OHIO — Even 50 years later, John Dean’s memory is vivid.

What You Need To Know

  • 50 years ago this month, the Senate Watergate Hearings began

  • The hearings were must-watch TV for Americans across the country and lasted through Nov. 1973

  • The 1972 Watergate burglary of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, subsequent cover up, and taped conversations among top White House officials about criminal activity led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon for his involvement in the scandal

  • During the hearings, Nixon’s White House Counsel, John Dean, testified about key players in the Nixon administration behind it all
  • Spectrum News spoke one-on-one with Dean to gain his insight on what lessons can be learned five decades later

“I had for many, many weeks been trying to convince my colleagues that the coverup was not going to work, that we were all in a heap of trouble," Dean said.

The Akron native was 31-years-old when he joined President Richard Nixon’s administration as White House Counsel in 1970. 

“I think I probably crossed a moral line going to work at the Nixon White House," he said.

He broke rank by reporting his concerns about criminal activity in the White House to prosecutors. He was fired in April 1973. 

In June, he read his 60,000 word testimony in front of the Senate Watergate Committee and the millions of homes tuning in on TV. It took him 8 hours to detail everything he knew about the 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters and the subsequent coverup by top White House officials, including the president.

Dean told Spectrum News he wasn’t nervous to blow the whistle on Watergate.

“You don’t really have the sense of the history of an event like that when you’re in the middle of it," he said. "You’re just trying to get the job done."

Dean said his dealings with Nixon were limited and just about every conversation was recorded. Although he didn’t know about the White House recording system at the time, he had a hunch that proved to be true.

“I would at one point actually go in to the president and tell him he had a cancer on his presidency and if he didn’t deal with it, it was going to consume it, which indeed it did," Dean said. “As my lawyer said, 'When you kick the King, John, you got to pretty much take him down,' and that’s what I did when I came forward.”

Dean said there was a high probability, had he not testified and speculated about the conversations being recorded, that Nixon's full involvement may not have been known.

After the hearings in 1973, Dean plead guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and was disbarred. He said he never served time in prison and was part of the Witness Protection Program on and off for 18 months. He moved to Los Angeles, where he started working as an investment banker and authored books about his experiences in the White House.

“It’s just an example of the abuse of power of an overly strong American presidency where it gets out of check and that’s a lasting lesson," he said. "There are some lasting lessons of Watergate for the legal profession. There are for journalism."

In the middle of Watergate, Dean married his wife Maureen in 1972. She sat next to him throughout the hearings and has stood by his side the last 50 years. 

“May have made a better marriage rather than the reverse," said Dean. "Adversity can have its own benefits.”

But when a 1991 book claimed he and his wife were the masterminds of Watergate and Maureen was somehow connected to a call girl ring linked to the Democratic National Committee, Dean filed a libel lawsuit. 

“It is made up from whole cloth, and that was a step too far for me," he said.

The case was eventually settled after years of litigation.

“My goal was to not only win the lawsuit, but to use the lawsuit to open up historical records that would have never otherwise been opened in my lifetime," Dean said.

The historical records he’s referring to gave him more insight into the inner workings of Watergate which has helped him with his books and the continued legal education courses he teaches to thousands of lawyers around the country, in an effort to help others learn from his mistakes.

In recent years, Dean has been vocal about what he calls the slow deterioration of the Republican Party and, specifically, his disdain toward former President Donald Trump. At age 84, Dean is currently a CNN contributor.

“It’s been very depressing to see the Republican Party largely disintegrate into just an authoritarian following organization that will do whatever the hell they think their leader or compatriots want," he said. "Not healthy for democracy. We’re under tests that are much more serious than Watergate ever gave us."

Dean said there was a growing mistrust in government prior to Watergate that the scandal heightened, and that lack of trust continues five decades later..

“Watergate is a minor, minor scandal by today’s standards," Dean said.

Spectrum News asked Dean if he still considers himself a Republican, and he said he votes for the candidate and issues and not the party. 

Today, he still lives in California with his wife Maureen and is working on a book about what life has been like living in the shadow of Watergate all these years.

Many movies and TV shows have depicted Watergate and actors have portrayed Dean and even Maureen on screen.

He told Spectrum News he hasn’t seen recent shows including Gaslit or White House Plumbers, but he said the Watergate story has often been altered to enhance drama in Hollywood.

Editor's Note: The original story has been changed to clarify that the settlement wasn't in John Dean's favor, but that he was satisfied with the outcome. (May 22, 2023)