Fred Thompson, Part 3

Fred Thompson first came to national attention while serving as minority counsel during the Senate Watergate hearings. He did so by asking a single crucial question during an on-the-record Q&A with senior Nixon aids, namely if they knew of the existence of a secret taping system within the Oval Office. That this question was asked was not good news for Nixon, but not for the reasons one might suppose. It appears, after all, that a Republican lawyer is asking a tough question, one that played a large role in bring down the Nixon Administration, would be the worst possible new for the President. However, that isn’t the case, for you see, Thompson was a mole within the Senate committee for Nixon. And how do we know that Thompson was working for Nixon while supposedly working for the Senate? He wrote as much point-blank in his Watergate memoir At that Point in Time.

As Michael Kranish wrote for the Boston Globe:

Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, "At That Point in Time," Thompson said he acted with "no authority" in divulging the committee's knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon's resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson's actions.

"Thompson was a mole for the White House," Armstrong said in an interview. "Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was."

So you see, Thompson leaked the information via the question to minimize the damage that would have come from Democratic members revealing a “smoking gun.” Yeah, this is just the “straight shooter” that we want in office now. This, btw, was Thompson’s response when asked now about this affair.

"I'm glad all of this has finally caused someone to read my Watergate book, even though it's taken them over thirty years."

Yeah, this guy is a peach.

16 July 2007