Former President Richard Nixon’s counsel John Dean said Monday that the Supreme Court’s decision that Donald Trump has full immunity for “official” actions he took as president — even his attempted coup — likely would have meant that Nixon was immune from his criminal conduct during the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation.
“As I looked at it, I realized Richard Nixon would have had a pass,” Dean said on a press call with the Defend Democracy Project, a group that advocates for free and fair elections.
“Virtually all of his Watergate-related conduct” and “virtually all that evidence falls in what could easily be described as ‘official conduct,’” he said.
Dean, who served as counsel to Nixon from July 1970 to April 1973, said he was “stunned” by the Supreme Court’s sweeping 6-3 decision. It concluded that Trump enjoys complete immunity for his coup-attempt-related presidential actions that were “official” in nature, but not for those that were “unofficial.” The justices kicked the case back to a U.S. District Court to sort out what counts as “official” and “unofficial” behavior by a president.
The Supreme Court’s decision means that Trump’s federal trial on his Jan. 6, 2021, charges almost certainly won’t begin before the November election. If Trump is elected president for a second term, he would have authority to appoint a new attorney general who could dismiss the federal charges, as well the potential power to pardon himself.
Nixon infamously stepped down as president over his involvement in a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee, which was located in the Watergate office building in D.C. Nixon’s aides secretly bugged political opponents’ offices and misused government offices for political purposes, and Nixon became the target of House impeachment proceedings over his efforts to impede investigations into the incident.
The Supreme Court ultimately forced him to hand over Oval Office tapes in 1974 that revealed his complicity in the cover-up, shortly after which he resigned.
Dean was convicted and sentenced to federal prison for his role in the Watergate scandal and cover-up. He ultimately served just four months.
While the House never did impeach Nixon, it had “a voluminous report” that detailed all of the evidence of his involvement in the Watergate scandal, said Nixon’s former counsel. The Supreme Court’s latest decision on presidential immunity certainly would have changed what could have been used against Nixon in that case, he said.
“I’m not even sure you could get to the Nixon tapes under this ruling,” Dean speculated. “What its implications are with the existing Supreme Court ruling, in U.S. v. Nixon, is a question I haven’t unraveled yet.”
