Katana VentraIP

John Dean

John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American 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 and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland. After his plea, he was disbarred.

For other people named John Dean, see John Dean (disambiguation).

John Dean

Richard Nixon

Chuck Colson

Leonard Garment

John Wesley Dean III

(1938-10-14) October 14, 1938
Akron, Ohio, U.S.

Republican (formerly)
Independent

Karla Ann Hennings
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 1970)​
Maureen "Mo" Kane
​
(m. 1972)​

1

Shortly after the Watergate hearings, Dean wrote about his experiences in a series of books and toured the United States to lecture. He later became a commentator on contemporary politics, a book author, and a columnist for FindLaw's Writ.


Dean had originally been a proponent of Goldwater conservatism, but he later became a critic of the Republican Party. Dean has been particularly critical of the party's support of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and of neoconservatism, strong executive power, mass surveillance, and the Iraq War.

Early life and education[edit]

Dean was born in Akron, Ohio, and lived in Marion, the hometown of the 29th President of the United States, Warren Harding, whose biographer he later became.[1] His family moved to Flossmoor, Illinois, where he attended grade school. For high school, he attended Staunton Military Academy with Barry Goldwater Jr., the son of Sen. Barry Goldwater, and became a close friend of the family.[2] He attended Colgate University and then transferred to the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he obtained his B.A. in 1961. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1965.[3]


Dean married Karla Ann Hennings on February 4, 1962; they had one child, John Wesley Dean IV, before divorcing in 1970. Dean married Maureen (Mo) Kane on October 13, 1972.[4]

Washington lawyer[edit]

After graduation, Dean joined Welch & Morgan, a law firm in Washington, D.C., where he was soon accused of conflict of interest violations and fired:[2] he was alleged to have started negotiating his own private deal for a TV station broadcast license, after his firm had assigned him to complete the same task for a client.[5]


Dean was employed from 1966 to 1967 as chief minority counsel to the Republicans on the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. Dean then served as associate director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws for approximately two years.[6]

Media appearances and portrayals[edit]

Dean frequently served as a guest on the former MSNBC and Current TV news program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and The Randi Rhodes Show on Premiere Radio Networks.


In the 1979 TV mini-series Blind Ambition, Dean was played by Martin Sheen. In the 1995 film Nixon, directed by Oliver Stone, Dean was played by David Hyde Pierce. In the 1999 film Dick, Dean was played by Jim Breuer. In the 2022 TV mini-series Gaslit, Dean was played by Dan Stevens. In the 2023 TV mini-series White House Plumbers, Dean was played by Domhnall Gleeson.

Dean, John W. (1976). . New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-22438-7.

Blind Ambition: The White House Years

Dean, John W. (1982). . Los Angeles: Stratford Press. ISBN 0-936906-15-4.

Lost Honor: The Rest of the Story

Dean, John W. (2001). . New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2607-0.

The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court

Dean, John W. (2002). Unmasking Deep Throat. [S.l.]: Salon Media.  0-9721874-1-3.

ISBN

Dean, John W. (2004). . New York: Times Books. ISBN 0-8050-6956-9.

Warren G. Harding (The American Presidents)

Dean, John W. (2004). . New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-00023-X.

Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush

Dean, John W. (2006). . New York: Viking Adult. ISBN 0-670-03774-5.

Conservatives without Conscience

Dean, John W. (2007). . New York: Viking Adult. ISBN 978-0-670-01820-8.

Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches

Dean, John W.; Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. (2008). . New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-7741-0.

Pure Goldwater

Dean, John W. (2009). Blind Ambition: The Updated Edition: The End of the Story. New York: Polimedia.  978-0-9768617-5-1.

ISBN

Dean, John W. (2014). . New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02536-7.

The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It

Dean, John W. (2020). Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. New York: Melville House.  978-1-6121990-5-4.

ISBN

Colodny, Len; Robert Gettlin (1991). (First ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312051563.

Silent Coup

Sussman, Barry (1992). The Great Coverup: Nixon and the Scandal of Watergate (Third ed.). Seven Locks Press.  0-929765-09-5.

ISBN

. The Gerald R. Ford Museum & Library. Retrieved July 19, 2011.

"The Watergate Files"

. Barbara Newman Productions. 1992. Retrieved July 19, 2011.

"The Key To Watergate"

WETA-TV Public Television, 1973 Watergate Hearings.

John Dean testifying at the Watergate Hearings

Archived November 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Democracy Now!, April 6, 2004, interview with John Dean.

Worse Than Watergate: Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Says Bush Should Be Impeached

John Dean, Findlaw, September 9, 2005.

Doing Legal, Political, and Historical Research on the Internet Using Blog Forums, Open Source Dictionaries, and More

Video of John Dean interview by on Countdown with Keith Olbermann about Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience on July 11, 2006, at Crooks and Liars, Video on YouTube.

Keith Olbermann

. The Tavis Smiley Show. April 11, 2017. Public Radio International. Retrieved August 26, 2017. Interview comparing Nixon and Donald Trump.

"Former White House Counsel John Dean"

Spartacus Educational Biography

Appearances

Booknotes interview with Dean on Warren G. Harding, March 14, 2004.