gets Look at Grand Jurors,” New York Times, July 28, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/07/28/90459043.html?pageNumber=10.
“muted but mod clothing”: Ibid.
“In fact, the few white middle-class Republicans”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 126.
“Do you think you taught”: Ibid., 107.
“It would have been overwhelmingly defeated”: O’Neill, Man of the House, 247.
“Politically, he damn near blew it”: Ibid.
“I took this up with the White House”: Ibid., 248.
“The Republicans could have turned”: Ibid., 248–49.
Chapter 35 Must-See TV
Each morning, Rufus Edmisten: Edmisten, That’s Rufus, 97.
“The enormous and continually widening cast”: McCarthy, Mask of State, 6–7.
Altogether, the average American home: Sirica, To Set the Record Straight, 134.
All told, sixty-three witnesses would take: Ervin, The Whole Truth, 128.
“If there’s anything better than a good memory”: Thompson, At That Point in Time, 53.
“Kleindienst, Petersen, and Gray declared”: Ervin, The Whole Truth, 171.
“I believed that [the hearings were] a political ploy”: Victoria Bassetti, “The Curious History of ‘What Did the President Know, and When Did He Know It?,’ ” March 12, 2018, Brennan Center, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/curious-history-what-did-president-know-and-when-did-he-know-it.
As it went on, the public support: Dash, Chief Counsel, 190.
“The Watergate hearings became a spectacle”: Sussman, The Great Cover-Up, 235.
“the best thing that has happened to public television”: Lauren Raab, “Video: Sen. Howard Baker Asked: What Did Nixon Know and When Did He Know It?,” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2014, https://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-na-pn-howard-baker-watergate-20140626-htmlstory.html.
“You know there has been murder”: Sussman, The Great Cover-Up, 235.
“You cannot feel the abuse”: J. Anthony Lukas, “No Crook Either,” New York Times Book Review, January 14, 1979, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/01/14/111000191.html?pageNumber=332.
One particularly persistent man: Ervin, The Whole Truth, 122.
“I don’t know how much the chief”: Ibid., 215.
“At restaurants, maitre d’s always had tables”: Thompson, At That Point in Time, 57.
“More than once Baker expressed”: Ibid., 93.
“In his own mind, there is not the faintest”: McCarthy, Mask of State, 96.
“Didn’t you bug [Kalmbach’s] telephone conversation”: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, 6:2572.
“involve[s] most sensitive national security matters”: Colodny and Gettlin, Silent Coup, 313.
“I do not apologize for my loyalty”: Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, 7:2864.
“That guy was tough as nails”: Dash, Chief Counsel, 195.
More than 150 times, Haldeman said: Sussman, The Great Cover-Up, 256.
“I don’t know who he thinks he’s fooling”: Weicker, Maverick, 81.
On August 7, the Ervin Committee’s must-see TV: Sussman, The Great Cover-Up, 255.
“The period immediately ahead”: Gormley, Archibald Cox, 294.
Chapter 36 Spiro
“When all is said and done”: Haig, Inner Circles, 351.
“The vice president called me over”: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 629.
“I’m going to have to get rid of him”: Ehrlichman, Witness to Power, 142–44.
“I’m going to be indicted”: Nicole Hemmer, ed., “Richard Nixon, Spiro T. Agnew, and Alexander Haig Jr. on 14 June 1973,” Conversation 940–002 (PRDE Excerpt A), Presidential Recordings Digital Edition, https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/conversations/4004312.
“I can’t have it put out”: Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz, Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up & Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House (New York: Crown, 2020), 125.
“Senator Beall wasn’t as responsive”: Ibid., 127.
“They say up in Baltimore”: Haig, Inner Circles, 352.
“Damned lies”: Christopher Lydon, “Agnew Says ‘Damned Lies’ to Report of Kickbacks,” New York Times, August 9, 1973, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/08/09/90462798.html?pageNumber=1.
“Everyone thinks he has to leave”: Haig, Inner Circles, 354–57.
“I never fully realized”: Weicker, Maverick, 83–85.
“These were the little guys in Watergate”: Ibid., 85.
That same day back in Washington: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 100.
“That the president of the United States”: United States v. Burr, 25 F. Cas. 187 (1807), https://cite.case.law/f-cas/25/187/.
“The broad framework of the case”: Doyle, Not Above the Law, 110.
“authorized nor encouraged”: Richard Nixon, “Address to the Nation About the Watergate Investigations,” August 15, 1973, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-about-the-watergate-investigations.
