John J. Sirica (1904–1992)

A good read, well-written by a remarkable man, a Republican who had campaigned when younger for the party and voted for Nixon.

There is a rich American history of powerful politicians and businessmen who have gotten away with worse than Richard Nixon brought forth. Not to mention whatever successful schemes have never seen the light of day. Nixon would not have been brought down but for a web of essential circumstances, one being the determination of Judge John Sirica to dig out the truth rather than to referee blithely the Watergate court battles. Senator Sam Ervin, who chaired the Senate Watergate Committee, admitted "... they almost got away with it."

Counsel for the defendants were some of the nation's best advocates who generally had little basis for argument against the available facts and resorted instead to recurring efforts to rattle the judge into committing errors which might reverse guilty verdicts on appeal. Sirica prepared well and maintained fair courtroom demeanor under the immense stress and was upheld on appeals.

This is not a comprehensive look at the entire Watergate affair but does cover much more than Sirica's court proceedings, providing a good overview.

Sirica was named Time magazine Man of the Year in 1973.

Watergate resulted in heightened scrutiny of public officials, establishment of the Federal Election Commission, and passage of much-needed campaign finance laws, some of which have been debilitated since then.

Sirica gives credit to many others, including Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski; Katherine Graham, owner of the Washington Post, and two of its investigative reporters, Woodward and Bernstein; Sam Ervin; and Peter Rodino, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

At the end of the book Sirica provides a nice epilogue, notes on sources for those interested in further details, transcripts of portions of two Watergate tapes showing Nixon's involvement, and some key court opinions.… (mais)

1573 To Set the Record Straight: The Break-in, the Tapes, the Conspirators, the Pardon, by John J. Sirica (read 7 June 1980) I am surprised I have read another Watergate book. But I suppose it is well to occasionally read one, just to keep things straight. So I read Judge Sirica's book. I enjoyed it, and was really amazed at his early life. He almost didn't finish law school, and really struggled in his early law career He is, as I well knew, Georgetown 1926. He wasn't married till he was 48 and his wife was 28. He has 3 kids. I always wondered about those provisional sentences given the original Watergate defendants, and the scorn Richard Turner, attorney-general of Iowa, heaped on this procedure at the 1973 Annual Banquet of the Iowa Bar Association--where Bernstein of Bernstein and Woodward was the speaker. Obviously Turner never checked into it very far or he have known that 18 U.S. C. A. Sec 4208(b) (now 18 U.S.C.A. sec 4205(b)) is clear statutory authority for Sirica's procedure. This was an easy-to-read book, and while not profound was well worthwhile.… (mais)