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Posted on 04/09/2004 4:33:11 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
On Feb. 1, a Baltimore jury gave radio talk-show host G. Gordon Liddy a victory over Maxie Wells -- regarded by some as a surrogate for former White House counsel John Dean -- who was expected to testify but did not show. Seven of the nine jurors agreed that Liddy had not libeled Wells. Judge J. Frederick Motz declared a mistrial even though the jurors had deliberated for only eight hours. After two hours of arguments, he dismissed the case, saying, "Having carefully considered all of the evidence, I do not believe a reasonable jury could find Mr. Liddy was negligent in making the statements at issue in this case."
Wells sued over statements Liddy made in two speeches taped by Dean's attorney, who later became hers. Liddy had said that the Watergate burglars were sent into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters to find photos of call girls believed to be kept in Wells' desk to show to visitors who were looking for a date. Wells, a secretary at the time, denied that she kept such photos in her desk and that she had any connection with prostitution. She sought damages of $5.1 million.
Ten years ago, Silent Coup: The Removal of a President, a best-seller by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, challenged the accepted version of the Watergate story. They claimed they had found the answer to this puzzling question: Why did the Nixon re-election campaign send a burglary team into the Democratic National Committee headquarters? Liddy, an employee of the Committee to Re-elect the President at the time, was one of those directing the operation.
On the 20th anniversary of Watergate, Liddy said he didn't know the real reason for the break-in until he read Silent Coup. He said that Dean had ordered an earlier break-in to plant a bug on a phone that was used to arrange dates with call girls for visiting Democratic dignitaries. A second break-in was ordered after an address book giving the names of the girls being called fell into the hands of the police. Liddy claimed one of the names was Maureen Biner and that she was given the code name "Clout" because she was Dean's girlfriend.
Silent Coup claimed that relationship explained Dean's keen interest in what might be found in the offices. One of the men who was caught, Rolando Martinez, an active CIA agent, was found to have a key to a desk where it was thought the photos of the call girls might be found. It was a desk belonging to Wells.
Colodny and Gettlin found support for their theory in several contradictory things that Dean had written. Dean had tried to explain some of them by claiming that he didn't write or even read his own book, Blind Ambition. Nevertheless, the media have treated Dean as a respected figure. He was in prison only four months, compared to more than four years for Liddy. Liddy called Dean a liar and virtually dared him to sue. In 1992, Dean filed suit against Colodny, Gettlin, their publisher and Liddy. Gettlin and the publisher settled several years ago.
Dean's lawsuit against Colodny was settled in 1999, when Colodny's insurer offered large sums of money to both of them if they would settle. Dean accepted and withdrew his charges. Colodny resisted; he wanted his motion for summary judgment to be heard by a judge, but he agreed not to oppose Dean's withdrawal with prejudice and a pledge never to sue Colodny again. Last June, Dean withdrew most of his charges against Liddy without prejudice. The judge retained jurisdiction over what remained of the case. Liddy declared victory and again called Dean a liar. That left Wells' lawsuit against Liddy as the last chance to test the credibility of Dean and Silent Coup in court. Liddy's assertions about Wells went beyond what Silent Coup had said, but the book was cited repeatedly during the trial because the theory it advances lends support to Liddy's charges.
The judge and seven of the nine jurors decided that Wells didn't have a case. This was as much a victory for Silent Coup as for Liddy. The Washington Post, which has guarded its theory of Watergate by never mentioning Silent Coup, began its report on the end of the Wells' libel lawsuit with these words: "The wildcat notion that the Watergate burglary was intended to cover up a call-girl ring was catapulted today out of the realm of fringe conspiracy theories by a deadlocked jury that leaned heavily toward siding with the scenario's leading proponent, G. Gordon Liddy." New information from the Nixon tapes may soon force even the Post to recognize Silent Coup's theory as the victor.
So, in order to weasel his way out of the lawsuit, John Dean claimed he didn't write or read his own book. I though folks here need to see this in under to understand what a complete FRAUD John Dean is. This info should help you understand why John Dean tried to weasel his way out of an explanation of this today in his interview with Sean Hannity. Dean is UTTERLY without honor and is a total FRAUD.
Dean had tried to explain some of them by claiming that he didn't write or even read his own book, Blind Ambition.
With Watergate and government affairs dominating the world at the time, I decided to major in government and seek a career in the world of law.
Now, 30 plus years later I learn what motivated me and shaped my entire future was very possibly a media hallucination to protect Dean's girlfriend from embarrassment. Boy, do I feel stupid. (You can't hear my maniacal laughter; the ropes on my straight jacket are too tight also. I probably would have been a Gate's like billionare instead. Oh well.) D'oh!!!
This is exactly the strategy that some one associated with the Bush administration should use with Dick Clark. Call the man a liar, call him a fraud, state that his public testimonty at the 911 commission was at variance with his public testimony, call him a fat lying weasel; in short do anything to get Dick Clark to sue for libel. Then get that SOB on the stand, under oath, question him about his assertions in public, and watch him squirm.
It would be woth the price of admission...
You WILL. Standby.
Here is a second source in this SLATE ARTICLE. It shows even more clearly what a LYING FRAUD John Dean is. Here is Dean's incredibly LAME excuse as to why he didn't even read his own book:
But Dean, in an earlier Silent Coup-spawned lawsuit in the mid-1990s, tried to distance himself from his own book. His ghostwriter had invented portions of Blind Ambition "out of whole cloth," Dean testified, and he himself never had "gone through this book cover to cover." (When the galley proofs arrived, he testified, he was bedridden with a fever. His wife didn't want him to get ink on the bedclothes, so he didn't make corrections.) But Blind Ambition's ghostwriter, Taylor Branch, denies inventing any of the book's facts--and he went on to win the history Pulitzer for Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (1988).
Check out the classic picture in the post - "There's Something About Maureen"
On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/
Flipping His Liddy (Lying FRAUD John Dean Explains Why He Didn't Read/Write Own Book) Stephen Bates/Slate (FR historical discussions)
Oh yeah, I believe that. Trained lawyers that have already been burnt once by the law and gone to prison for it always attach their name to publications they haven't reviewed.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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