| Advertisement |
June 10 (UPI) -- The former White House counsel under the Nixon administration told Congress on Monday that he sees "remarkable parallels" between former President Richard Nixon's actions during Watergate and those of President Donald Trump according to the Mueller report. Dean testified before the House judiciary committee, giving his interpretation of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Advertisement
"In many ways the Mueller report is to President Trump what the so-called Watergate 'Road Map' ... was to President Nixon," Dean said.
He said Mueller provided the judiciary committee with a road map for Trump's actions.
In 1973, Dean famously spoke of a "cancer" on the Nixon presidency in the middle of the Watergate investigation.
His testimony in the Senate Watergate hearings was instrumental in Nixon ultimately resigning from office.
Nixon was on the road to impeachment for obstructing justice by attempting to meddle in the Watergate investigation. The Mueller report, issued in March, outlined several "episodes" in which it said Trump may have done the same.
"I learned about obstruction of justice the hard way, by finding myself on the wrong side of the law," Dean said Monday.
He said he doesn't believe Trump's former White House counsel, Don McGahn, participated in any illegal activity, but there's "no question Mr. McGahn was a critical observer of these activities" and "there is evidence he prevented several obstruction attempts."
For weeks, House judiciary committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has been trying to get Mueller to testify about the Justice Department's two-year investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. On Monday, Democrats brought Dean, a vocal critic of Trump's, to Capitol Hill to build support for the pursuit of impeachment.
While the Mueller report didn't find a direct link between Trump's campaign and Russia, it did not clear Trump of obstructing justice. In his first public remarks about the inquiry late last month, Mueller explained his office had no ability to take action against the president.
"If we'd had confidence the president didn't commit a crime, we would have said so," Mueller said.
Trump has said Democrats are turning to Dean for a "do over" of the Mueller investigation.
"Sorry, no Do Overs -- Go back to work!" Trump tweeted.
Dean, 80, has called Trump "worse than Nixon," especially in how he handled Mueller's investigation.
"Given the threat posed by the president's alleged misconduct, our first hearing will focus on President Trump's most overt acts of obstruction. In the coming weeks, other hearings will focus on other important aspects of the Mueller report," Nadler said when he announced the hearing last week.
Also Monday, the House intelligence committee will hold a rare open hearing about the impact of the Mueller report on U.S. counterintelligence efforts. Stephanie Douglas and Robert Anderson, former executive assistant directors of the FBI's national security branch, are scheduled to testify.
On Tuesday, the House will vote on whether to enforce subpoenas that call for testimony from Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn. Both declined to appear for House hearings at the direction of the White House.
