JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

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Thursday, July 25, 2019

CONSTITUTIONAL CALENDAR WATERGATE EDITION

As August approaches, a Constitutonal Historian's attention turns to President Richard Milhous Nixon, Watergate, the senate hearings, impeachment, and ultimately the "R" word- resignation. 

With those thoughts in mind, we present the ever popular Constitutional Calendar by that noted Constitutional Historian the right and honourable Judge M Hirsch. 

In mid-July, 1973, Senate Watergate-committee staffers found evidence that President Nixon had been taping conversations in the oval office. Committee lawyers Scott Armstrong and Don Sanders confirmed the discovery during their secret pre-testimony interview on Friday, July 13, with a very unwilling Alexander Butterfield, former deputy assistant to the president. Armstrong and Sanders handed Butterfield a transcript. Looking at the document, Butterfield understood immediately that they knew this was the transcript of a conversation that had been taped. “I thought to myself that this had to come from the tapes – the very thing I’m worrying so much about. So, I just hemmed and hawed,” Butterfield later remembered. Sanders then asked Butterfield directly if there were any listening devices in the Oval Office. Butterfield did not feel comfortable lying to them and feared ending up in jail. “I’m sorry you asked that question,” he told them. “Yes, there was, and that’s where this document had to come from.” On July 16, Butterfield repeated his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee.

The committee chief legal counsel Samuel Dash – my first criminal procedure professor at Georgetown Law School, whose autographed photo still hangs in my chambers – announced to the press: “We now know there are records of those meetings. I don’t have to draw the line underneath and add it up.”

On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled 8–0 (Justice William Rehnquist recused himself) that the president had to turn over the tapes. Despite an intense investigation that had lasted for over a year, it was the ability of members of Congress to hear Nixon asking the CIA to stop the FBI investigation that had an impact unlike anything else. It had not actually been clear before then that the constitutional system would work. Fifteen days later, Nixon left office.

9 comments:

Rumpole said...

For those of you interested
, it is very. Very hot here in London.

Anonymous said...

You check all the boxes and get an A for accuracy on the Watergate quiz. Bravo bright apple polishing student. And you did it in only a few paragraphs. Next assignment: write a report on all the constitutional abuses during the JFK and LBJ administrations. You will be limited to 50 single spaced typed pages. For extra credit, you may file a supplemental addendum reporting on Judith Campbell Exner's role as JFK's mistress/baglady/conduit to Sam Giancana for cash payoffs to murder Castro. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Why is Judge Francis, who was just appointed to circuit court, applying for the bench in Palm Beach County?

https://www.floridabar.org/news-release/judicial-nominating-commission/15th-circuit-jnc-interview-schedule-and-notice-of-recusal/

Anonymous said...

To 4:11:00
Kennedy never paid anyone to off Castro. During the waning months of Eisenhower s administration, the CIA at the direction of VP Nixon enlisted Mafia chiefs for that deed. Kennedy put a stop to that, or thought he had, however the CIA secretly continued the operation. Eventually RFK clamped down on all CIA clandestine anti Castro operations, with the FBI raiding training camps in Florida and Louisiana around Lake Ponchatrain. Lee Harvey Oswald was tied in with Guy Banister, and David Ferrie, two nefarious individuals involved with the Louisiana camps.
After Nixon became President, he was obsessed with getting everything the CIA had involving the CIA Castto assassination attempts. He hounded Director Helms, who continually rebuffed him. There is speculation that the Watergate burglars real target at the WG break in, was a copy of a certain dossier that had recently been put out by the Cuban government detailing all of the CIA's assassination efforts against Castro to date. A copy had supposedly been provided to top Democratic Party honchos, and Nixon was desperate to get hus hands on it, afraid that he would be revealed as ordering the early CIA Castro assassination attempts.

Anonymous said...

Heard they broke all records on Thursday.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


So, you want to be a Judge. Just make sure you have the initials ASA somewhere in your resume.

Governor Ron DeSantis Makes Four Judicial Appointments

Tallahassee, Fla. – Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointments of Craig DeThomasis to the Eighth Circuit Court, Jason Nimeth to the Lake County Court, Heather Doyle to the Manatee County Court and Lori Ann Winstead to the Polk County Court.

DeThomasis, 60, of Gainesville, Florida, has been a Partner at DeThomasis and Buchanan P.A. for 29 years. During that time, he has also been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida teaching Trial Practice. He received his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from the University of Florida. DeThomasis fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Stanley Griffis.

Nimeth, 34, of Leesburg, Florida, is an Assistant State Attorney for the Fifth Circuit State Attorney’s Office. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and his law degree from Barry University School of Law. Nimeth fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Brian Welke.

Doyle, 43, of Lakewood Ranch, Florida, is a Chief Assistant State Attorney in the Twelfth Circuit State Attorney’s Office. She received her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany and her law degree from Stetson University. Doyle fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Doug Henderson.

Winstead, 39, of Lakeland, Florida, is an Assistant State Attorney for the Thirteenth Circuit State Attorney’s Office. She received her bachelor’s degree from Florida Southern College and her law degree from Barry School of Law. Winstead fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Sharon Franklin.

Cap Out .....

Anonymous said...

Did not know that Barry had a law school. Must be worse than St. Thomas

Anonymous said...

Hey 11:32 I beg to differ. Check out The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh. The payoffs to Giancana through Campbell from JFK are well documented. You may not credit the sources but there are about 100 other instances of conduct by that administration that will either shock or amuse you depending on your level of cynicism. Makes Watergate look like a 5 year old kid stealing an O Henry bar from a 7 11.

Anonymous said...

I don’t understand why a certain very dapper Miami Beach defense lawyer has not traveled to Switzerland or Japan or someplace exotic? All you need is a blue blazer and a new pair of Tretorns?