John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938 in Akron, Ohio, USA) was White House Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 to April 1973. As such he became deeply involved in the Watergate cover-up, but fearing prosecution, he became one of the star witnesses in the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal, and gave devastating testimony against many administration officials, including himself, Nixon fundraiser and former Attorney General John Mitchell, and the President. He was the first administration official to accuse the President of direct involvement, during his testimony for the prosecution. Such testimony against Nixon, while damaging to the President's credibility, at first had little impact legally, as it was merely his word against the President's. The President vigorously denied all accusations against him that he authorized a cover-up, and Dean had no proof beyond various notes he had taken about his meetings with Nixon. It was not until the existence of Nixon's secret tapes was made public, and their subsequent subpeona by special prosecutor Archibald Cox and his replacement Leon Jaworski, that Dean's accusations were proved.

Dean pled guilty to obstruction of justice before Watergate trial judge John Sirica on October 19, 1973. He admitted supervising payments of "hush money" to the Watergate burglars, notably E. Howard Hunt, and revealed the existence of Nixon's enemies list. On August 2, 1974, Sirica handed down a sentence of one to four years in a minimum-security prison. However, when Dean surrendered himself as scheduled on September 3, he was diverted to the custody of U.S. Marshals and kept instead at Fort Holabird (near Baltimore, Maryland) in a special "safe house" holding facility primarily used for witnesses against the Mafia. He spent his days in the offices of the Watergate Special Prosecutor and testifying in the trial of Watergate conspirators Mitchell, Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson, which concluded on January 1, 1975. Dean's lawyer moved to have his sentence reduced, and on January 8, Sirica granted the motion, adjusting Dean's sentence to time served. Dean chronicled his White House experiences, with a focus on Watergate, in the memoirs Blind Ambition and Lost Honor.

Before becoming presidential counsel, Dean served as Chief Minority Counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives, the Associate Director of a law reform commission, and Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States.

Dean is now an investment banker in Beverly Hills, California, and writes political and news commentary articles.

In 2001, Dean published The Rehnquist Choice, an exposé of the White House's selection process for a new Supreme Court justice in 1971, which led to the accession of William Rehnquist to the United States' highest court. Three years later, Dean authored a book heavily critical of the administration of George W. Bush, entitled Worse than Watergate, a polemic which calls for the impeachment of Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney for lying to the Congress.

Books

• Blind Ambition: The White House Years (1976)
• Lost Honor (1982)
• The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court (2001)
• Unmasking Deep Throat (2002)
• Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (2004)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

John Dean

• Democracy Now! interview with John Dean (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/06/1354218)

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