Jeb Stuart Magruder

Jeb Stuart Magruder (1970)

Jeb Stuart Magruder (born November 5, 1935 in New York City , † May 11, 2014 in Danbury , Connecticut ) was an American politician and author who was involved in the Watergate affair .

Rise in Washington

He studied at Williams College and the University of Chicago . During his time in the army, Magruder was stationed in Korea . After his military service he worked as a salesman for cosmetics, face masks and women's jerseys. He was also known as a "bicycle jester" who rode his bike to the White House every day .

In 1969, Magruder was brought to the White House by HR Haldeman (President Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff ). Magruder was a member of the so-called "beaver patrol" - an expression for those young men who worked loyally for Haldeman. In March 1971 the Nixon Re-election Committee (CRP) was formed. Magruder worked first as director, later as deputy campaign manager under former Attorney General and Nixon friend John N. Mitchell . Hugh Sloan and Jeb Magruder were hired by Haldeman to take care of the day-to-day political and financial affairs of the CRP. The CRP's campaign was extremely successful, even if the methods used turned out to be the biggest political scandal in US history. In gratitude for the successful re-election of Nixon, Magruder was entrusted with the organization of the ceremonial process for Nixon's inauguration in January 1973.

Watergate affair

As Mitchell's first employee in the CRP, Magruder had to supervise 25 section heads and 250 full-time employees, as well as to look after 30 to 35 million dollars. Magruder was authorized by Mitchell to approve payments to others. $ 700,000 should have been officially earmarked for security at the Republican National Convention . Unofficially, the money was probably used for break-ins and wiretapping. Documents such as tapes and bank statements were destroyed by Robert Mardian (the CRP's political coordinator) and Fred LaRue (the CRP's deputy director). It was later admitted by Clark MacGregor , Mitchell's successor as campaign manager of the CRP, that money was made available from the so-called security fund for "investigations into possible organized disruptions of the Nixon election campaign". However, according to MacGregor, this "investigation" had nothing to do with illegal activities. The hearing of the only four witnesses on the Nixon Committee was scheduled for January 1973: Porter , Odle , Sloan, and Magruder. During this first half-hour interrogation by Chief Prosecutor Earl J. Silbert , Magruder stated that, in addition to his various activities in the CRP, he had no time to note whether other employees, such as Gordon Liddy , financial advisor at the CRP, were involved in illegal activities .

The two Watergate discoverers, Carl Bernstein and Robert Woodward of the Washington Post , analyzed the process in their newspaper. According to their presentation, the 16-day process should have been characterized by "unasked questions, not given answers, unheard of witnesses and gaps in memory". From this, the public prosecutor's will not be too keen to provide information can be derived. Magruder later admitted that he had perjured in the process . After James W. McCord , in a letter to Judge John Sirica, agreed to testify wholeheartedly in court and implied perjury in earlier statements by other parties involved, Magruder decided to take an unusual step: on April 14, 1973, he volunteered for the prosecution. He claimed that Mitchell and Nixon's advisor, John Dean, approved and supported the plans for the Watergate bugging operations. In addition, Magruder stated in his testimony that Mitchell and Dean had tried to buy the silence of the seven responsible Watergate burglars. Magruder was found guilty of the following offenses by Judge Sirica in August 1973: obstruction of justice, fraud against the United States, eavesdropping on the Democratic Party . He served seven months in a prison in Allenwood ( Pennsylvania ).

Late years

After the Watergate scandal, Magruder left politics and business and embarked on a religious path in the Presbyterian Church. He studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained a pastor in 1981. He was in Burlingame ( California ), Columbus ( Ohio ) and Lexington ( Kentucky active). In 1987, Magruder married Patricia Ann Newton. In 1995 Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones granted him the right to run for office again; a corresponding petition for clemency by Magruders had been rejected by Ronald Reagan in 1983 . In 1998 he retired as an active church worker and became a consultant in a commercial company in Dallas .

In 2003, 30 years after Watergate, Jeb Magruder spoke again in a documentary for the US public broadcaster PBS . He stated that he was present on a phone call between John Mitchell and Richard Nixon and recognized Nixon's voice. Nixon allegedly urged Mitchell to break into the Watergate Hotel during that phone call. "John ... you have to do this," Nixon said. Immediately after the interview, historians expressed doubts about the veracity of this statement. So called Stanley Kutler , author of several books about the Watergate scandal, Magruder a "questionable person ... with questionable statements." Missing tape recordings about the above call from the White House leads Kutler on as evidence. However, Nixon did not hand over all tape recordings and in some places only whistling tones could be heard (Nixon's secretary Woods accidentally claims to have pressed the delete button). John Dean, Nixon's advisor, also spoke up after the interview. He said that he saw no reason why Magruder should have said the untruth about the events at that time. However, he had wanted these statements from Magruder 30 years earlier.

Books

Magruder wrote two books. "An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate," from 1974 reveals his involvement in the Watergate scandal. In “From Power to Peace” he describes his path to Christian faith after the scandal.

Web links

• Jeb Stuart Magruder in the nndb (English)
• Jack Brammer: Watergate figure Jeb Stuart Magruder, who later became a minister in Lexington, dies at 79. Obituary on kentucky.com, May 15, 2014 (English)