'That was rough': Attorney who was on Nixon’s 'enemies list' warns of similar misery under Trump

26 December 2024

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, attorney Sid Davidoff served as an assistant to New York City Mayor John Lindsay. And in 1973, Davidoff found himself on President Richard Nixon's notorious "enemies list."

In an op-ed published by MSNBC on Christmas Day 2024, Davidoff, now 85, recalls that "rough" period of his life — and warns that Americans who are on President-elect Donald Trump's "enemies list" could face similar misery in 2025 and beyond.

"With talk of President-elect Donald Trump and his pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, reportedly assembling an 'enemies list' of people to target in their incoming administration," Davidoff explains, "I can't help reflecting on my own experience being named and targeted in a similar scenario back in the 1970s."

Davidoff recalls that after his seven years working for Nixon foe Lindsay, he "left City Hall" and opened a restaurant called Jimmy's on 52nd Street in Mid-Town Manhattan.

"Throughout my life," the attorney writes, "I have kept asking myself: How did this all come about? Why me? In a nation of more than 200 million people at the time, why did Nixon see me and Lindsay as a such a threat? For whatever reason, they couldn't get to Lindsay, so they got to me. The next best thing, I suppose."

Davidoff describes the experience as "surreal," saying, "That was rough."

"Suddenly, the IRS starts investigating me, claiming I owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in FICA for employee fees," the attorney recalls. "Tack on some late fees and penalties, and before you knew it, they were claiming I owed close to a million dollars. The State of New York also came after me."

Davidoff continues, "I was accused of embezzling funds by State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, who worked closely alongside Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. My friends in the attorney general's office told me they had no choice. Federal agents showed up at the apartment building of the young woman I was dating at the time. They questioned her doormen and wanted to know about my comings and goings."

Davidoff, according to the New York Times, was indicted for failure to file withholding taxes for his employee's at Jimmy's. But in 1976 — two years after Nixon's resignation — a judge dismissed the charge.

"I think it should absolutely be carved into my gravestone: 'He was lucky enough to be on Nixon's enemies list,'" Davidoff writes. "Still, I wouldn't wish that kind of trouble on anybody. And I'm not sure anyone who finds themselves on Trump's list will feel as lucky as I do, this many years on."

Sid Davidoff's full MSNBC op-ed is available at this link.

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