Impeachment Hearings Begin — Here Are Five RI Watergate Impeachment Connections

Charles Colson, Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon

Brown University Graduate

The Washington Post wrote in Colson's obituary, "Charles W. Colson, the Republican political operative who boasted that he would 'walk over my own grandmother' to ensure the reelection of President Richard M. Nixon and went on to found a worldwide prison fellowship ministry after his conversion to evangelical Christianity, died April 21, 2012 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He was 80."

The Post wrote, "Mr. Colson’s reputation as a 'dirty tricks artist' overshadowed his achievements as a darkly brilliant political strategist. He helped lay the groundwork for the Nixon landslide of November 1972 by appealing to disgruntled Democrats and blue-collar minority voters.

A self-described 'hatchet man' for Nixon, Mr. Colson compiled the notorious 'enemies list' of politicians, journalists and activists perceived as threats to the White House. And most fatefully, he helped orchestrate illegal activities to discredit former Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who was suspected of leaking a top-secret history of the Vietnam War to the New York Times and The Washington Post."

John McLaughlin, Nixon Speechwriter

Grew Up in RI -- Ran for United States Senate

He grew up in Rhode Island, his family owned a Providence furniture store, and he was one of the most passionate members of Richard Nixon's White House until the President left office.

Just two months before Nixon resigned, a feature in the New York Times on McLaughlin titled, “Jesuit Assails Abuses of Power and Defends Nixon" reported the following:

“‘Power” exclaimed the Rev. John J. McLaughlin, pacing his tiny office. “What do we know about it? We don’t know anything about it. We have sex education — why don’t we have power education? You can train yourself to handle power.”

Prior to his tenure in the Nixon White House, he took on a Rhode Island political icon.

In 1970 ran as the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate. He lost to John O. Pastore.

The vote tally -- Pastore 230,469 (67.5%) to McLaughlin’s 107,351 (31.5%).

After his career with Nixon, he went on to host the McLaughlin Group, 

The Washington Post wrote, “A former Jesuit priest, speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and conservative provocateur whose pugnacious style as a host of a political chat show helped usher in the era of impolite punditry.” 

McLaughlin was originally a supporter of the Democratic Party and opposed the Vietnam War but then became a war supporter and changed his party affiliation to Republican.

In 1970 he sought permission from the Jesuit order to run for a seat in the United States Senate, representing Rhode Island. When his superiors refused, McLaughlin defied them but lost to the incumbent four-term Pastore, according to his biography, John McLaughlin.

He died in 2016.

John "Jack" Brennan, Nixon Chief-of-Staff

Providence College Graduate

Brennan's career with Nixon transformed over decades from military attache to Chief-of-Staff.

A Marine combat veteran who won a Bronze Star and Purple Heart at Khe Sanh, Maj. John V. (Jack) Brennan was appointed a military aide to President Nixon in 1969.

People Magazine wrote in an exclusive in 1976:

"When Nixon resigned two years ago this week, Colonel Brennan accompanied him to San Clemente. Eventually, Brennan quit the Marine Corps and now serves as chief of Nixon’s small staff and as his golfing partner and confidant.

How will history judge Nixon?

He responded, 'History can’t possibly overlook his accomplishments. I think some of the perspectives are already being set. Look at some of the revelations of his predecessors’ activities: assassination plots, use of the FBI while running for President, newsmen wiretapped. Given the moral character of the Congress that was supposed to have judged Nixon, I know there will be vindication. The question is, how much time will it take?'"

U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell

Pell played a key role in Congress both before Watergate emerged and after working to adopt campaign finance reform to take corporate and dark money out of campaigns.

After Congress passed the 1974 FECA amendments that transformed the campaign finance laws post-Watergate, some argued the laws did not go far enough.

“What was abundantly clear, though, is what the amendments were in response to, namely Watergate. Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI) contended, 'We may not eradicate all future Watergatesm but certainly we will discourage the perpetuation of a climate in which power disabused by the clever at the expense of the unwary,’” according to Watergate Remembered: The Legacy for American Politics.

Providence Journal Tax Evasion Story

It was a time when the Providence Journal had a newsroom of more than 200 -- today, it has just 15 full-time news reporters. The circulation on a weekday was near 200,000 and today it hovers around 30,000.

The paper once locally owned by the Metcalf family will be sold or merged for the third time.

But in 1973, the Providence Journal uncovered that President Richard Nixon had tax problems.

"Public support for Nixon, already shrinking, was further undercut April 3 when the White House announced that Nixon would pay more than $467,000 in back taxes and interest as a result of the findings of two investigations that he had not paid the proper amount of federal income tax during his first term in office. Examination of Nixon's tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation had independently concluded that Nixon owed almost half a million dollars in back taxes and interest.

The question of whether fraud was involved in the preparation of the tax returns and the claiming of certain large deductions was clearly within the scope of the impeachment inquiry, said Doar. The question of tax fraud was “an area the judiciary committee must dispose of,” agreed Attorney General William B. Saxbe," writes Congressional Quarterly.