The defendants unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against the United States . . . to defraud the United States and agencies thereof . . . interfering with and obstructing lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft, trickery and means that are dishonest.
THE words of accusation were almost brutal in their bluntness. But now they were hurled, not by some unnamed news source or unspecified Government investigator, but by a federal grand jury in the cold language of criminal indictments. They were directed not at some shadowy spooks and wiretappers with unfamiliar names, but at two of the most prominent and influential former members of Richard Nixon's Administration: Attorney General John N. Mitchell and Commerce Secretary Maurice H. Stans.
Thus, in a separate case, but one clearly related to Watergate, the first high officials stood formally accused. So far the criminal charges against them did not directly bear on Watergate, but they obviously reflected the amorality and the motives behind the wiretap and the many connecting offenses. Obviously also, the indictments were only the beginning of a long inquest that would produce many more charges.
Mitchell and Stans became the first former Cabinet officials accused of a crime since the Teapot Dome oilfield-leasing scandal of 50 years ago.* They stand charged with being so eager to secure campaign contributions for the reelection of President Nixon that they used their great influence to help a financier, Robert L. Vesco, in his deep troubles with the Government. Then they tried repeatedly to conceal the fact that Vesco had contributed $200,000 in cash to the Nixon re-election committee (see box page 18).
Formally, the indictments charge Mitchell and Stans with conspiring to obstruct justice, conspiring to defraud the U.S., and perjury. Each man is accused of lying six times to the grand jury, which had been meeting in Manhattan for three months on the Vesco matter. Announcing the indictments in a halting voice, U.S. Attorney Whitney North Seymour Jr., a devoted Republican who was appointed by Nixon when Mitchell headed the Justice Department, declared: "I regard this as a sad day in a series of sad days for those concerned about integrity in the administration of justice."
Crossfire. Indeed it was. More than any other person in Nixon's official family, Mitchell had symbolized the Administration's dedication to stern law enforcement and its opposition to any coddling of criminals by soft judges. Nixon's most intimate confidant as a law partner and campaign manager, he was the man Nixon had selected to become Attorney General after declaring to cheers in his 1968 speech accepting the Republican Party's presidential nomination: "If we are going to restore order and respect for law in this country, there is one place we are going to begin: we are going to have a new Attorney General."