+ The Justice Department secretly seizing smartphone data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee is “Nixon on stilts and steroids,” a former White House counsel said Friday (6-11-2021).
+ John Dean, who served as counsel during the administration of Richard Nixon before flipping on the then-president over the Watergate scandal, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the actions of former pres-ident Donald Tr*mp’s DOJ went far beyond what his former boss ever did.
+ “Nixon didn’t have that kind of Department of Justice,” Dean said. He then recalled how the Nixon administration responded to the Pentagon Papers — classified documents detailing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War — being leaked.
+ “I got a call from the Oval Office the day after he learned that, and could the Department of Justice bring a criminal action for this? Called over, found out the short answer was they could, but they won’t,” Dean said. “So Nixon couldn’t use the department as he wanted to.”
+ Burnett asked Dean if the Tr*mp DOJ’s actions went “beyond what Nixon did.”
+ “It is beyond Nixon, yes,” Dean responded. “It’s Nixon on stilts and steroids.”
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