John Dean, a former White House counsel during the Nixon administration, said former President Nixon “would have been able to get through” the Watergate scandal if the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling on Monday had been handed down, giving former presidents little or no immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken in office.
Asked what would have happened to President Nixon if immunity had been granted in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, Dean pointed to Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who split with the other conservative justices on part of the majority opinion on using presidential acts as evidence in criminal prosecutions against former presidents.
“There are actually two rulings in this case: 6-3 on presumed immunity, but 5-4 on the issue that evidence of official conduct cannot even be considered,” Dean said Monday. “This seems very … to me to certainly impact existing law on presidential conduct. [and] “I think Nixon would have survived because Amy Coney Barrett said the court’s decisions should not be as limited as they are. I think he would have been acquitted under this decision.”
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Monday, basing its decision on the ideologically-driven notion that the president has absolute immunity for acts that fall within the core responsibilities of his office, but “at least a presumptive immunity” for all other official business.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, ruled that a former president’s official acts are protected from being introduced as evidence in criminal proceedings against him.
In her concurring opinion, Barrett said she disagreed with that portion of the ruling, writing, “I disagree with the ruling. I join the dissent on this point…The Constitution does not require that the circumstances surrounding the conduct for which the President is held liable be concealed from jurors.”
Nixon Stuck in a quagmire The Watergate scandal of 1972 began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Building, allegedly by officials working for Nixon’s reelection, several of whom later resigned and were convicted of crimes related to the cover-up.
Nixon denies involvementHowever, the Supreme Court ruling The president was forced to turn over audio tapes that showed he was trying to evade investigation, and he resigned in 1973 to avoid inevitable impeachment by Congress.
He was later pardoned by former President Ford for any crimes he may have committed while in office.
Dean said he was still reviewing the evidence known at the time the scandal began, but that the impeachment indictment showed Nixon was “not responsible” and “not criminally responsible.”
“When the president committed a crime, it was considered one of the elements of a high crime or misdemeanor. There is no longer a crime in the president’s official conduct,” he said.
The Supreme Court on Monday handed former President Trump a victory, granting immunity to the criminal trial brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegedly subverting the federal election.
The decision will likely delay the trial, first sending the case back to a lower court to determine whether Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, merit protection from criminal prosecution for decisions made while in the White House.
