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John Dean
Counsel to the President of the United States from July 1970 to April 1973
John Dean
Counsel to the President of the United States from July 1970 to April 1973
Biography
John Dean served as Counsel to the President of the United States from July 1970 to April 1973. Before becoming White House counsel at age thirty-one, he was the chief minority counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives, an associate director of a law reform commission, and an associate deputy attorney general at the US Department of Justice. His undergraduate studies were at Colgate University and the College of Wooster, with majors in English Literature and Political Science; then a graduate fellowship at American University to study government and the presidency before entering Georgetown University Law Center, where he received his JD with honors in 1965.
John recounted his days at the Nixon White House and Watergate in three books: Blind Ambition (1976), Lost Honor (1982) and The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It (2014). After retiring from a two-decade business career as a private investment banker doing middle-market mergers and acquisitions, he returned to full-time writing and lecturing, including as a columnist for FindLaw's Writ (from 2000 to 2010) and Justia’s Verdict (since 2010). Trump’s election resulted in renewed interest in John’s earlier New York Times best-sellers: Conservatives Without Conscience (2006), which explained the authoritarian direction of the conservative movement that resulted in Trump’s election a decade before it happened, and Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches (2008), which addresses the consequences of GOP control of government. He published his twelfth book: Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers (2020), and is working on a book about radical conservatives and a biography.
Dean held the Barry M. Goldwater Chair of American Institutions at Arizona State University (2015-16), and currently is a fellow at Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications. John teaches a long-running continuing legal education (CLE) program series which examines the impact of the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct on select historic events from Watergate with surprising results, along with the lasting impact of Watergate on the legal profession – “The Watergate CLE.” Since 2017 he has been a contributor for CNN.
Speech Topics
Consequences of Public Truth-Telling
What’s the impact of telling the truth—especially in a public setting? In this lively and informative program, John Dean, CNN News contributor and bestselling author, examines the consequences of truth-telling. And he knows! Dean served as White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. He famously “blew up the cover-up” of the Watergate scandal with his testimony to Congress, which was watched by an estimated 85 million Americans. Based on his personal experiences, he examines the reality of truth-telling while looking at positive outcomes, where truth:
- Builds trust.
- Enhances personal authenticity.
- Reduces stress and strengthens relationships.
- Improves mental and physical health.
- Promotes accountability and ethical behavior.
- Enhances reputation.
- Fosters social harmony.
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Legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning Investigative Journalist; Associate Editor, The Washington Post; and Author, 23 Bestsellers