John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is a disbarred American attorney who served as
White House Counsel for U.S. President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the
Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. His guilty plea to a single
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...
in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence, which he served at
Fort Holabird outside
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, Maryland. After his plea, he was
disbarred.
Shortly after the
Watergate hearings, Dean wrote about his experiences in a series of books and toured the United States to lecture. He later became a commentator on contemporary politics, a book author, and a columnist for FindLaw's
''Writ''.
Dean had originally been a proponent of
Goldwater conservatism, but he later became a critic of the
Republican Party. Dean has been particularly critical of the party's support of Presidents
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
and
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
, and of
neoconservatism,
strong executive power,
mass surveillance, and the
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
.
Early life and education
Dean was born in
Akron, Ohio
Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...
, and lived in
Marion, the hometown of the 29th President of the United States,
Warren Harding, whose biographer he later became. His family moved to
Flossmoor, Illinois, where he attended grade school. For high school, he attended
Staunton Military Academy with
Barry Goldwater Jr., the son of Sen.
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...
, and became a close friend of the family.
He attended
Colgate University
Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...
and then transferred to the
College of Wooster in
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, where he obtained his B.A. in 1961. He received a
Juris Doctor
A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
(J.D.) from the
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...
in 1965.
Dean married Karla Ann Hennings, the daughter of Senator
Thomas C. Hennings Jr.
Thomas Carey Hennings Jr. (June 25, 1903September 13, 1960) was an United States of America, American political figure from Missouri. He was a United States Democratic Party, Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives (from 1 ...
of Missouri, on February 4, 1962; they had one child, John Wesley Dean IV, before divorcing in 1970. Dean married Maureen (Mo) Kane on October 13, 1972.
Washington lawyer
After graduation, Dean joined Welch & Morgan, a law firm in Washington, D.C., where he was soon accused of conflict of interest violations and fired:
he was alleged to have started negotiating his own private deal for a TV station broadcast license, after his firm had assigned him to complete the same task for a client.
Dean was employed from 1966 to 1967 as chief minority counsel to the Republicans on the
United States House Committee on the Judiciary. Dean then served as associate director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws for approximately two years.
Nixon campaign and administration
Dean volunteered to write position papers on crime for
Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968. The following year, he became an associate deputy in the office of the
Attorney General of the United States, serving under Attorney General
John N. Mitchell, with whom he was on friendly terms. In July 1970, he accepted an appointment to serve as counsel to the president, after the previous holder of this post,
Chuck Colson, became the president's director of the
Office of Public Liaison.
Watergate scandal
Start of Watergate
On January 27, 1972, Dean, the
White House Counsel, met with
Jeb Magruder (Deputy Director of the
Committee to Re-Elect the President, or CRP and CREEP) and Mitchell (
Attorney General of the United States, and soon-to-be Director of CRP), in Mitchell's office, for a presentation by
G. Gordon Liddy (counsel for CRP and a former
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
agent). Liddy presented a preliminary plan for intelligence-gathering operations during the campaign. Reaction to Liddy's plan was highly unfavorable. Liddy was ordered to scale down his ideas, and he presented a revised plan to the same group on February 4, which was also left unapproved.
In late March in Florida, Mitchell approved a scaled-down plan. This revised plan eventually led to attempts to eavesdrop on the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States's Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the ...
(DNC) headquarters at the
Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., and to the
Watergate scandal. The burglars' first break-in attempt in late May was successful, but several problems had arisen with poor-quality information from their bugs, and they wanted to photograph more documents. Specifically, the burglars were interested in information they thought was held by DNC head
Lawrence F. O'Brien. On their second break-in, on the night of June 16, hotel security discovered the burglars. After the burglars' arrest, Dean took custody of evidence and money from the White House safe of
E. Howard Hunt, who had been in charge of the burglaries, and destroyed some of the evidence before investigators could find it.
Link to cover-up
On February 28, 1973, Acting
FBI Director L. Patrick Gray testified before the
Senate Judiciary Committee
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...
during his nomination to replace
J. Edgar Hoover as director of the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
. Armed with newspaper articles indicating the White House had possession of FBI Watergate files, committee chair
Sam Ervin
Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896April 23, 1985) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A Southern Democrat, he liked to call himself a " country lawyer", and often told humorous ...
asked Gray what he knew about the White House obtaining the files. Gray said he had given FBI reports to Dean, and had discussed the FBI investigation with Dean on many occasions. It also came out that Gray had destroyed important evidence Dean entrusted to him. Gray's nomination failed and Dean was directly linked to the Watergate cover-up.
White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman later claimed that Nixon appointed Dean to take the lead role in coordinating the Watergate cover-up from an early stage and that this cover-up was working very well for many months. Certain aspects of the scandal came to light before
Election Day, but Nixon was reelected by a landslide.
Cooperation with prosecutors
On March 22, 1973, Nixon requested that Dean put together a report with everything he knew about the Watergate matter, inviting him to take a retreat to
Camp David
Camp David is a country retreat for the president of the United States. It lies in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont, Maryland, Thurmont and Emmitsburg, Maryland, Emmitsburg, a ...
to do so. Dean went to Camp David and did some work on a report, but since he was one of the cover-up's chief participants, the task put him in the difficult position of relating his own involvement as well as that of others; he correctly concluded that higher-ups were fitting him for the role of scapegoat. Dean did not complete the report.
[''Blind Ambition: The White House Years'', by John Dean, New York 1976, Simon & Schuster, pp. 196–274.]
On March 23, the five Watergate burglars, along with G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, were sentenced with stiff fines and prison time of up to 40 years.
On April 6, Dean hired an attorney and began cooperating with
Senate Watergate investigators, while continuing to work as Nixon's Chief White House Counsel and participating in cover-up efforts, not disclosing this obvious conflict to Nixon until some time later. Dean was also receiving advice from the attorney he hired, Charles Shaffer, on matters involving the vulnerabilities of other White House staff.
Dean continued to provide information to the prosecutors, who were able to make enormous progress on the cover-up, which until then they had virtually ignored, concentrating on the actual burglary and events preceding it. Dean also appeared before the Watergate
grand jury, where he took the
Fifth Amendment numerous times to avoid incriminating himself, and in order to save his testimony for the
Senate Watergate hearings.
Firing by Nixon
Coupled with his sense of distance from Nixon's inner circle, the "Berlin Wall" of advisors Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Dean sensed he was going to become the Watergate scapegoat and returned to Washington without completing his report. Nixon fired Dean on April 30, the same day he announced the resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and US Attorney General
Richard Kleindienst.
When Nixon learned that Dean had begun cooperating with federal prosecutors, he pressed Kleindienst not to give Dean immunity from prosecution, telling him that Dean was lying to the Justice Department about his conversations with the president. On April 17, 1973, Nixon told Assistant Attorney General
Henry Petersen (who was overseeing the Watergate investigation) that he did not want any member of the White House to be granted immunity from prosecution. Petersen informed Nixon that this could cause problems for the prosecution of the case, but Nixon publicly announced his position that evening. It was alleged that Nixon's motivation for preventing Dean from getting immunity was to prevent him from testifying against key Nixon aides and Nixon himself.
Testimony to Senate Watergate Committee
On June 25, 1973, Dean began his testimony before the
Senate Watergate Committee. The committee had voted to grant him
use immunity (doing so in a divided vote in a private session that was then changed to a unanimous vote and announced that way to the public). In his testimony, he implicated administration officials, including Mitchell, Nixon, and himself. His testimony attracted very high television ratings since he was breaking new ground in the investigation, and media attention grew apace, with more detailed newspaper coverage. Dean was the first administration official to accuse Nixon of direct involvement with Watergate and the resulting cover-up in press interviews.
Research on accuracy of Dean's memory
When it was revealed that Nixon had secretly recorded all meetings in the
Oval Office, famous psychologist and memory researcher
Ulric Neisser analyzed Dean's recollections of the meetings, as expressed through his testimony, in comparison to the meetings' actual recordings.
[Neisser, U. (1981). John Dean's memory: A case study. Cognition, 9(1), 1–22.] A sharp critic of studying memory in a laboratory setting, Neisser saw "a valuable data trove" in Dean's recall.
Neisser found that, despite Dean's confidence, the tapes proved that his memory was anything but a tape recorder.
[Schacter, D. L. (1996). ''Searching for Memory: The Brain, The Mind, and the Past''; Basic Books.] Dean failed to recall any conversations verbatim, and often failed to recall the gist of conversations correctly.
Neisser did not explain the difference as one of deception; rather, he thought that the evidence supported the theory that memory is not akin to a tape recorder and instead should be thought of as reconstructions of information that are greatly affected by rehearsal, or attempts at replay.
Criminal trial
Dean pleaded guilty to
obstruction of justice
In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investiga ...
before Watergate trial judge
John Sirica on October 19, 1973. He admitted supervising payments of "
hush money" to the Watergate burglars, notably E. Howard Hunt, and revealed the existence of
Nixon's enemies list. Watergate
Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox was interested in meeting with Dean and planned to do so a few days later, but Cox was
fired by Nixon the next day; it was not until a month later that Cox was replaced by
Leon Jaworski. On August 2, 1974, Sirica handed down a sentence to Dean of one to four years in a minimum-security prison. But when Dean surrendered as scheduled on September 3, he was diverted to the custody of
U.S. Marshals and kept instead at
Fort Holabird (near
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, Maryland) in a special "
safe house" primarily used for witnesses against the
Mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...
. He spent his days at the offices of Jaworski, the Watergate Special Prosecutor, and testifying in the trial of Watergate conspirators Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman,
Robert Mardian, and
Kenneth Parkinson, which concluded in December. All except Parkinson were convicted, largely based upon Dean's evidence. Dean's lawyer moved to have his sentence reduced and on January 8, Sirica granted the motion, adjusting Dean's sentence to time served, which was four months. With his plea to
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...
offenses, Dean was
disbarred as a lawyer in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
and the District of Columbia.
Life after Watergate

Investment banker
Shortly after Watergate, Dean became an
investment banker, author and lecturer based in
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...
. He chronicled his White House experiences, with a focus on Watergate, in the memoirs ''Blind Ambition'' (1976) and ''Lost Honor'' (1982). ''Blind Ambition'' was
ghostwritten by future
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
-winning journalist
Taylor Branch and later made into
a 1979 TV miniseries.
In 1992, Dean hired attorney
Neil Papiano and brought the first in a series of defamation suits against G. Gordon Liddy for claims in Liddy's book ''Will'' and
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...
for its publication of the book ''
Silent Coup'' by
Len Colodny and
Robert Gettlin. ''Silent Coup'' alleged that Dean masterminded the
Watergate burglaries and the Watergate coverup and that the true aim of the burglaries was to seize information implicating Dean and the former Maureen "Mo" Biner (his then-fiancée) in a prostitution ring. After hearing of Colodny's work, Liddy issued a revised paperback version of ''Will'' supporting Colodny's theory. This theory was subsequently the subject of the 1992
A&E Network ''
Investigative Reports'' series program ''The Key to Watergate''.
In the preface to his 2006 book ''
Conservatives Without Conscience'', Dean strongly denied Colodny's theory, pointing out that Colodny's chief source (Phillip Mackin Bailley) had been in and out of mental institutions. Dean settled the defamation suit against Colodny and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, on terms that Dean wrote in the book's preface he could not divulge under the conditions of the settlement, other than that "the Deans were satisfied." The case of Dean vs. Liddy was dismissed without prejudice. Also in 2006, Dean appeared as an interviewee in the documentary ''
The U.S. vs. John Lennon'', about the Nixon administration's efforts to keep
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
out of the United States.
Dean retired from investment banking in 2000 while continuing to work as an author and lecturer, becoming a columnist for
FindLaw's ''
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrant (legal), Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, and ''certiorari'' are commo ...
'' online magazine.
Watergate comments
In 2001, Dean published ''The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court'', an exposé of the White House's selection process for a new
Supreme Court
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice in 1971, which led to the appointment of
William Rehnquist. He resides in
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...
.
In 2008, Dean co-edited ''Pure Goldwater,'' a collection of writings by the 1964 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, in part as an act of fealty to the man who defined his political ideals. His co-editor was Goldwater's son Barry Goldwater, Jr.
Historian
Stanley Kutler was accused of editing his transcripts of the Nixon tapes to make Dean appear in a more favorable light.
On September 17, 2009, Dean appeared on ''Countdown'' with new allegations about Watergate. He said he had found information via the Nixon tapes that showed what the burglars were after: information on a kickback scheme involving the
Democratic National Convention in
Miami Beach, Florida. Dean also asserts that Nixon did not directly order the break-in, but that Ehrlichman ordered it on Nixon's behalf.
In speaking engagements in 2014, Dean called Watergate a "lawyers' scandal" that, for all the bad, ushered in needed legal ethics reforms.
Criticism of George W. Bush
In 2004, Dean wrote a book heavily critical of the administration of
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
, ''
Worse than Watergate'', in which he called for the
impeachment of Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
for allegedly lying to Congress.
His next book, released in 2006, was ''Conservatives without Conscience'', a play on Barry Goldwater's book ''
The Conscience of a Conservative''. In it, he asserts that post-Goldwater conservatism has been co-opted by people with authoritarian personalities and policies, citing data from
Bob Altemeyer. According to Dean, modern conservatism, specifically on the
Christian Right, embraces obedience, inequality, intolerance, and strong intrusive government, in stark contrast to Goldwater's philosophies and policies. Using Altemeyer's scholarly work, he contends that there is a tendency toward ethically questionable political practices when authoritarians are in power and that the current political situation is dangerously unsound because of it. Dean cites the behavior of key members of the
Republican leadership, including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale DeLay (; born April 8, 1947) is an American author and retired politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. A Republican Party (United States), Republican, DeLay represented Texas's 22nd congress ...
,
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...
and
Bill Frist, as clear evidence of a relationship between modern right-wing conservatism and this authoritarian approach to governance. He places particular emphasis on the abdication of checks and balances by the Republican Congress and on the dishonesty of the conservative intellectual class in support of the Republican Party, as a result of the obedience and arrogance innate to the authoritarian mentality.
After it became known that Bush authorized
NSA wiretaps without warrants, Dean asserted that Bush is "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense". On March 31, 2006, Dean testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during hearings on censuring Bush over the issue. Senator
Russell Feingold, who sponsored the censure resolution, introduced Dean as a "patriot" who put "rule of law above the interests of the president." In his testimony, Dean asserted that Nixon covered up Watergate because he believed it was in the interest of national security. This sparked a sharp debate with Republican
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
senator
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (; born July 9, 1955) is an American politician and attorney serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A membe ...
, who repeatedly asserted that Nixon authorized the break-in at Democratic headquarters. Dean finally replied, "You're showing you don't know that subject very well." Spectators laughed, and soon the senator was "sputtering mad".
Dean's 2007 book ''Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches'' is, as he wrote in its introduction, the third volume of an unplanned trilogy. In this latest book, Dean, who has repeatedly called himself a "Goldwater conservative", built on ''Worse Than Watergate'' and ''Conservatives Without Conscience'' to argue that the Republican Party has gravely damaged all three branches of the federal government in the service of ideological rigidity and with no attention to the public interest or the general good. Dean concludes that conservatism must regenerate itself to remain true to its core ideals of limited government and the rule of law.
Criticism of Donald Trump
Dean later emerged as a strong critic of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
, saying in 2017 that he was even worse than Nixon. He said, "It's a nightmare. They don't know what their jeopardy is. They don't know what they're looking at. They don't know if they're a part of a conspiracy that might unfold. They don't know whether to hire lawyers or not, how they're going to pay for them if they do. It's an unpleasant place."
In February 2018, Dean warned that
Rick Gates's testimony may be "the end" of Trump's presidency.
In September 2018, Dean warned against
Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
, a main concern being that the appointment would result in "the most
presidential-powers-friendly court" in modern times.
On November 7, 2018, the day after the midterm elections, Trump forced Attorney General
Jeff Sessions to resign. Dean commented on the removal in colorful terms, saying it "seems to be planned like a murder" and that Special Counsel
Robert Mueller likely had contingency plans, possibly including sealed indictments.
In early June 2019, Dean testified, along with various U.S. attorneys and legal experts, before the House Judiciary Committee on the implications of, and potential actions as a result of, the
Mueller report.
In 2022, Dean said the
January 6 Committee had an overwhelming case against Trump. In 2024, Dean said the
''Trump v. United States'' ruling essentially affirms Nixon's famous statement during the
Nixon interviews: "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." Dean said Nixon "would have survived" the Watergate scandal under the ruling "because the evidence against him was based on official acts the Supreme Court has deemed immune from prosecution." Dean called the ruling “a radical decision by a radical court” and “judicial activism on steroids.”
Dean elaborated his thoughts on the ruling:
“Well, there’s actually two rulings in this decision. There’s a 6-3 for presumptive immunity, but there’s also a 5-4 on you can’t even have the evidence of official conduct come to play… This is very…this to me, appears to certainly influence the existing law on presidential conduct ndwhat’s available…evidentiary speaking. Amy Coney Barrett said she didn’t think that it should be so restricted as the decision of the court itself was, so I think that Nixon would have survived. I think he would have walked under this ruling.”
Dean had previously said Nixon would have survived that same scandal if
Fox News
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
had existed during that time (1970s).
He said:
“I think there’s more likelihood (Nixon) might have survived if there’d been a Fox News.”
Media appearances and portrayals
Dean frequently served as a guest on the former
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
and
Current TV
Current TV was an American television channel which broadcast from August 1, 2005, to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a small ...
news program, ''
Countdown with Keith Olbermann'', and ''
The Randi Rhodes Show'' on
Premiere Radio Networks.
In the 1979 TV mini-series ''
Blind Ambition'', Dean was played by
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...
. In the 1995 film ''
Nixon'', directed by
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...
, Dean was played by
David Hyde Pierce. In the 1999 film ''
Dick'', Dean was played by
Jim Breuer. In the 2022 TV mini-series ''
Gaslit'', Dean was played by
Dan Stevens. In the 2023 TV mini-series ''
White House Plumbers'', Dean was played by
Domhnall Gleeson.
Bibliography
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References
Further reading
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External links
John Dean testifying at the Watergate HearingsWETA-TV Public Television, 1973 Watergate Hearings.
Worse Than Watergate: Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Says Bush Should Be Impeached ''Democracy Now!'', April 6, 2004, interview with John Dean.
John Dean, ''
Findlaw'', September 9, 2005.
* Video of John Dean interview by
Keith Olbermann on ''
Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' about Dean's book ''
Conservatives Without Conscience'' on July 11, 2006, a
Crooks and Liars .
* Interview comparing Nixon and Donald Trump.
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''Booknotes'' interview with Dean on ''Warren G. Harding'', March 14, 2004.*
''In Depth'' interview with Dean, April 4, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dean, John
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