Bob Woodward lied about Nixon, Watergate, the war in Iraq, Iran-Contra and the late comedian John Belushi. Why should we believe his latest lies about President Donald Trump?
"But Woodward’s tale of him setting up a meeting with Felt in early November via the flower pot, when Felt disclosed the “suspicious” erasure, is an obvious lie. Felt had retired from the FBI approximately six months before their purported meeting in early November, and he was living in Virginia."
Easily explained: It was Sally Quinn who watched the apartment balcony. She and Bradlee were by then already effectively living together in Dupont Circle just around the corner. Woodward would put out the flag, and she would spot it and inform Bradlee, who would then get word eventually to Deep Throat, i.e. Moynihan, then (1972, going to India as Ambassador in February '73) mostly in Cambridge.
The reason, in other words, "Ben [Bradlee] never asked for the name of the source," as Woodward has said, is because he already knew. The message system was a secure, closed loop across Moynihan, Bradlee, Quinn, Graham (probably) and Woodward.
Also I think by November '73 Woodward had moved from Dupont Circle to SW DC, as described in ATPM.
"According to Woodward's book, All the President's Men, he had at least fifteen conversations with Deep Throat while investigating the Watergate scandal. This included communications on 19th June (2 phone calls); 16th September, 1972 (phone call); 8th October, 1972 (phone call); 9th October, 1972 (garage meeting); 21st October, 1972 (garage meeting), 27th October, 1972 (garage meeting), late December, 1972 (undisclosed), 25th January, 1973 (garage meeting); 25th February, 1973 (meeting in bar); 16th April, 1973 (phone call); 16th May, 1973 (garage meeting) and a meeting during the first week of November, 1973."
As to the last four, note that Moynihan arrived in India on or about the 22nd of February 1973. Woodward may have moved back the date of the February meeting a few days to the 25th to obscure the linkage. (Recall Bradlee once said he wondered whether the identity of Deep Throat could be determined by plugging into a computer a set of data including who was in town, when, implying perhaps that DT was not ordinarily in town (DC).) After arriving in India, Moynihan made multiple trips back to the States over the next months, including, again, to DC in the first week of November, 1973.
You haven't got it. Moynihan was Deep Throat. Butterfield told Moynihan about the taping system. Butterfield (or Leonard Garment, more likely) told Moynihan about the 18-1/2 minute gap, the possible deliberate erasures. Moynihan told Woodward in November 1973, when he was in DC for about a week, before returning to India.
Adam Levine (press aide). Article ... Early in his career, Levine was a top aide to former U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
CIA leak investigation
Levine was one of the first people to testify for the grand jury investigating the Plame scandal. Levine's testimony addressed his knowledge of White House procedures, in particular phone calls with reporters and a conversation he had with Karl Rove on July 11, 2003.[3] He testified again in October 2005, making him one of the last witnesses to speak to prosecutors before Patrick Fitzgerald decided not to indict Rove.[3] Levine's testimony to prosecution investigators indicated that the Plame affair was not a priority for Rove at the time and therefore easily forgotten by Rove
"History of Threats and Allegations Against Prior Employers
It is our understanding that Levine has also been accused of threatening and illegal conduct by some of his prior employers. This includes allegations of misconduct by Levine while he was working for former employers such as Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Hardball with Chris Matthews. In each instance, Change has reason to believe that Levine had planted stories, and continues to plant stories, with various media outlets to smear his former employers. Levine has also previously been accused of stealing confidential company information, violating various Non-Disclosure Agreements, and violating the Company’s Attorney-Client Privilege. Each of which Levine has engaged in with respect to Change."
As to Rebozo, from the anti-Trump Lucian Truscott IV, who writes,
"In its closing days, the Senate Watergate Committee became interested in the role Bebe Rebozo had played in Watergate. When Terry Lenzner, one of the Democratic counsels to the Watergate Committee, read a couple of my Rebozo stories in the [Village] Voice, he called me up and told me he was stumped by Rebozo. “Who the hell is this guy?” he asked me. “We think he’s laundering money for Nixon, but we can’t nail him down.” Lenzner’s ears perked up when I told him I had discovered that Rebozo owned a chain of about 90 laundromats in Southern Florida. Laudromats, in those days, were all-cash businesses, taking in the bulk of their money in quarters. Bebe was laundering money through his laundromats. One storefront business would take in, say, $200 in cash for a day, around $1500 for the week. It would be no trouble at all for Rebozo to deposit $3,000 for the week in the bank as earnings, thus putting himself, or his partners, on the hook for paying taxes on the extra $1500 in ill-gotten money that he had added to the week’s laundromat take. Multiply that by 90, keep on multiplying at 52 weeks in a year, and you’re talking some real money. Lenzner sent Scott Armstrong, one of the committee investigators, down to Key Biscayne to look into Rebozo’s Key Biscayne Bank. Armstrong was on his way from the airport to his hotel when he spied Bebe’s bank in the strip mall on Key Biscayne’s main drag and decided to pull over and have a look. Just as he got out of the car, a man carrying a suitcase exited the bank’s front doors and turned around to lock them as Armstrong approached. He had a Senate Committee subpoena, so he served it on the guy on the spot, and somehow talked him into opening the suitcase, as if the subpoena was a search warrant. When Armstrong looked inside, he saw $750,000 in cash. The man had a ticket for the Bahamas in his pocket. It turned out that he ran a souvenir concession at the Paradise Island Casino. He was apparently heading for the casino to run the chunk of cash through the casino, another infamous form of money laundering.Did some of that money belong to Richard Nixon? We’ll never know, because once the White House tapes were discovered, and the Senate Committee and the office of the Watergate Special Prosecutor(s) focused their attention on listening to Nixon’s voice as he committed his various crimes, the Key Biscayne Bank and the South Florida Laundromat King, Bebe Rebozo, fell by the proverbial roadside."
"In the course of the investigation, Lenzner's tactics have managed to infuriate the White House, the minority staff members of the Watergate committee and occasionally even the majority staff members, particularly since Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski has pursued his own investigation into the $100,000. Lenzner's detractors accuse him of resorting to underhanded methods at the last moment to make up for a lackluster record of investigation and an abrasive performance as a committee interrogator. Complains Chief Minority Counsel Fred Thompson: "Certain members of the majority staff are panicking now that we're getting close to the deadline. We are seeing another onslaught of 'sources close to the committee' stories, evidently for the aggrandizement of a few staffers."
Understand this and you will understand more why Trump was raided.
"After Mar-a-Lago Search, FBI Agent Wondered, “Am I Dreaming?"
Mar 15, 2024 — After Mar-a-Lago ... “This story worked out well,” said Wray's Chief of Staff, Jonathan Lenzner in an Aug, 20, 2022 email to top FBI officials."
The point of the post was to demonstrate the flimsy grounds on which the allegations rest. Even Truscott abandons the inquiry, writing, "Did some of that money belong to Richard Nixon? We’ll never know ...."
Which brings me to another question. Even if Moynihan were somehow able to work out the logistics of coming in from India to confer with Woodward and Bernstein, how did Moynihan get all the detailed knowledge of the investigation that "Deep Throat" passed on to the "reporters" (transcribers). Presumably, Moynihan had some tasks in India that needed tending to. Why would Moynihan go far, far out of his way to sabotage the Nixon administration which not only treated him well, but pretty much aligned with his "benign neglect" viewpoint.
Bear in mind the chronology. Most of the Woodward - Deep Throat communications occurred in '72, prior to the establishment of the Ervin Committee in January 73. Moynihan didn't go to India until February 73.
Is that helpful? I could go on but details here and specifics matter so the more precise you can be the more responsive I can be.
All of these communications are pre-Moynihan-in-India:
"According to Woodward's book, All the President's Men, he had at least fifteen conversations with Deep Throat while investigating the Watergate scandal. This included communications on 19th June (2 phone calls); 16th September, 1972 (phone call); 8th October, 1972 (phone call); 9th October, 1972 (garage meeting); 21st October, 1972 (garage meeting), 27th October, 1972 (garage meeting), late December, 1972 (undisclosed), 25th January, 1973 (garage meeting); 25th February, 1973 (meeting in bar) ...."
Post-India are these:
"16th April, 1973 (phone call); 16th May, 1973 (garage meeting) and a meeting during the first week of November, 1973."
Moynihan was in DC the first week of November 1973 -- I have that, having had access to his papers during my time as Moynihan's special assistant, established via a letter from MacGeorge Bundy to Moynihan which states that in fact Moynihan was in DC at that time.
That really leaves only the in-person meeting of May 16, 1973, the day before Ervin opened his Committee hearings, the other communication being a phone call. Was Moynihan in the States at this time? Well, between Feb and Dec 1973 Moynihan flew to DC four times and to San Clemente once, according to the NY Times.
"Moynihan flew to Washington four times to shape the [Rupee] settlement [of Dec 1973]. (“He literally carried the papers from office to office in Congress and in the State Department, talking about it, until
he got to Henry,” said one aide) and eventually flew to San Clemente where President Nixon ... had other problems."
I see you asked more. Let me attempt your second question.
"Why would Moynihan go far, far out of his way to sabotage the Nixon administration which not only treated him well, but pretty much aligned with his "benign neglect" viewpoint."
This is a big topic which involves many concepts, including The Mole Hunt alleged to be high in the CIA, Moynihan's role as the architect if you like of steering the US government during the Cold War, in what you might call Hegelian Dialectics.
I'd suggest focus n the facts first, and the logistical realities to determine whether the claim -- my claim -- can in fact be valid, and get to the motivations and larger political purposes later, or let them simply fall into place. When you get enough facts that's what happens. It's easy to get tripped up by digging too early into motivation and philosophy based on perceived understandings.
That's not meant as a cop-out and I will understand if that's unsatisfactory but I haven't had enough coffee this morning for starters and it's again a big topic that isn't especially suited for this format. That said, to the extent you and I and others continue here, i will attempt to get pieces in where I can. I would also suggest reading my comments over here:
"But Woodward’s tale of him setting up a meeting with Felt in early November via the flower pot, when Felt disclosed the “suspicious” erasure, is an obvious lie. Felt had retired from the FBI approximately six months before their purported meeting in early November, and he was living in Virginia."
Easily explained: It was Sally Quinn who watched the apartment balcony. She and Bradlee were by then already effectively living together in Dupont Circle just around the corner. Woodward would put out the flag, and she would spot it and inform Bradlee, who would then get word eventually to Deep Throat, i.e. Moynihan, then (1972, going to India as Ambassador in February '73) mostly in Cambridge.
The reason, in other words, "Ben [Bradlee] never asked for the name of the source," as Woodward has said, is because he already knew. The message system was a secure, closed loop across Moynihan, Bradlee, Quinn, Graham (probably) and Woodward.
Also I think by November '73 Woodward had moved from Dupont Circle to SW DC, as described in ATPM.
"According to Woodward's book, All the President's Men, he had at least fifteen conversations with Deep Throat while investigating the Watergate scandal. This included communications on 19th June (2 phone calls); 16th September, 1972 (phone call); 8th October, 1972 (phone call); 9th October, 1972 (garage meeting); 21st October, 1972 (garage meeting), 27th October, 1972 (garage meeting), late December, 1972 (undisclosed), 25th January, 1973 (garage meeting); 25th February, 1973 (meeting in bar); 16th April, 1973 (phone call); 16th May, 1973 (garage meeting) and a meeting during the first week of November, 1973."
https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKdeepthroat.htm
As to the last four, note that Moynihan arrived in India on or about the 22nd of February 1973. Woodward may have moved back the date of the February meeting a few days to the 25th to obscure the linkage. (Recall Bradlee once said he wondered whether the identity of Deep Throat could be determined by plugging into a computer a set of data including who was in town, when, implying perhaps that DT was not ordinarily in town (DC).) After arriving in India, Moynihan made multiple trips back to the States over the next months, including, again, to DC in the first week of November, 1973.
You haven't got it. Moynihan was Deep Throat. Butterfield told Moynihan about the taping system. Butterfield (or Leonard Garment, more likely) told Moynihan about the 18-1/2 minute gap, the possible deliberate erasures. Moynihan told Woodward in November 1973, when he was in DC for about a week, before returning to India.
https://www.nixonfoundation.org/artifact/tape-923-conversation-5-923-005a/
Tape 923, Conversation 5 (923-005a)
Date: May 19, 1973
Time: Unknown between 11:02 am and 12:47 pm
Location: Oval Office
"Watergate
-President’s schedule
-Helms
-Haig’s recommendation
-Helms
-Conversation with Haig
-Helms’s testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee
-Equipment
-National Security Council [NSC] meeting
-Conversation with President concerning CIA involvement
-Helms’s possible resignation
-Daniel P. (“Pat”) Moynihan
Moynihan
-Letter to Haig"
There’s a special place for Bob Woodward. I hope he likes the heat.
As to Plame, begin here:
Adam Levine (press aide)
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Adam_Levine_(press_...
Adam Levine (press aide). Article ... Early in his career, Levine was a top aide to former U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
CIA leak investigation
Levine was one of the first people to testify for the grand jury investigating the Plame scandal. Levine's testimony addressed his knowledge of White House procedures, in particular phone calls with reporters and a conversation he had with Karl Rove on July 11, 2003.[3] He testified again in October 2005, making him one of the last witnesses to speak to prosecutors before Patrick Fitzgerald decided not to indict Rove.[3] Levine's testimony to prosecution investigators indicated that the Plame affair was not a priority for Rove at the time and therefore easily forgotten by Rove
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Levine_(press_aide)
https://nypost.com/2023/10/17/ex-george-w-bush-press-secretary-adam-levine-sued-for-10m/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tpg-adam-levine-lawsuit_n_6996682
A one-man Plumbers Unit.
https://www.thechangecompany.com/post/statement-regarding-the-arrest-of-adam-levine-for-impersonating-a-police-officer
"History of Threats and Allegations Against Prior Employers
It is our understanding that Levine has also been accused of threatening and illegal conduct by some of his prior employers. This includes allegations of misconduct by Levine while he was working for former employers such as Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Hardball with Chris Matthews. In each instance, Change has reason to believe that Levine had planted stories, and continues to plant stories, with various media outlets to smear his former employers. Levine has also previously been accused of stealing confidential company information, violating various Non-Disclosure Agreements, and violating the Company’s Attorney-Client Privilege. Each of which Levine has engaged in with respect to Change."
https://open.substack.com/pub/thomasgraves/p/arrogant-riddler-and-half-assed-trento?r=gedmx&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=72257013
Levine was Lawrence O'Donnell's right-hand on the Senate Finance Committee during Moynihan's chairmanship (circa '93-'96).
As to Rebozo, from the anti-Trump Lucian Truscott IV, who writes,
"In its closing days, the Senate Watergate Committee became interested in the role Bebe Rebozo had played in Watergate. When Terry Lenzner, one of the Democratic counsels to the Watergate Committee, read a couple of my Rebozo stories in the [Village] Voice, he called me up and told me he was stumped by Rebozo. “Who the hell is this guy?” he asked me. “We think he’s laundering money for Nixon, but we can’t nail him down.” Lenzner’s ears perked up when I told him I had discovered that Rebozo owned a chain of about 90 laundromats in Southern Florida. Laudromats, in those days, were all-cash businesses, taking in the bulk of their money in quarters. Bebe was laundering money through his laundromats. One storefront business would take in, say, $200 in cash for a day, around $1500 for the week. It would be no trouble at all for Rebozo to deposit $3,000 for the week in the bank as earnings, thus putting himself, or his partners, on the hook for paying taxes on the extra $1500 in ill-gotten money that he had added to the week’s laundromat take. Multiply that by 90, keep on multiplying at 52 weeks in a year, and you’re talking some real money. Lenzner sent Scott Armstrong, one of the committee investigators, down to Key Biscayne to look into Rebozo’s Key Biscayne Bank. Armstrong was on his way from the airport to his hotel when he spied Bebe’s bank in the strip mall on Key Biscayne’s main drag and decided to pull over and have a look. Just as he got out of the car, a man carrying a suitcase exited the bank’s front doors and turned around to lock them as Armstrong approached. He had a Senate Committee subpoena, so he served it on the guy on the spot, and somehow talked him into opening the suitcase, as if the subpoena was a search warrant. When Armstrong looked inside, he saw $750,000 in cash. The man had a ticket for the Bahamas in his pocket. It turned out that he ran a souvenir concession at the Paradise Island Casino. He was apparently heading for the casino to run the chunk of cash through the casino, another infamous form of money laundering.Did some of that money belong to Richard Nixon? We’ll never know, because once the White House tapes were discovered, and the Senate Committee and the office of the Watergate Special Prosecutor(s) focused their attention on listening to Nixon’s voice as he committed his various crimes, the Key Biscayne Bank and the South Florida Laundromat King, Bebe Rebozo, fell by the proverbial roadside."
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/when-t-r-u-m-p-was-spelled-n-i-x
From TIME, at the time, by Stanley Cloud:
"In the course of the investigation, Lenzner's tactics have managed to infuriate the White House, the minority staff members of the Watergate committee and occasionally even the majority staff members, particularly since Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski has pursued his own investigation into the $100,000. Lenzner's detractors accuse him of resorting to underhanded methods at the last moment to make up for a lackluster record of investigation and an abrasive performance as a committee interrogator. Complains Chief Minority Counsel Fred Thompson: "Certain members of the majority staff are panicking now that we're getting close to the deadline. We are seeing another onslaught of 'sources close to the committee' stories, evidently for the aggrandizement of a few staffers."
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,943658-3,00.html
Understand this and you will understand more why Trump was raided.
"After Mar-a-Lago Search, FBI Agent Wondered, “Am I Dreaming?"
Mar 15, 2024 — After Mar-a-Lago ... “This story worked out well,” said Wray's Chief of Staff, Jonathan Lenzner in an Aug, 20, 2022 email to top FBI officials."
https://us-east-1.envoy.cirrus.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-03-15/trump-documents-raid-at-mar-a-lago-sparked-protest-from-fbi-employees
Where was Nixon getting the money Rebozo was supposedly laundering for him?
The point of the post was to demonstrate the flimsy grounds on which the allegations rest. Even Truscott abandons the inquiry, writing, "Did some of that money belong to Richard Nixon? We’ll never know ...."
Which brings me to another question. Even if Moynihan were somehow able to work out the logistics of coming in from India to confer with Woodward and Bernstein, how did Moynihan get all the detailed knowledge of the investigation that "Deep Throat" passed on to the "reporters" (transcribers). Presumably, Moynihan had some tasks in India that needed tending to. Why would Moynihan go far, far out of his way to sabotage the Nixon administration which not only treated him well, but pretty much aligned with his "benign neglect" viewpoint.
Bear in mind the chronology. Most of the Woodward - Deep Throat communications occurred in '72, prior to the establishment of the Ervin Committee in January 73. Moynihan didn't go to India until February 73.
Is that helpful? I could go on but details here and specifics matter so the more precise you can be the more responsive I can be.
All of these communications are pre-Moynihan-in-India:
"According to Woodward's book, All the President's Men, he had at least fifteen conversations with Deep Throat while investigating the Watergate scandal. This included communications on 19th June (2 phone calls); 16th September, 1972 (phone call); 8th October, 1972 (phone call); 9th October, 1972 (garage meeting); 21st October, 1972 (garage meeting), 27th October, 1972 (garage meeting), late December, 1972 (undisclosed), 25th January, 1973 (garage meeting); 25th February, 1973 (meeting in bar) ...."
Post-India are these:
"16th April, 1973 (phone call); 16th May, 1973 (garage meeting) and a meeting during the first week of November, 1973."
Moynihan was in DC the first week of November 1973 -- I have that, having had access to his papers during my time as Moynihan's special assistant, established via a letter from MacGeorge Bundy to Moynihan which states that in fact Moynihan was in DC at that time.
That really leaves only the in-person meeting of May 16, 1973, the day before Ervin opened his Committee hearings, the other communication being a phone call. Was Moynihan in the States at this time? Well, between Feb and Dec 1973 Moynihan flew to DC four times and to San Clemente once, according to the NY Times.
"Moynihan flew to Washington four times to shape the [Rupee] settlement [of Dec 1973]. (“He literally carried the papers from office to office in Congress and in the State Department, talking about it, until
he got to Henry,” said one aide) and eventually flew to San Clemente where President Nixon ... had other problems."
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/31/archives/daniel-moynihans-passage-to-india-he-didnt-realize-the-depths-of.html
See also p. 9 here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/documents/daniel-patrick-moynihan-correspondence
I see you asked more. Let me attempt your second question.
"Why would Moynihan go far, far out of his way to sabotage the Nixon administration which not only treated him well, but pretty much aligned with his "benign neglect" viewpoint."
This is a big topic which involves many concepts, including The Mole Hunt alleged to be high in the CIA, Moynihan's role as the architect if you like of steering the US government during the Cold War, in what you might call Hegelian Dialectics.
I'd suggest focus n the facts first, and the logistical realities to determine whether the claim -- my claim -- can in fact be valid, and get to the motivations and larger political purposes later, or let them simply fall into place. When you get enough facts that's what happens. It's easy to get tripped up by digging too early into motivation and philosophy based on perceived understandings.
That's not meant as a cop-out and I will understand if that's unsatisfactory but I haven't had enough coffee this morning for starters and it's again a big topic that isn't especially suited for this format. That said, to the extent you and I and others continue here, i will attempt to get pieces in where I can. I would also suggest reading my comments over here:
https://www.stonecoldtruth.com/p/nixon-threatened-to-reveal-the-cias?utm_campaign=reaction&utm_medium=email&utm_source=substack&utm_content=post
A lot has already been laid out there.
https://substack.com/@mattcloud/note/c-70075890