AnniversaryGate

TWENTY-FIVE years after the Watergate break-in, it is easy to forget how much of what Americans believe about that event depends on John Dean’s self-proclaimed “astounding memory for detail.”

The one-time White House Counsel admittedly “managed” the cover-up of the break-in for a time, then turned state’s evidence. By testifying before the televised Senate Watergate Committee proceedings, the House impeachment inquiry, and the jury in U.S. v. Mitchell (1974), the landmark political trial that convicted President Richard Nixon’s top aides, Dean gained acclaim as a once-misguided but ultimately courageous White House whistleblower.

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James Rosen

James Rosen is the chief Washington correspondent at Newsmax and the author of Scalia: Supreme Court Years, 1986–2001.

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TWENTY-FIVE years after the Watergate break-in, it is easy to forget how much of what Americans believe about that event depends on John Dean’s self-proclaimed “astounding memory for detail.”

The one-time White House Counsel admittedly “managed” the cover-up of the break-in for a time, then turned state’s evidence. By testifying before the televised Senate Watergate Committee proceedings, the House impeachment inquiry, and the jury in U.S. v. Mitchell (1974), the landmark political trial that convicted President Richard Nixon’s top aides, Dean gained acclaim as a once-misguided but ultimately courageous White House whistleblower.