Former Richard Nixon Counsel John Dean Says President Trump Engaging In Cover-Up


John Dean, who was at one time the former counsel for President Richard Nixon, believes that President Donald Trump is engaging in a cover-up of the Russia scandal which is similar to Watergate. In a Twitter post yesterday, Dean acknowledged that he has plenty of experience when it comes to cover-ups and he is of the belief that Trump and the White House are fighting against an FBI investigation because they are engaged in a lie about their dealings with Russia, the Daily Kos has reported.

“I have expertise on this matter. Push back on an FBI investigation of the White House is better known as a COVER UP.”

Included in John Dean’s tweet about Donald Trump’s Russia cover-up was a link to an opinion piece written by Greg Sargent for The Washington Post. In Sargent’s article, he notes that President Trump has just unleashed more fury on the FBI through his recent Twitter posts and has again blamed the agency for not being able to stop national security leaks coming from the American government.

“They can’t even find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S.”

Richard Nixon with Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger on October 13, 1973. John Dean has compared Trump’s Russia scandal with Nixon’s Watergate. [Image by Harvey W. Georges/AP Images]

Greg Sargent believes that President Trump’s anger is “misdirected.” He suggests that a better target for Trump’s wrath should be the White House instead.

This comes after Reince Priebus, the White House Chief of Staff, requested that the FBI publicly announce to the media that there was no contact between the White House and Russia during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. This request was refused by the FBI.

John Dean has written numerous books on President Richard Nixon and the American government and explains the similarities he sees between President Trump’s alleged cover-up with that of President Nixon when it comes to Watergate compared with the Russia scandal in an interview with Democracy Now.

As the counsel to Nixon, John Dean recalled that Watergate ran for a full 900 days, while President Trump’s alleged dealings with Russia have come to light much faster, due in part to how quickly news travels today. While we are not currently in the full-blown stages of an affair like Watergate, John Dean does believe that things could very quickly escalate.

“Well, what I see and hear, in following it, are echoes of Watergate. If you recall, Watergate ran about 900 days. In other words, it went on for years, starting with a bungled burglary at the Democratic National Committee and right up to Richard Nixon’s resignation, followed by the conviction of his top aides. So it ran a long time. What we’re seeing is very accelerated. It’s partially responsible because of the media and the technology today, but it’s also the behavior of Trump and his aides, as well as the media’s vigilance on this. So we’re seeing things accelerated. And what I see or hear are echoes of Watergate. We don’t have Watergate 2.0 yet, but we have something that is beginning to look like it could go there.”

Face masks of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 20, 2017. [Image by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Images]

With regard to the start of Donald Trump’s presidency, John Dean likens Trump career in the White House to a skyscraper which has been built on top of a very fragile foundation that will have to give way at some time. Dean believes that if President Trump is able to stay on top of Republicans that he may be able to win this battle, but he strongly feels that with Trump’s attitude this will not be possible.

“Like Nixon, he’s a slave to his own worst instincts.”

While John Dean has numerous comparisons between Richard Nixon and Donald Trump and the cover-up of the Russia scandal to that of Watergate, his own personal feeling is that President Trump is “more volatile” than Nixon ever was and believes his administration is headed in the wrong direction.

Do you agree with John Dean’s words and do you think that the similarities between the cover-up of Nixon’s Watergate and the alleged cover-up of Trump’s Russia scandal will bring down Donald Trump’s presidency?

[Featured Image by Alex Brandon/AP Images]

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