Why John Dean Is a Rat

This article first appeared in New English Review.

"Yeah,  Boys. That Trump is immoral."


With the revelation during the past few days that White House lawyer Don McGahn spent some 30 hours talking to the Robert Mueller team, President Trump came out with another one of his controversial  tweets in which he invoked the name of President Nixon's disgraced White House counsel John Dean of Watergate fame using the term, "RAT".

Coincidentally or not, Dean is one of the "go-to experts" on CNN commenting regularly on the perceived misdeeds of the Trump administration. He also weighed in on the George W Bush presidency claiming Bush had committed an impeachable offense when he authorized NSA wiretaps without warrants. So now CNN is asking Dean how he feels being called a "rat" when he "told the truth."

Whether John Dean told the truth about Nixon when he was cooperating with prosecutors and the Senate investigators during Watergate is not the issue. What CNN will not spend much time delving into is that before he cooperated, Dean was one of the main masterminds of the coverup itself. Among other things, he supervised the payment of hush money to the Watergate burglars. Dean broke the law, was charged and pleaded guilty. That is when he began his cooperation with prosecutors and the Senate investigators. He also served a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation. One of Dean's transgressions was compromising then Acting FBI Director, L. Patrick Gray, with whom he reportedly discussed the FBI's investigation, and from whom Dean reportedly received FBI files. Dean also reportedly gave  Gray evidence which Gray destroyed. Maybe CNN's talking heads like Brooke Baldwin or Jake Tapper might like to ask Dean if he sees any similarity to the compromising of James Comey by the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton crowd.

I am not going to feign outrage over people like Dean copping a plea and testifying in exchange for a reduced sentence. As a retired DEA agent, I saw plenty of that. I would also state that though it is the prosecutors who are authorized to make those deals, the lead investigating agents also often play a role in convincing defendants to cooperate. I myself did so on countless occasions. Therefore, I'm not going to call Dean a rat because he cooperated and testified.

I think Mr Dean is a rat because ever since those days of Watergate, he has allowed himself to be used by the liberal media to pass moral judgement on other presidents, currently the case with Trump. What makes Dean a moral voice for CNN to call on? John Dean is a hypocrite who should be spending his days in obscurity.