Patrick Gray

Patrick Gray

Louis Patrick Gray III. (Born July 18, 1916 in St. Louis , Missouri , † July 6, 2005 in Atlantic Beach , Florida ) was an American lawyer and government official. He served as executive director of the FBI from 1972 to 1973 .

Gray was nominated as permanent director by US President Richard Nixon in 1973. That nomination was withdrawn after he admitted to destroying documents given to him by John Dean , Richard Nixon's legal advisor. Its deputy director Mark Felt admitted in May 2005, Deep Throat to have been the informant of journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein , the affair Watergate revealed that an impeachment ( " Impeachment led") against Richard Nixon.

Start time

Gray was born in St. Louis in 1916. He attended schools in St. Louis and Houston , Texas . After studying at Rice University in Houston for some time , he enrolled at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland , where he did his Bachelor of Science in 1940 . Gray served as the Navy Liaison Officer throughout World War II and the Korean War .

During the two war missions he received in 1949 from the law school of George Washington University the doctorate of law awarded. Gray was admitted to the US Military Court of Appeal, US Court of Appeals, US Court of Claims, and US Supreme Court in Washington DC, Connecticut . After leaving the Navy in 1960 with the rank of Captain , he became a military assistant to the Chief of the United General Staff .

Nixon government 1968–1973

He returned to the federal government in the late 1960s and served in several different positions during Nixon's tenure. Nixon appointed him in 1970 as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice ( Assistant Attorney General ) in charge of the Civil Division ( Civil Division ). In 1972 he was nominated by Nixon as assistant attorney general, but his nomination was withdrawn before the Senate could approve it. Instead, Nixon made him FBI executive director after J. Edgar Hoover died. Gray served in that position for less than a year. The agency's day-to-day instructions remained with Deputy Director Mark Felt.

Felt was in charge of the FBI's investigation into the Watergate break-in and began leaking information about the investigation into Woodward. The Watergate tapes revealed that Nixon suspected Felt as the source of the leak. Gray said he had resisted five separate White House requests to fire Felt because he believed Felt's assurance he was not the source until he admitted it in May 2005. Gray alleged that Felt's bitterness that he was passed over in the promotion was the reason for the decision to leak the information to the Washington Post .

Gray was nominated as the permanent successor to Hoover for the office of FBI chief in 1973. This move by Nixon shocked many because it came at a time when revelations about Nixon government officials' involvement in the Watergate affair were culminating. Under his direction, the FBI was charged with flawed investigations into the break-in by superficially doing its job and refusing to investigate the possible involvement of government officials. His Senate confirmation hearing became the Senate's first opportunity to ask him related questions about Watergate.

During the hearing, Gray defended his agency's investigation; however, during questioning, he revealed that he had turned over investigation files to White House legal adviser John Dean - despite the fact that individuals with strong White House ties were being investigated. He confirmed that the accusations supported by studies of the Washington Post and other kinds of dirty tricks and "rat fuck" (English. Ratfucking ) from the re-election of the President Committee were committed and planned and Donald Segretti activities exercised by particularly dubious legality. The White House adamantly denied any involvement in such activities for four months. At the end of the hearing - the FBI's unsuitable investigation into the Watergate case was made public - suspicions of a cover-up rose among many.

It has also been publicly revealed that while Gray was executive director of the FBI, he had destroyed evidence in the Watergate case on behalf of John Dean. In light of this revelation, Gray resigned his nomination as permanent FBI director and left the FBI on April 27, 1973.

Follow-up time

Gray was charged in 1978 for condoning illegal break-ins as a member of the Nixon government. His pension was canceled in 1980 and he was later pardoned by President Ronald Reagan . He was never formally charged with any connection with Watergate, but the affair stuck with him.

On June 26, 2005, he spoke about the Watergate affair for the first time in 32 years after his former deputy, Mark Felt, revealed that he, Mark Felt, was the secret informant of Deep Throat . Gray died on July 6, 2005 of pancreatic cancer . Before his death, he collected his Watergate files with his family and planned to have a book published after his death.

Web links

• Patrick Gray in the nndb (English)
• FBI biography