Senator Patrick Leahy entered politics at the height of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The senior senator from…
Senator Patrick Leahy entered politics at the height of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The senior senator from Vermont is now warning current President Donald Trump to learn from the mistakes of that earlier administration and not attempt to hide the recently filed special counsel report.
« [A] democracy hidden from the people is no democracy at all, » wrote Leahy in a new column for the Washington Post, in which he draws a handful of parallels between the two investigations: They both began with a crime; in Watergate’s case it was a break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s office, while the investigation recently closed by Robert Mueller was kicked off by Russian operatives’ theft of DNC emails.
« In both instances, the sitting president attacked the investigators and fired the lead investigator, leading to concerns that he may have obstructed justice, » noted Leahy. « And in both episodes, the ensuing investigation led to dozens of indictments reaching the closest aides of the president. »
A key factor in Nixon’s ultimate undoing was his refusal to comply with the investigation of Special Counsel Archibald Cox, who had issued subpoenas for recordings made by the president.
