HOUSING: Richard Nixon, Mortgagee

Shortly after President Nixon entered the White House in 1969, he asked John Ehrlichman, then White House counsel, to issue an 87-page pamphlet titled A Reference Booklet on Conflict of Interest. The pamphlet advised all Cabinet members to liquidate their investments and put the proceeds into blind trusts or diversified mutual funds. "We don't want any whiff of questions," said Ehrlichman. "No member of the Cabinet is going to know what he owns."

Unlike his subordinates, Nixon does know what he owns, notably the Western White House in San Clemente and the Southern...

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