HE WAS NOT A CROOK

nypost.com ^ | May 18, 2008 | JAMES ROSEN

[Free ThinkerNY]

HOW AN OUT-OF-CONTROL MEDIA INDICTED NIXON WITHOUT A TRIAL

May 18, 2008 -- Swarmed by photographers, former Attorney General John Mitchell - once President Nixon's closest adviser, an awesome figure, with his wintry demeanor and trademark pipe, throughout the capital - emerged shaken and unsmiling from a three-hour grilling before the grand jury. It was April 20, 1973, and the Watergate cover-up was fast unraveling. Federal prosecutors and reporters smelled blood.

"Mitchell had good reason to be grim," reported Daniel Schorr. "CBS News learns Mitchell admitted to the grand jury that he authorized payment of legal fees and expenses for the Watergate defendants months after he ended his official connection with the Nixon campaign committee."

This was almost certainly false. For while those grand jury proceedings remain sealed, in none of the ensuing forums - the Senate Watergate hearings; the House impeachment hearings; or U.S. v. Mitchell, the trial of the former attorney general on criminal charges that stemmed, in part, from his unhappy appearance before the grand jury that day - did Mitchell ever admit authorizing payments to the Watergate burglars. Nor did the prosecutors, who tried Mitchell for that exact offense, ever produce, in his indictment or trial, any such grand jury testimony by him.

[lepton]

use of the IRS against political enemies...

As I recall, that's not true. He did "suggest" it, but it was declined and he never pushed it further. Do you have some record to the contrary? It's entirely possible I missed it, as I've never much cared about Nixon.

[Sonny M]

I’ve never heard that Reagan said anything about Nixon much less loathed him. Reagan most likely did not loath anyone.

Only a few years ago, Nixon's library released some tapes of Nixon talking to Kissinger about Reagan, and how Reagan had been very hostile towards him, and how Nixon has always heard that Reagan was a warm and friendly guy, but he didn't see it, or Reagan simply wasn't nice to him.

Kissinger basically confirmed in that same conversation that Reagan simply doesn't like him.

Alexander Haig, after the tapes came, did state that Reagan did "loathe" nixon.

He repeated that claim again when Mark Felt revealed himself to be deep throat, and noted that Reagan pardoned Felt, and that the pardon was a sort of slap in the face to nixon (this was unrelated to Felt being deep throat, and had to do with something else that Felt and another agent did for the government).