Watergate team reunites to obliterate Trump attempt at Nixon rehabilitation

Richard Nixon in Paoli, Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia suburbs/Main Line during a presidential campaign event in July 1968 (White House photographer Ollie Atkins/Wikimedia Commons)

In the wake of President Donald Trump's renewed push to rehabilitate former President Richard Nixon's reputation, nearly a dozen former members of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force reunited to pen a New York Times piece eviscerating the administration's new "deep state" theory as "nonsense."

In recent weeks, reports emerged revealing the Trump Justice Department's new initiative to relitigate the Watergate scandal that ultimately brought down Nixon's presidency and left him with a tarnished legacy as one of America's worst and most corrupt presidents. The new push is purportedly looking for proof that Nixon and his officials were railroaded by prosecutorial misconduct, with Vice President JD Vance also recently alleging that Nixon's demise was actually the result of a "deep state" coup.

In response to these revelations, numerous individuals involved with both the Watergate investigation and the push to impeach Nixon have spoken out against the attempts to rewrite history, with former congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman notably calling the idea "just beyond stupid."

On Wednesday, 11 more individuals who served on the DOJ's Watergate Special Prosecution Force came together once again to denounce Trump's effort to rehab Nixon's image as "nonsense." The group included Richard J. Davis, Philip Allen Lacovara, Richard Ben-Veniste, Jill Wine-Banks, Carl B. Feldbaum, Nick Akerman, George Frampton, Kenneth Geller, Henry Hecht, Paul R. Michel and Roger Witten.

"In July, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nixon, who left office in disgrace, is enjoying something of a revival on the political right," the group wrote. "There is, however, no justifiable rationale for relitigating Watergate or absolving Nixon. As lawyers who helped conduct the Watergate investigation, we can attest that Nixon, not some mythical 'deep state,' was the cause of his own political demise and his henchmen who went to prison did so because of overwhelming evidence of their guilt. Indeed, the principal sources of this evidence were the testimonies of former members of Nixon’s staff and Oval Office recordings. Any suggestion that the former president and his aides got a raw deal or that Watergate was an anti-Nixon plot is nonsense."

They added later: "Having been directly involved in such a pivotal chapter in American history, we welcome any good-faith revisiting of the facts. Sadly, the recent history of the Justice Department leaves little doubt that its leadership is bent on advancing whatever narrative suits President Trump and cannot be depended on to provide such a review. In light of that and Mr. Vance’s comment, it is not unreasonable to be concerned that the purpose of any review by this department is to twist the Watergate story to bolster the idea that Mr. Trump has been the victim of a 'deep state' conspiracy akin to what Mr. Vance has said about Nixon."

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