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John Dean described Trump’s surveillance of the Department of Justice of Democrats as “Nixon on stilts and dope.” He criticized Dean Bill Barr, claiming that the former attorney general is committed to serving Trump. Representative Adam Schiff of California called for “full accountability for the Trump administration’s abuse of power.” See more stories on the Insider Business page.
John Dean, a former White House adviser under late President Richard Nixon, on Friday described the Justice Department’s seizure of Democrats’ smartphone data on the House Intelligence Committee as “Nixon on stilts and dope.”
The comments came after The New York Times reported that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and William Barr subpoenaed Apple to gain access to committee members’ records, after informing them of leaks in the Trump administration.
During an appearance on CNN’s Erin Burnett’s OutFront, Dean, who helped bring down Nixon over the Watergate scandal, said the actions of former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice went further than those of his former boss.
“Nixon didn’t have that kind of Department of Justice,” he said.
Dean then commented on how the Nixon administration handled the 1971 leak of the Pentagon Papers, the classified documents detailing the history of the United States’ military and political intervention in Vietnam.
“I got a call from the Oval Office the day after he learned, and can the Department of Justice file a criminal case for that? Subpoena, and I figured out the short answer is they can, but they won’t,” Dean said. . “So Nixon couldn’t use the oath as he wanted.”
Burnett asked Dean if Trump’s Justice Department actions “goed beyond what Nixon did.”
“She’s beyond Nixon, yeah,” Dean said. “It’s Nixon on stilts and steroids.”
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Then Dean headed to Barr, claiming that the former attorney general had long been committed to serving Trump.
“The memo he wrote for the job says ‘I am ready to carry out your presidency as it should be,’ which means there are no hanging pillars,” he told Burnett. “And he did. It’s pretty clear he shouldn’t have been told many things.”
“We now know that there were countless examples of norms he was willing to break,” he added.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a statement Friday that his office will investigate the incident, after receiving inquiries from Democratic lawmakers in Congress.
“The review will examine the administration’s compliance with applicable Department of Justice policies and procedures, and whether any such uses, or investigations, are based on improper considerations,” the statement read. “If circumstances warrant, OIG will consider other issues that may arise during the review.”
Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Democratic Intelligence Committee, of California, a longtime political opponent of Trump who was one of the targets of the subpoena, called Friday for a comprehensive review of the matter.
“We need full accountability for Trump’s abuse of power targeting Congress and the press,” he wrote on Twitter. “The IG investigation is just the beginning. The full scope of misconduct, including Barr’s efforts to protect those who lied to cover up, and go after Trump’s enemies, must be examined.”
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