John Dean: I Testified Against Nixon. Here's My Advice for Michael Cohen.
'My appearance before Congress helped take down a president. Will the same thing happen to Trump?
There are several parallels between my testimony before Congress in 1973, about President Richard Nixon and his White House, and Michael Cohens testimony this week about President Trump and his business practices. Setting aside the differences regarding how we got there, we both found ourselves speaking before Congress, in multiple open and closed venues, about criminal conduct of a sitting president of the United States. This is not a pleasant place to be, particularly given the presidents involved.
There are some differences: Unlike Mr. Cohen, who testified for a day, I testified for five days. His prepared statement was about 4,000 words; mine was some 60,000 words. Nielsen reports over 16 million people watched his testimony. I am told over 80 million people watched all or part of mine.
Polls varied widely after my testimony. One said 50 percent of Americans believed me, 30 percent did not, and 20 percent were not sure. Another poll had 38 percent believing the president, who denied my statement, and 37 percent believing me. The instant polls on Mr. Cohens testimony vary by party affiliation, as was the case with my polls. But 35 percent found him credible. I believe that number will grow.
While my testimony was eventually corroborated by secret recordings made by Mr. Nixon of our conversations, before that it was other witnesses who made the difference. I was surprised by the number of the people who surfaced to support my account. The same, I suspect, will happen for Michael Cohen. The Mafias code of omertà has no force in public service. I have heard no one other than Roger Stone say he will go to jail for Donald Trump.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/opinion/john-dean-michael-cohen.html
Pachamama
(16,887 posts)And I wish I could join them and listen in....
onetexan
(13,041 posts)What was interesting is there's conflcting info whether he went to prison or not. According to this August 2018 NYT article he did not go to prison but spent 4 months @Fort Holabird, a former Army base in Baltimore:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/us/politics/john-dean-watergate-facts-bio.html
This History site, however, says he did:
"Dean made a deal where he received a reduced sentence for providing key witness testimony and pleading guilty to obstruction of justice. He served four months in prison and was disbarred from practicing law in D.C. and Virginia."
https://www.history.com/news/watergate-nixon-john-dean-tapes
I'm assuming the prison sentence was being relegated to the army base doing some work there. Since then he's been writing books on presidential abuse of power and lecturing @colleges. Saw him on MSNBC. He's definitely a changed man. I get the same of Cohen. Both came to the realization of the character of the leaders they were serving after they were caught. But i'll give Cohen the benefit of the doubt given what Dean has done with his life after the fact. Hopefully this will spurn more people in this current administration to turn on the Idiot.
csziggy
(34,136 posts)Archived from the Nixon Library website:
He began his sentence under the supervision of the United States Marshalls at Fort Holabird, Maryland from September 3, 1974. During part of his time in custody, October 16-25, 1974, Dean testified in the Watergate cover-up trial, United States v. John N. Mitchell, et al. For his cooperation, Deans sentence was reduced to time served and he was released after four months on January 8, 1975.
https://web.archive.org/web/20161231180309/https://nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/textual/special/smof/dean.php
onetexan
(13,041 posts)csziggy
(34,136 posts)Perhaps Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, or Lawrence O'Donnell could have both Dean and Cohen on a show together before Cohen goes to jail?