Watergate by Garrett M. Graff

Author:Garrett M. Graff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

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With Dean’s testimony still rippling through the American public, Cox’s team knew it needed to find a first domino to fall—one that would pressure conspirators and set the tone and scale for the punishments to come. Fred LaRue, they agreed, would be the easiest target. He’d first spoken to prosecutors that spring without an immunity deal, and his culpability in the hush money payments was clear. James Neal pressured LaRue and his lawyer to fold, and as Dean’s testimony wrapped up, LaRue pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. As soon as the plea was before Judge Sirica, prosecutors knew who they’d go after next: Magruder, then Dean.

Watching from the White House, Fred Buzhardt had grown increasingly concerned as he rushed to formulate the best defense he could, closeting himself with some of Nixon’s recorded tapes. As he listened, he worried. His client sounded guilty. Buzhardt heard a lot that seemed to be obstruction of justice at a minimum—perhaps worse. Buzhardt, though, didn’t know who to tell or what to share; the strictures of attorney-client privilege precluded commiserating with most of his White House colleagues.

One night, after work, he stopped by the house of his former Pentagon boss and now White House colleague Melvin Laird. Buzhardt and Laird went into the basement, and Buzhardt opened up. “The president was involved in the cover-up,” he said. “I’ve listened to some of the tapes, and he was in the cover-up right up to his eyeballs from the beginning.”VII

There was only one legal strategy ahead: delay.

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