One of the Nixon Administration's earliest scandals is also turning out to be one of its most persistent embarrassments. The affair centers on the charge, flatly disputed by all officials involved, that the Justice Department in 1971 settled an antitrust case against the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. on relatively favorable terms to the company shortly after ITT had pledged up to $400,000 to support the 1972 Republican National Convention. Last week it was revealed that President Nixon himself had personally and bluntly intervened in the case.
At the time of Nixon's intercession, the Justice Department was determined to carry an appeal...