Trump officials review whether ‘deep state’ targeted Nixon over Watergate
The US justice department (DoJ) is reportedly considering an investigation into whether prosecutors mistreated Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal.
JD Vance has previously claimed that the "deep state took down" the 37th US president, who resigned in 1974, facing impeachment by Congress over the scandal. Mr Vance also suggested that Donald Trump had been subjected to the same unfair treatment.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Geoff Shepard, a former Nixon aide, gave a presentation at the DoJ titled "Watergate as Lawfare," laying out the theory that Nixon was pushed out of the White House by a shadowy establishment.
Geoff Shepard (right), a former Nixon aide, presented his theory to the DoJ - National Archives
In June 1972, months before Nixon's landslide re-election, five men were arrested after breaking into and attempting to bug the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC.
There is no evidence that Nixon personally ordered the operation or was even aware of it in advance, but he participated in the cover-up.
What became known as the "smoking gun" tape, recorded by the White House's voice-activated system, captured Nixon talking with his top aides about using the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation.
Mr Shepard's theory revolves around the allegation that special prosecutors secretly met with judges overseeing the Watergate trial, violating due process rules for defendants. He also claims that they suppressed evidence from the defence.
It is generally accepted that the Watergate scandal was a genuine constitutional crisis and that Nixon's actions in covering it up doomed his presidency, rather than any deep-state actors.
The former US president expressed remorse over the scandal three years after leaving office. "I let down my friends," he told David Frost, the interviewer, in 1977. "I let down the country. I let down our system and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but think it's all too corrupt... I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life."
A DoJ spokesman said: "[The Office of Professional Responsibility] (OPR) declined Mr Shepard's request to open an investigation in 2022 under the previous administration.
"Given his expertise and scholarship on Watergate, he was recently invited to give a presentation to OPR, but that presentation does not constitute an investigation.
"OPR remains focused on ensuring that department attorneys meet the highest professional standards."
