Chesterfield Smith, America's Lawyer by Mary E. Adkins

Author:Mary E. Adkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2020-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Henry Kissinger recalled that Watergate weakened Nixon both politically and physically. By the night of October 24, Nixon was so exhausted that Chief of Staff Alexander Haig advised against awakening him after Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev had sent a communication threatening that the Soviets might unilaterally intervene in the Israeli-Arab conflict.169 Later that night, Kissinger, acting under Nixon’s name, put the US military on worldwide alert.170 Nixon was offended that critics suggested the alert was related to Nixon’s domestic troubles.171 Even the Russian ambassador to the United States said there was no military necessity for the US alert.172 The alert was rescinded one day later.

The ABA Board of Governors held their emergency meeting on Saturday, October 27, 1973, and “approved, ratified, confirmed” Smith’s public statement made six days before.173 Only two members dissented, but after a four-hour debate, they agreed to a face-saving wording compromise that allowed a unanimous vote in Smith’s favor.174 The Board also determined the ABA would recommend a congressionally appointed special prosecutor to take over Cox’s work. Smith would testify on behalf of the ABA before the House Judicial Committee urging this legislation.

On November 1, 1973, Nixon agreed to appoint a new special prosecutor, a Houston-based former ABA president with a Texas-sized ego, Leon Jaworski. Jaworski had been ABA president two years before Smith. Smith knew and respected Jaworski from their ABA work, but nevertheless disapproved of his appointment, because he believed the special prosecutor should not be appointed by the president: doing so would only allow a repeat of the Cox debacle. Smith believed it should be the Congress that should act to establish a special prosecutor so the appointee could be independent of the president’s control. In fact, Smith was testifying before Congress on legislation to create a special prosecutor when Jaworski’s appointment was announced.175

At the end of October 1973, Smith hosted a dinner which his ABA friend Jaworski attended. Jaworski had just accepted the special prosecutor job. Chief Justice Burger was present; when he rose to speak, he turned to Jaworski and said: “I’ve noticed in the papers that Leon Jaworski is in town.”176 Smith meanwhile decided that the only way Nixon could receive a due process determination would be through an impeachment proceeding in the House of Representatives. By the end of November, Smith was publicly calling for impeachment proceedings to begin, but only as a method to determine the truth about Watergate.177

The December 1973 ABA Journal published an article recounting that the ABA Board of Governors had, in a special October 27 meeting, called on Congress to create an independent office of special prosecutor to continue the Watergate investigation.178 The ABA Journal published Smith’s full statement from October 22.179

The actions of Smith and the Board of Governors roiled the ABA. ABA members were far from unanimous on the issue. One Detroit member wrote to the ABA Journal: “The time has come for the formation of a committee to study the removal from office of Chesterfield Smith. In the name of the Association, Mr.

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