Richard G. Kleindienst

Richard G. Kleindienst

Richard Gordon Kleindienst (born August 5, 1923 in Winslow , Arizona , † February 3, 2000 in Prescott , Arizona) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) and US attorney general .

Studies and political career in the state of Arizona

Kleindienst completed his law studies at Harvard Law School in 1950 and then worked as a lawyer.

He began his political career in 1953 as the youngest member of the House of Representatives from Arizona . As such, he later became one of the supporters of the Republican Senator for Arizona, Barry Goldwater , in the so-called "Arizona Mafia". When Goldwater ran for the office of US President for the Republicans in 1964 , Kleindienst was the latter's national campaign director in the intra-party primary campaign. After Goldwater was nominated as a presidential candidate, however, Kleindienst withdrew from the campaign team.

Kleindienst then ran for governor of Arizona, but was beaten by Democratic candidate Sam Goddard . In 1966 he was the campaign manager of the successful candidate for Arizona governorship, John R. Williams .

Promotion to Attorney General and Watergate Affair

In 1968, Kleindienst was a supporter and one of the campaign managers in Richard Nixon's successful candidacy for president . President Nixon appointed him in 1969, initially as Deputy Attorney General . When Attorney General John N. Mitchell was appointed chairman of President Nixon's re-election committee in 1972 , the ministry appointed the new Attorney General .

Kleindienst was sworn in in June 1972 shortly before the start of the Watergate Affair , the break-in of the Democratic Party's office in the Watergate building in Washington . In office for less than a year, Kleindienst resigned in April 1973 in protest of White House staff obstruction of investigative work , along with White House Chief of Staff Harry Robbins Haldeman , Presidential Domestic Policy Advisor John Ehrlichman, and White House Legal Adviser, John Dean , back.

Kleindienst denied any knowledge of the scandal and never exchanged a word with Nixon. During a trial of another scandal that took place at the same time, the so-called ITT affair, Kleindienst pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment and a fine of 100 US dollars. He then withdrew from political life.

Publications

• Kleindienst, Richard: Justice: The Memoirs of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst Washington, 1985.

Web links

• Richard G. Kleindienst in the Notable Names Database (English)
• Richard G. Kleindienst at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia (English)