Watergate Lawyer Blasts Republicans, Clears Hillary Of Any Wrongdoing Over Emails
John Dean is an American whose controversial place in history was long assured before this election, for he was Republican President Richard Nixon’s White House Counsel during the Watergate scandal.
The 77-year old lawyer just penned a conclusive legal brief which decisively debunks the lies told by Donald Trump and the spurned Benghazi Committee members about Hillary Clinton as he makes his case for abuse of power by House Republicans:
These men—along with their staff and the Republican leadership that are part of this ploy—are blatantly abusing congressional powers. The out-front leaders of this squalid action are Bob Goodlatte, chair of the Committee on the Judiciary and Jason Chaffetz, chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The two Republican congressmen can continue to propagate these outright fabrications, shielded behind their uniquely enhanced constitutional right to free speech under the “Speech and Debate” clause of the Constitution.
Dean completely dissected Republicans’ neo-McCarthyist maneuver piece by piece, word by word aimed at influencing a presidential election with their bogus innuendo. It’s the kind of lying to law enforcement which would land an ordinary citizen – like former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert – behind bars. He wrote:
The charges that Secretary Clinton lied to Congress are baseless. While there may be a few technical errors in her testimony, and there may be information that was discovered by the FBI after she testified, there is absolutely no evidence at all that she willfully and knowingly provided false information to Congress.
Ironically, there are more false statements in the letter from chairmen [Bob] Goodlatte and [Jason] Chaffetz to the Department of Justice, which are clearly intentional, than the hours upon hours of testimony given by Secretary Clinton. If these men were ordinary citizens, they could be arrested for making false statements to law enforcement. They lied and played it for a one-day headline, and in doing so performed at the level of banana-republic legislators, if not lower. Sadly their actions are consistent with the thinking of the new Republican Party leader, Donald Trump, who would be proud of their effort to “Lock her up, Lock her up.”
In 1973, John Dean was the first Presidential advisor to publicly testify against Richard Nixon to Congress, and his allegations were later backed up by the famous secret recordings uncovered inside the Oval Office leading to the Republican becoming the first ever President of the United States to resign in disgrace.
He then worked with prosecutors to implicate Nixon in the cover-up because he swore an oath to defend the Constitution, not the men who seem to believe they were above it. For his efforts, Dean served a reduced time in prison after having been involved in the original DNC break in. Because of his confession, Dean was able to resume his career, first as a lawyer and then as an investment banker until retiring fifteen years ago. But John Dean has continued to write about public affairs and books about the Republican party’s 21st century attacks on the rule of law.
Dean’s lengthy legal memo exonerating Hillary Clinton is published in open source legal reference website Justia‘s news section, Verdict. No stranger to the federal laws, John Dean’s lengthy prose includes entire statutes, complete portions of relevant testimony and cogent analysis you can only find from a longtime veteran of Washington DC’s political wars over transcripts of conversations. Mr. Dean summarized his findings – which you can read in pure, 7000 word long form here:
The hard evidence, however, shows that Hillary Clinton did not lie, rather those charging her have distorted her testimony, or claimed she had information she simply did not have at the time she testified. It is pretty ugly stuff, made even uglier because it is being promoted by two high ranking Republican chairmen who are, the facts show, trying to frame her.
So let me explain what I found with each of their charges. Spoiler: The answer to each of the following four caption questions raising the GOP charges is NO!
There are four major issues that Republican Congressmen Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Jason Chaffetz of Utah raised in their dishonest letter to the Department of Justice requesting an investigation of Hillary Clinton.
Their request was summarily denied due to being entirely divorced from reality.
John Dean’s article lists each of the four main issues and explains precisely why Hillary Clinton’s testimony – when carefully compared with FBI Director James Comey’s testimony – reveals that the Democratic nominee gave truthful testimony to her knowledge, and that a reasonable review of the transcripts proves that Republican complaints don’t have a single leg upon which to stand.
Here’s Dean’s four points that debunk the two Republicans lying about Hillary Clinton:
1) Does [FBI Director James] Comey’s Testimony Show Secretary Clinton Lied When Testifying She Did Not Send or Receive Emails Marked Classified?
There is no perjury or false statements because it is clear Secretary Clinton believed what she was saying was true when she said it—for, in fact, she saw no markings that indicated she was dealing with classified email material.
2) Does Comey’s Testimony Show Secretary Clinton Lied When Testifying Her Lawyers Went Through Every Single Email?
Where did Secretary Clinton testify that her lawyers READ all her emails? Nowhere! They cite no testimony whatsoever, for there is none. Surely the writers of this letter know that Secretary Clinton was absolutely correct when she said they “went through every single e-mail,” which they try to spin into something she never said. Clearly there is no perjury or false statement involved here in any way, shape or form. This is a totally phony charge. Goodlatte/Chaffetz should not be able to make such false charges and get away with it.
3) Does Comey’s Testimony Show Secretary Clinton Lied When Testifying She Had One Server?
This let’s-charge-her-with-anything approach is very evident in suggesting she committed perjury, or gave a false statement, when testifying how many computer servers she had in her basement to handle her email. No one asked Director Comey what he was talking about when he said during his public statement, relied on by the Goodlatte/Chaffetz letter to put the lie to Mrs. Clinton, whether he was talking about components of the server, or replacement of the server, which appears to have always been in the basement of Secretary Clinton’s home.
4) Does Comey’s Testimony Show Secretary Clinton Lied When Testifying She Provided All Her Work-Related Emails?
This full statement by the director made clear that it was not possible Mrs. Clinton or her attorneys knew there were more work-related emails, rather she turned over everything her attorneys had recovered. For Mrs. Clinton’s testimony to be false she would have to have known what apparently took FBI computer experts a year to discover. While her attorneys undoubtedly had sophisticated IT support, they were not forensic computer experts, nor could they reach out to other officials with whom Secretary Clinton explained she communicated, knowing her emails would also be preserved in their “.gov” accounts.
John Dean’s long format explanation is definitive, and what’s above is the summary from his findings, but his conclusion in this case is far too important to skip:
I believe Hillary Clinton is far too savvy and smart to lie to Congress. And as the following information shows, I am correct and she has not done so. That two of the most powerful committee chairs in the House of Representatives have trumped up these bogus charges is stunning to me. This is not the way mature democracies like ours are supposed to operate.
As Americans, we just want our government to function as intended, and that means we want Congress to investigate actual problems that affect regular people. Problems like private prison abuses, the escalating price of decades old medicines, usurious payday lenders or better yet, passing legislation to improve the lives our citizens.
After four years of investigating Hillary Clinton, House Republicans have absolutely nothing in hand except for a pile of lies and Americans have nothign to show for their efforts except a big, fat bill. Hopefully, Republican leadership reads Mr. Dean’s exhaustive revelation of their lies, and abandons the vast right-wing conspiracy against Hillary Clinton to the dustbin of history, and instead focuses their efforts on improving regular Americans’ lives, which you know, we pay them to do in the first place.
