Richard Gordon Kleindienst (August 5, 1923 – February 3, 2000) was an American lawyer, politician, and U.S. Attorney General during the early stages of Watergate political scandal.

Early life and career

Kleindienst was born August 5, 1923, in

Winslow, Arizona Winslow ( nv, ) is a city in Navajo County, Arizona, Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population of the city is 9,655. It is approximately southeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, Flag ...

, the son of Gladys (Love) and Alfred R. Kleindienst. He attended the University of Arizona before serving in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

from 1943 to 1946. Following his military service, he attended

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

, graduating from the latter in 1950. From 1953 to 1954, he served in the

Arizona House of Representatives The Arizona State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The upper house is the Senate. The House convenes in the legislative chambers at the Arizona State C ...

; he followed that with some 15 years of private legal practice. He concurrently was Arizona Republican Party chairman from 1956 to 1960 and 1961 to 1963, and in the 1964 Arizona gubernatorial election, the Republican candidate for

Governor of Arizona A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, losing the general election to Sam Goddard, 53–47%.

Role in Goldwater Campaign

On January 3, 1964,

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president ...

asked his friend Kleindienst to serve as Director of Operations in his

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: * President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

. Goldwater stipulated that he would only respond to the "draft Goldwater" movement if the campaign were led by three Republicans close to him: Kleindienst,

Denison Kitchel Denison Kitchel (March 1, 1908 – October 10, 2002) was a lawyer from Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, who was an influential advisor to and the campaign manager of Republican Party (United States), Republican Barry M. Goldwater in the U.S. ...

as Campaign Manager, and Dean Burch as Assistant Campaign Manager. Kleindienst had never worked on a national campaign. Political experts told Goldwater that

F. Clifton White Frederick Clifton White Sr. (June 13, 1918 - January 9, 1993), was an American political consultant and campaign manager for candidates of the Republican Party, the New York Conservative Party, and some foreign clients. He is best remembered as t ...

, an experienced GOP operative, would be a better choice. Goldwater rejected this change, but did agree to Kleindienst and White sharing the role.

Nixon administration

After

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

won the 1968 presidential election,

John N. Mitchell John Newton Mitchell (September 15, 1913 – November 9, 1988) was the 67th Attorney General of the United States under President Richard Nixon and chairman of Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns. Prior to that, he had been a municipal ...

agreed to serve as

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

on the condition that Kleindienst serve as

Deputy Attorney General The Deputy Attorney General (DAG) is the second-highest-ranking official in a department of justice or of law, in various governments of the world. In those governments, the deputy attorney general oversees the day-to-day operation of the departme ...

. Kleindienst suspended his private practice in 1969 to accept the post of Deputy Attorney General offered him by President Nixon. This gave him responsibilities relating to the government's suit against the International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation. Nixon and his aide

John Ehrlichman John Daniel Ehrlichman (; March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as the White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important i ...

told him to drop the case, which created an impression that they were violating their ethical obligations in favor of ITT, and that, as an attorney himself, Kleindienst was now obligated to report these ethical lapses to the

state bar A state bar association is a bar association that represents or seeks to represent the attorneys practicing law in a particular U.S. state. Their functions differ from state to state, but often include administration of the state bar examination fo ...

s in the jurisdictions involved. But in his official role as Deputy Attorney General, he also repeatedly told Congress that no one had interfered with his department's handling of the case, failing to mention either Nixon or Ehrlichman. On February 15, 1972, Attorney General Mitchell resigned effective March 1 in order to work on the Nixon re-election campaign, with President Nixon nominating Kleindienst to serve as his successor. After having served as Acting Attorney General for a little under three and a half months, his appointment was approved by the Senate on June 12 after an attempt to block the nomination by

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

on the grounds of his involvement with ITT failed. Unknown to Kleindienst, leaders of the

Committee to Re-Elect the President A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

(CRP) had tasked Gordon Liddy with arranging various covert operations, one of which was to be a burglary of the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well ...

headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. Before dawn on a Saturday, five days after Kleindienst was sworn in, James McCord and four other burglars operating on Liddy's instructions were arrested at Watergate. Later in the morning Kleindienst was officially notified of the arrests. Liddy, after a phone consultation about the arrests with CREEP Deputy Director Jeb Magruder (who had managed CREEP up until March of that year, and had the most direct organizational authority over Liddy's activities), personally approached Kleindienst the same day at a private golf club in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

. Liddy told him that the break-in had originated within CRP, and that Kleindienst should arrange the release of the burglars, to reduce the risk of exposure of CRP's involvement. But Kleindienst refused and ordered that the Watergate burglary investigation proceed like any other case. Kleindienst ultimately resigned in the midst of the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

nearly a year later, on April 30, 1973. This was the same day that

John Dean John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...

was fired and

H. R. Haldeman Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...

and

resigned. In 1974, he pleaded guilty to

contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of C ...

for his failing to testify fully to the Senate in a pre-Watergate investigation, involving alleged favoritism shown to ITT during his testimony as part of his Senate confirmation hearings.Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein
House hopes to defy history in criminal contempt case against Bannon
''Politico'' (October 19, 2021). Kleindienst was one of very few people in modern U.S. history to be convicted of contempt of Congress; G. Gordon Liddy, another figure in the Watergate scandal, also was convicted in the 1970s. In April 1982, the

Arizona Supreme Court The Arizona Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Arizona. Sitting in the Supreme Court building in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, the court consists of a chief justice, a vice chief justice, and five associate justice ...

unanimously suspended Kleindienst from the practice of law for 1 year due to his unethical conduct, accepting a disciplinary recommendation from the state bar association. The suspension was due to statements he made to a bar investigator probing Kleindienst's representation in a 1976 insurance company fraud case. In October 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a unanimous vote, disbarred Kleindienst, blocking him from practicing before the highest court.Tigh court disbars Kleindienst
United Press International (October 4, 1982).

Later life

In 1981, Kleindienst was charged with

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

regarding how much he knew about a white-collar criminal he represented; he was subsequently acquitted. He died at the age of 76, of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...

, on February 3, 2000.

Bibliography

* * For Kleindienst's limited role in Watergate, see Leon Jaworski, ''The Right and the Power'', and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, ''All the President's Men'' .

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kleindienst, Richard 1923 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American politicians American Episcopalians American perjurers Arizona lawyers Arizona politicians convicted of crimes Deaths from cancer in Arizona Deaths from lung cancer Harvard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni Republican Party members of the Arizona House of Representatives Military personnel from Arizona Nixon administration cabinet members People from Winslow, Arizona People convicted of contempt of Congress Politicians from Prescott, Arizona United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II United States Attorneys General United States Deputy Attorneys General Watergate scandal investigators