Watergate Hearings - The Watergate Bugging Affair

richard nixon wanted members of right patman's banking committee to prevent hearings on watergate before the election. The five watergate burglars, plus gordon liddy and howard hunt, were being prosecuted in criminal court. Nixon allies argued that holding hearings on water gate at that moment would have been unfair. To help bolster this argument, john dene reached out to henry peterson, the criminal division at the department of justice. Dean asked peterson to write an official letter objecting to the patment hearings out of a concern for the watergate defendant's civil liberties.