This series was created to document the activities of John W. Dean III as he carried out his duties as Counsel to the President on legal, political and legislative issues in the Nixon administration.

John Wesley Dean III was born on October 14, 1938 in Akron, Ohio. After graduating from the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, he went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree at The College of Wooster in Ohio in 1961. He then attended Georgetown University Law Center and received his Juris Doctor in 1965. During his time in law school, Dean worked as a law clerk in the firm of Hollabaugh & Jacobs in Washington, D.C. He obtained a junior associate position at the Washington law firm of Welch & Morgan upon his graduation from Georgetown. During the period 1966-67, Dean served as chief minority council for the Judiciary Committee in the United States House of Representatives. He then spent the next two years as Associate Director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws before working as an Associate Deputy Attorney, General Office of Criminal Justice, Department of Justice, between 1969 and 1970. On July 9, 1970, Dean became Counsel to President Richard Nixon. The position became available after Dean’s predecessor, John Ehrlichman, left to become Nixon’s chief domestic adviser. Dean was eventually implicated in the Watergate scandal and began cooperating with federal investigators in March of 1973 while continuing to work as counsel to the President until he was fired by Nixon on April 30, 1973. Dean testified in hearings before the United States Senate’s Select Committee on President Campaign Activities (also known as the Senate Watergate Committee) during the period of June 25-29, 1973. On October 19, 1973, John Dean pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He was given a sentence of 1 to 4 years (U.S. v. John W. Dean, USDC 886-73) by Judge John Sirica on August 2, 1974. He began his sentence under the supervision of the United States Marshalls at Fort Holabird, Maryland from September 3, 1974. During part of his time in custody, October 16-25, 1974, Dean testified in the Watergate cover-up trial, United States v. John N. Mitchell, et al. For his cooperation, Dean’s sentence was reduced to time served and he was released after four months on January 8, 1975. Barred from practicing law due to his conspiracy conviction, Dean worked as an investment banker, lecturer and author. He began writing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1976. His memoir Blind Ambition was published the same year. His next memoir, Lost Honor, was published in 1982. Between 2001 and 2007, he authored The Rehnquist Choice (2001), Worse than Watergate (2004), Conservatives Without Conscience (2006), and Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches (2007). In addition, Dean has contributed to the online legal magazines Writ and Verdict, co-edited Pure Goldwater (2009) and made guest appearances on news and politically-oriented television programs. On March 31, 2006, Dean testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the President George W. Bush censure hearings related to NSA wiretaps performed without warrants. In 2003, Dean became a visiting scholar and lecturer at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication. As of 2012, he is involved in the Watergate CLE (continuing legal education) – an extended legal education series that examines how the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct impacted Watergate.

50 linear feet, 4 linear inches; 115 boxes

Most government records are in the public domain, however, this series includes commercial materials, such as newspaper clippings, that may be subject to copyright restrictions. Researchers should contact the copyright holder for information.

Collection is open for research. Some materials may be unavailable based upon categories of materials exempt from public release established in the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974.