John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is a former attorney who served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon 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.
LawyerAuthorJohn Dean/Professions
83Â years (October 14, 1938)John Dean / Age
May 31, 1976Martha Mitchell / Date of death
Maureen Deanm. 1972Karla Henningsm. 1962–1970John Dean/Spouse
Alexander ButterfieldBornAlexander Porter Butterfield April 6, 1926 Pensacola, FloridaAlma materUniversity of Maryland, College Park (BS) George Washington University (MS) University of California, San Diego (MA)AwardsDistinguished Flying CrossMilitary service13 more rows
April 27, 1994Richard Nixon / Date of burial
John Wesley Dean IVJohn Dean / Children
Maureen Deanm. 1972Karla Henningsm. 1962–1970John Dean/Wife
The original Watergate Seven and their legal dispositions were: G. Gordon Liddy — former FBI agent and general counsel for the Committee to Re-elect the President; convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping; sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison; served 4½ years in prison.
The police apprehended five men, later identified as Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, James McCord, Eugenio MartĂnez, and Frank Sturgis. They were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications.
James Walter McCord Jr. (January 26, 1924 – June 15, 2017) was an American CIA officer, later head of security for President Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. He was involved as an electronics expert in the burglaries which precipitated the Watergate scandal.
Nixon fired Dean on April 30, 1973.
In 1970 the president selected Dean as White House counsel. Dean first came to national attention in 1972, when Nixon named him to head a special investigation into possible involvement of White House personnel in the Watergate case.
Dean attended Colgate University (Hamilton, New York) and then the College of Wooster (Ohio), where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1961. He received a law degree from Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.) in 1965.
John Dean testifying for the second day before the Senate Watergate Committee. He said he was sure that President Nixon not only knew about the Watergate cover-up but also helped try to keep the scandal quiet.
Before Dean testified before Congress in the Watergate hearings, Nixon called Dean into his office in the Executive Office Building to try and make sure that Dean didn’t implicate him in his testimony. However, his bizarre behavior helped precipitate his downfall.
After the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes to Congress in the summer of 1974, prosecutors found they corroborated Dean’s testimony and implicated the president in the cover-up. “ [Dean] was first and one of the only, actually, in the higher echelons to give honest testimony,” Robenalt says.
Nixon had microphones in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, his Executive Office Building office and the Aspen Lodge at Camp David, and also recorded phone calls in the Lincoln Sitting Room. After the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes to Congress in the summer of 1974, ...
Still, some of the higher-level Watergate conspirators didn’t actually get a much harsher punishments than Dean. Former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman each served a year and a half in jail for their involvement. Nixon—the center of the whole scandal—received no punishment at all.
Dean was Nixon’s White House counsel on June 17, 1972, the night burglars broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. He had no prior knowledge of the break-in or the White House’s involvement.
Not only was Butterfield one of only a few people who knew about the taping system, he was actually the person who helped the Secret Service to install it at Nixon’s request. “I’m sorry you asked,” Butterfield responded. “But, yes, there was a taping system that taped all presidential conversations.”.
March 21, 2015. Charles N. Shaffer, the attorney for onetime White House counsel John W. Dean III, whose explosive testimony before a Senate committee directly linked President Richard M. Nixon to the Watergate break-in and coverup, leading to the president’s resignation in 1974, died March 15 at his home in Woodbine, Md. He was 82.
During five days of testimony in June 1973 before the Senate select committee on Watergate, Dean said he had discussed the coverup in detail in several meetings with Nixon, some of which had been recorded.
He was 82. He had complications from heart surgery, said his stepdaughter, Melissa C. Randolph. Before his high-profile representation of Dean, Mr. Shaffer (pronounced SHAFF-er) served as a Justice Department lawyer during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and as a staff member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination ...
Dean was implicated as well, and in October 1973 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice. According to Dean’s 1976 memoir, “Blind Ambition,” and other sources, Mr. Shaffer advised Dean to be forthcoming with investigators about what he had learned of Nixon’s actions. During five days of testimony in June 1973 before ...
After serving as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York, Mr. Shaffer came to Washington in 1962 as a lawyer in the Justice Department’s criminal and tax divisions. He was a staff member of the Warren Commission, the panel investigating Kennedy’s assassination, in 1964.
The shocking testimony shook the Nixon presidency to its core, and Congress began impeachment proceedings. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. A week before Nixon’s resignation, U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica sentenced Dean to one to four years in federal prison for his role in the Watergate conspiracy.
A look at those who have died. Wait 1 second to continue. “Dean is the one who broke the case for the government,” Mr. Shaffer said in court. In January 1975 , without warning, Sirica ordered that Dean be released from prison after only four months.