Editing John N. Mitchell

{{short description|American lawyer and criminal (1913–1988)}}
{{other people|John Mitchell|John Mitchell (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = John Mitchell
| image               = Interview_with_Atty._Gen._John_Mitchell_01_copy.jpg
| caption             = Mitchell in 1971
| office              = 67th [[United States Attorney General]]
| president           = [[Richard Nixon]]
| term_start          = January 21, 1969
| term_end            = March 1, 1972
| predecessor         = [[Ramsey Clark]]
| successor           = [[Richard Kleindienst]]
| birth_name          = John Newton Mitchell
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1913|9|15}}
| birth_place         = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1988|11|9|1913|9|15}}
| death_place         = Washington, D.C., U.S.
| known_for           = Convicted of crimes committed during his tenure as U.S. Attorney General
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse              = [[Martha Mitchell|Martha Beall]]
| education           = [[Fordham University School of Law|Fordham University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
| branch              = [[United States Navy]]
| serviceyears        = 1943–1946
| rank                = [[Lieutenant (junior grade)]]
| battles             = [[World War II]]
*[[Pacific War]]
| mawards             = 
}}
{{Watergate|CRP}}
'''John Newton Mitchell''' (September 5, 1913 – November 9, 1988) was the 67th [[Attorney General of the United States]], serving under President [[Richard Nixon]] and was chairman of Nixon's [[Richard Nixon 1968 presidential campaign|1968]] and [[1972 United States presidential election|1972]] presidential campaigns. Prior to that, he had been a [[municipal bond]] lawyer and one of Nixon's associates.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perlstein |first=Rick |title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |publisher=Scribner |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7432-4302-5 |pages=175}}</ref> He was tried and convicted as a result of his involvement in the [[Watergate scandal]].

After his tenure as U.S. Attorney General, he served as chairman of Nixon's 1972 presidential campaign. Due to multiple crimes he committed in the Watergate affair, Mitchell was sentenced to prison in 1977 and served 19 months. As Attorney General, he was noted for personifying the "[[Law and order (politics)|law-and-order]]" positions of the [[Nixon administration]], amid several high-profile [[anti-Vietnam War]] demonstrations.

==Early life==
Mitchell was born in Detroit to Margaret (McMahon) and Joseph C. Mitchell. He grew up in the New York City borough of [[Queens]].<ref>{{cite census | url = https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RCX-J3Q?i=7&cc=1810731 | title = United States Census 1930 | year = 1930 | location = Queens, New York | page = 4b | line = 51  | enumdist = 41-325 }}</ref><ref>{{cite census | url = https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89MB-SZGK?i=8&cc=2000219 | title = United States Census 1940 | year = 1940| location = Queens, New York | page = 5a | line = 28| enumdist = 41-1147a }}</ref> He attended [[Fordham University]] from 1932 to 1934, and earned his law degree from [[Fordham University School of Law]] in 1938.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Joint Committee On Printing, U.S. Congress |date=1971 |title=Department of Justice: Biography, John N. Mitchell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6SDjajvoxwIC&pg=PA500 |magazine=Odfficial Congressional Directory of the 92nd Congress |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=500 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Mitchell carried out postgraduate study at [[St. John's University Law School]] in 1938 and 1939.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/mitchell-john-newton |title=John N. Mitchell biography |publisher=Department of Justice|access-date=January 21, 2017|date=October 24, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/10/obituaries/john-n-mitchell-dies-at-75-major-figure-in-watergate.html|title=John N. Mitchell Dies at 75; Major Figure in Watergate |newspaper=New York Times|date=November 10, 1988|access-date=January 21, 2017}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Mitchell served for three years in the [[United States Navy]] and attained the rank of [[lieutenant (junior grade)]] as a [[PT boat]] commander. Stories Mitchell told about his naval service were later debunked, including having received the [[Silver Star]] and [[Purple Heart]], served as [[John F. Kennedy]]'s commanding officer, and saved the life of [[Pappy Boyington]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Karl |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Karl |date=May 24, 2008 |title=Reconsidering John Mitchell |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121158799673718969 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |location=New York, NY}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rosen |first=James |author-link=James Rosen (journalist) |date=2008 |title=The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHIGQTGemnAC&pg=PA15 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Doubleday Broadway Publishing |pages=15–16 |isbn=978-0-385-50864-3 |via=[[Google Books]] |ref={{sfnRef|Rosen}}}}</ref> Except for his period of military service, Mitchell practiced law in New York City from 1938 until 1969 with the firm of [[Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon|Rose, Guthrie, Alexander and Mitchell]] and earned a reputation as a successful [[municipal bond]] lawyer.  Richard Nixon was a partner in the firm from 1963 to 1968.

Mitchell's second wife, [[Martha Mitchell]], became a controversial figure, gaining notoriety for her late-night phone calls to reporters in which she accused Nixon of participating in the Watergate cover-up and alleged that he and several of his aides were trying to make her husband the scapegoat for the whole affair.

==New York government==
Mitchell devised a type of [[Municipal Revenue Bonds|revenue bond]] called a "moral obligation bond" while serving as bond counsel to New York Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]] in the 1960s. In an effort to get around the voter approval process for increasing state and municipal borrower limits, Mitchell attached language to the offerings that was able to communicate the state's intent to meet the bond payments while not placing it under a legal obligation to do so.<ref name="MysakMarlin1991">{{cite book|first1=Joseph|last1=Mysak|first2=George|last2=Marlin|date=1991|title=Fiscal Administration: Analysis and Applications for the Public Sector|publisher=Brooks/Cole|location=Pacific Grove, California|isbn=978-0155058552}}</ref> Mitchell did not dispute when asked in an interview if the intent of such language was to create a "form of political elitism that bypasses the voter's right to a referendum or an initiative."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.virginiainstitute.org/publications/pay_the_bills.php|title=We Only Pay the Bills: The Ongoing Effort to Disfranchise Virginia's Voters|first1=William P.|last1=Kittredge|first2=David W.|last2=Kreutzer|publisher=The Virginia Institute for Public Policy|location=Abingdon, Virginia|year=2001|access-date=December 12, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530203101/http://www.virginiainstitute.org/publications/pay_the_bills.php|archive-date=May 30, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Political career==
[[File:John Mitchell swearing in.jpg|thumb|left|Mitchell is sworn in as Attorney General of the United States, January 22, 1969. Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]] administers the oath while President [[Richard Nixon]] looks on.]] In 1967, the firm of Caldwell, Trimble & Mitchell, where Mitchell was lead partner, merged with Richard Nixon's firm, [[Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon|Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, & Alexander]].  Nixon was then officially in "political retirement" but was quietly organizing a return to politics in the [[1968 United States Presidential Election|1968 Presidential Election]]. Mitchell, with his many contacts in local government, became an important strategic confidant to Nixon, who referred to him as "the heavyweight."<ref>{{cite web |title=Attorney General: John Newton Mitchell |url=https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/mitchell-john-newton |website=www.justice.gov |access-date=January 23, 2022 |language=en |date=October 23, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Perlstein |first1=Rick |title=Before the storm : Barry Goldwater and the unmaking of the American consensus |date=2001 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York City|isbn=9780809028580 |edition=1st}}</ref>

===Nixon campaign manager===
In 1968 John Mitchell agreed to become Nixon's presidential [[campaign manager]]. During his successful 1968 campaign, Nixon turned over the details of the day-to-day operations to Mitchell.

===Vietnam===
Allegedly, Mitchell also played a central role in [[Anna Chennault#Paris Peace Accords|covert attempts]] to sabotage the 1968 [[Paris Peace Accords]]  which could have ended the Vietnam War (the “Chennault Affair”).<ref>[[KC Johnson|Robert "KC" Johnson]]. [http://hnn.us/articles/60446.html “Did Nixon Commit Treason in 1968? What The New LBJ Tapes Reveal”]. [[History News Network]], January 26, 2009. Transcript from {{YouTube|i10VxpAGQUg|audio recording}} of [[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Lyndon Johnson]]: "The next thing that we got our teeth in was one of his associates — a fellow named Mitchell, who is running his campaign, who's the real [[Sherman Adams]] ([[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]'s chief of staff) of the operation, in effect said to a businessman that 'we're going to handle this like we handled the Fortas matter, unquote. We're going to frustrate the President by saying to the South Vietnamese, and the Koreans, and the Thailanders {{sic}}, "Beware of [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]]."' 'At the same time, we're going to say to Hanoi, "I [Nixon] can make a better deal than he [[Lyndon B. Johnson|(Johnson)]] has, because I'm fresh and new, and I don't have to demand as much as he does in the light of past positions."'"</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Seymour|last=Hersh|authorlink=Seymour Hersh|url=https://archive.org/details/priceofpower00hers|title=The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House|publisher=[[Summit Books]]| date=1983 |<!-- [quote=“I'm speaking on behalf of Mr. Nixon. It's very important that our Vietnamese friends understand our Republican position and I hope you have made that clear to them".  p. 21.]--> quote="A few days before the election, she wrote, Mitchell telephoned with an urgent message. [[Anna Chennault|'Anna,' (Chennault)]] she quotes him as saying. 'I'm speaking on behalf of Mr. Nixon. It's very important that our Vietnamese friends understand our Republican position and I hope you have made that clear to them.'".}}</ref><ref>[[Jules Witcover]]. [http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801882470&qty=1&source=2&viewMode=3&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y “The Making of an Ink-Stained Wretch: Half a Century Pounding the Political Beat”]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. [[Johns Hopkins University Press]], 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ePRIONzLmEoC&pg=PA131#PPA132,M1 p131.] "I tracked down [[Anna Chennault]] (...) she insisted she had acted under instructions from the Nixon campaign in contacting the Saigon regime. 'The only people who knew about the whole operation,' she told me, 'were Nixon, John Mitchell and [[John Tower]] [senator from Texas and Nixon campaign figure], and they're all dead. But they knew what I was doing. Anyone who knows about these thing knows I was getting orders to do these thing. I couldn't do anything without instructions.'".</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Clark M.|last1=Clifford|authorlink1=Clark M. Clifford|first2=Richard C.|last2=Holbrooke|authorlink2=Richard C. Holbrooke|title=Counsel to the President: A Memoir|publisher=[[Random House]]|location=New York City|date=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeJ4AAAAMAAJ|page=582| isbn=9780394569956 |quote=It was not difficult for Ambassador Diem to pass information to Anna Chennault, who was in contact with John Mitchell, she said later, 'at least once a day.'}}</ref>

===Attorney general===
[[File:President Nixon conferring with Attorney-General Mitchell, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and John D. Ehrlichman` - NARA - 194722.tif|thumb|300px|Mitchell, [[Richard Nixon]], [[J. Edgar Hoover]] and [[John Ehrlichman]] in May 1971]]
After Nixon became president in January 1969, he appointed Mitchell as [[Attorney General of the United States]] while making an unprecedented direct appeal to [[FBI]] Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] that the usual background investigation not be conducted.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Curt Gentry|first=Curt |last=Gentry |title=J. Edgar Hoover: The Man And The Secrets |url=https://archive.org/details/jedgarhoovermans00gent|url-access=registration|year=1991 |publisher=W. W. Norton |location=New York City|isbn=0-393-02404-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jedgarhoovermans00gent/page/616 616]}}</ref> Mitchell remained in office from 1969 until he resigned in 1972 to manage Nixon's reelection campaign.

===Law and order===
Mitchell believed that the government's need for "[[law and order (politics)|law and order]]" justified restrictions on civil liberties. He advocated the use of wiretaps in national security cases without obtaining a court order (''[[United States v. U.S. District Court]]'', [[Nixon wiretaps]]) and the right of police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. He brought [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] charges against critics of the [[Vietnam War]], likening them to [[brown shirts]] of the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi era]] in Germany.

Mitchell expressed a reluctance to involve the Justice Department in some [[civil rights]] issues. "The Department of Justice is a law enforcement agency," he told reporters. "It is not the place to carry on a program aimed at curing the ills of society." However, he also told activists, "You will be better advised to watch what we do, not what we say."{{sfn|Rosen|page=136}}<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/14/opinion/essay-watch-what-we-do.html|title=Watch What We Do|first=William|last=Safire|date=November 14, 1988|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=July 22, 2017|author-link=William Safire}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91IFAYFhtOMC&pg=PA4|title=Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations|first=James H.|last=Billington|date=2010|publisher=Courier Corporation|location=Chelmsford, Massachusetts|isbn=9780486472881|access-date=July 22, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=POhHuoGILNYC&pg=PA253|title=Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past|first=Bruce|last=Bartlett|date=January 8, 2008|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York City|isbn=9780230611382|access-date=July 22, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNrMbvyHhrIC&pg=PA267|title=We Have No Leaders: African Americans in the Post-Civil Rights Era|first=Robert Charles|last=Smith|date=July 22, 1996|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|location=New York City|isbn=9780791431351|access-date=July 22, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=whg05Z4Nwo0C&pg=PA4|title=The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations|first1=Hugh|last1=Rawson|first2=Margaret|last2=Miner|date=2006|publisher=[[Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press USA]]|location=New York City|isbn=9780195168235|access-date=July 22, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>

===School desegregation===
Near the beginning of his administration, Nixon ordered Mitchell to go slow on desegregation of schools in the South, in fulfillment of Nixon's "[[Southern strategy|Southern Strategy]]" which accused him of focusing on gaining support from Southern white voters. After being instructed by the federal courts that segregation was unconstitutional and that the executive branch was required to enforce the rulings of the courts, Mitchell began to comply, threatening to withhold federal funds from those school systems that were still segregated and threatening legal action against them.

School segregation had been struck down as unconstitutional by a unanimous Supreme Court decision in 1954 (''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''), but in 1955, the Court ruled that desegregation needed to be accomplished only with "[[all deliberate speed]]," <ref>Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)</ref> which many Southern states interpreted as an invitation to delay. It was not until 1969 that the Supreme Court renounced the "all deliberate speed" rule and declared that further delay in accomplishing desegregation was no longer permissible.<ref>See, e.g., Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19 (1969)</ref>  As a result, some 70% of black children were still attending segregated schools in 1968 when Nixon became president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121158799673718969|title=Reconsidering John Mitchell|first=Jonathan|last=Karl|date=May 24, 2008|access-date=July 22, 2017|work=[[Wall Street Journal]]}}</ref> By 1972, as a result of President Nixon's policy this percentage had decreased to 8%, a greater decrease than in any of the previous three presidents. Enrollment of black children in desegregated schools rose from 186,000 in 1969 to 3 million in 1970.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humanevents.com/2008/05/09/reviewing-the-strong-man-john-mitchell-and-the-secrets-of-watergate/|title=Reviewing The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate|first=George|last=Marlin|date=May 9, 2008|work=[[Human Events]]|access-date=July 22, 2017|archive-date=August 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828094816/http://humanevents.com/2008/05/09/reviewing-the-strong-man-john-mitchell-and-the-secrets-of-watergate/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/a-surprise-but-not-a-success/302488/|title=A Surprise, but not a Success|first=Tamar|last=Jacoby|date=May 2002|work=[[Atlantic]]|access-date=May 2, 2023}}</ref>

===Public safety===
From the outset, Mitchell strove to suppress what many Americans saw as major threats to their safety: urban crime, black unrest, and war resistance. He called for the use of [[No-knock warrant|"no-knock" warrants]] for police to enter homes, [[frisking]] suspects without a warrant, [[Telephone tapping|wiretapping]], [[preventive detention]], the use of federal troops to repress crime in the capital, a restructured Supreme Court, and a slowdown in school desegregation. "This country is going so far to the right you won't recognize it," he told a reporter.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/10/obituaries/john-n-mitchell-dies-at-75-major-figure-in-watergate.html|title=John N. Mitchell Dies at 75; Major Figure in Watergate|date=November 10, 1988|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

There had been national outrage over the 1969 burning [[Cuyahoga River]]. President Nixon had signed the National Environmental Policy Act on New Year's Day in 1970, establishing the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA).  Nixon appointed [[William Ruckelshaus]] to head the agency, which opened its doors December 2, 1970. Mitchell gave a Press Conference  December 18, 1970: “I would like to call attention to an area of activity that we have not publicly emphasized lately, but which I feel, because of the changing events, deserves your attention. I refer to the pollution control litigation, with particular reference to our work with the new Environmental Protection Agency, now headed by William Ruckelshaus.&nbsp; As in the case of other government departments and agencies, EPA refers civil and criminal suits to the Department of Justice, which determines whether there is a base for prosecution and of course, if we find it so, we proceed with court action.... And today, I would like to announce that we are filing suit this morning against the [[Jones and Laughlin Steel Company|Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation]] for discharging substantial quantities of cyanide into the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland. Mr. Ruckelshaus has said, when he asked the Department to file this suit, that the 180-day notice filed against the company had expired. We are filing a civil suit to seek immediate injunctive relief under the Refuse Act of 1899 and the Federal Water Pollution Act to halt the discharge of these deleterious materials into the river.”<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2011/08/23/12-18-1970.pdf|title=Press Conference Attorney John Mitchell 12-18-1970}}</ref>

===Dirty tricks===
In an early sample of the "dirty tricks" that would later mark the 1971–72 campaign, Mitchell approved a $10,000 subsidy to employ an [[American Nazi Party]] faction in a bizarre effort to get Alabama Governor [[George Wallace]] off the ballots in California. The scheme failed.<ref name=":0" />

==Vesco donation obstruction trial==
{{main|Committee to Re-elect the President}}
[[File:John Mitchell preparing to testify.jpg|thumb|right|Former [[United States Attorney General|attorney general]] Mitchell enters the Senate caucus room to testify before the [[Senate Watergate Committee]], 1973]]
John Mitchell's name was mentioned in a deposition concerning [[Robert Vesco|Robert L. Vesco]], an international financier who was a fugitive from a federal indictment. Mitchell and Nixon Finance Committee Chairman [[Maurice Stans|Maurice H. Stans]] were indicted in May 1973 on federal charges of obstructing an investigation of Vesco after he made a $200,000 contribution to the Nixon campaign.<ref>{{cite book  |first1=Bob |last1=Woodward |authorlink1=Bob Woodward|first2=Carl |last2=Bernstein |authorlink2=Carl Bernstein|title=All The President's Men |year=1974 |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]] |location=New York City|pages=284n, 335|title-link=All The President's Men }}</ref> In April 1974, both men were acquitted in [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|a New York federal district court]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Bob |last1=Woodward |authorlink1=Bob Woodward|first2=Carl|last2=Bernstein |authorlink2=Carl Bernstein|title=The Final Days |url=https://archive.org/details/finaldays0000wood |url-access=registration |year=1976 |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]]|location=New York City|page=[https://archive.org/details/finaldays0000wood/page/138 138] |isbn=0-671-22298-8}}</ref>

==Watergate scandal==
{{Main|Watergate scandal}}
In the days immediately after the Watergate break-in of June 17, 1972, Mitchell enlisted former FBI agent [[Steve King (ambassador)|Steve King]] to prevent his wife [[Martha Mitchell|Martha]] from learning about the break-in or contacting reporters. While she was on a phone call with journalist [[Helen Thomas]] about the break-in, King pulled the phone cord from the wall. Mrs. Mitchell was held against her will in a California hotel room and forcibly sedated by a psychiatrist after a physical struggle with five men that left her needing stitches.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reeves|first=Richard|title=President Nixon : alone in the White House|url=https://archive.org/details/presidentnixon00rich|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=0-7432-2719-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/presidentnixon00rich/page/511 511]|edition=1st Touchstone ed. 2002.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=McLendon|first=Winzola|title=Martha: The Life of Martha Mitchell| url=https://archive.org/details/marthalifeofmart00mcle| url-access=registration|year=1979|publisher=Random House |isbn=9780394411248}}</ref>  Nixon aides, in an effort to discredit her, told the press that she had a "drinking problem".<ref>{{cite book|first=Keith|last=Olson|title=Watergate: The Presidential Scandal That Shook America|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780700612512|url-access=registration|year=2003}}</ref> Nixon was later to tell interviewer [[David Frost]] in 1977 that Martha was a distraction to John Mitchell, such that no one was minding the store, and "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate."

In 1972, when asked to comment about a forthcoming article<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/092972-1.htm|title=WashingtonPost.com: Mitchell Controlled Secret GOP Fund|website=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref> that reported that he controlled a political [[slush fund]] used for gathering intelligence on the Democrats, he famously uttered an implied threat to reporter [[Carl Bernstein]]: "[[Katharine Graham|Katie Graham]]'s gonna get her tit<ref>The words "her tit" were not included in the newspaper article.</ref> caught in a big fat wringer if that's published."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/katharinegrahamp00grah|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/katharinegrahamp00grah/page/465 465]|title=Personal History|first=Katharine|last=Graham|date=July 22, 1997|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|access-date=July 22, 2017|via=Internet Archive|isbn=9780394585857}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/graham.htm|title=The Watergate Watershed -- A Turning Point for a Nation and a Newspaper|first=Katharine|last=Graham|date=January 28, 1997|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=July 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>Woodward & Bernstein (1974) p. 105</ref>
[[File:1300 - 1302 30th Street, N.W..JPG|thumb|One of Mitchell's former residences (left) in [[Georgetown, Washington, D.C.|Georgetown]], Washington, D.C.]]

In July 1973, Mitchell testified before the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] where he claimed he had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in, which contradicted the testimony of others who appeared before the committee. He admitted that he was briefed on January 27, 1972, while he was the attorney general, by [[G. Gordon Liddy]] on [[Operation Gemstone]] which proposed numerous illegal activities to support the reelection of President Nixon, including the use of prostitutes, kidnapping, and assaulting antiwar protestors. Mitchell testified he should have thrown Liddy "out of the window". [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]] and [[John Dean]] testified to the committee that Mitchell later approved electronic surveillance (i.e., bugging telephones) but did not approve of the other proposed activities.

Tape recordings made by President Nixon and the testimony of others involved confirmed that Mitchell had participated in meetings to plan the break-in of the Democratic Party's national headquarters in the [[Watergate complex|Watergate Office Building]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knJFAQAAMAAJ&q=Mitchell+Watergate+Hotel.+recordings&pg=PA646|title=Impeachment Inquiry Books I-III|last=United States Congress House Comm on the Judiciary|date=July 23, 1974|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}</ref> In addition, he had met with the president on at least three occasions to cover up [[White House]] involvement, using illegal means such as witness tampering, after the burglars were discovered and arrested.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Mitchell-attorney-general-of-United-States John Mitchell | Attorney General of the United States] Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved July 9, 2020.</ref>

On January 1, 1975, Mitchell, who was represented by the criminal defense attorney [[William G. Hundley]], was found guilty of [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]], [[obstruction of justice]], and [[perjury]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/10/obituaries/john-n-mitchell-dies-at-75-major-figure-in-watergate.html |title=John N. Mitchell Dies at 75; Major Figure in Watergate| work=[[The New York Times]] | date=November 10, 1988 | access-date=September 4, 2021}}</ref> Mitchell was sentenced on February 21 to two-and-a-half to eight years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up, which he dubbed the "White House horrors".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/02/22/archives/mitchell-haldeman-ehrlichman-are-sentenced-to-2-to-8-years-mardian.html |title=Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman are sentenced to 2½ to 8 years, Mardian to 10 months to 3 years| work=[[The New York Times]] | date=February 22, 1975 | access-date=September 4, 2021}}</ref>  As a result of the conviction, Mitchell was disbarred from the practice of law in New York.<ref>See Mitchell v. Association of the Bar, 40 N.Y.2d 153, 351 N.E.2d 743, 386 N.Y.S.2d 95 (1976)</ref> The sentence was later reduced to one-to-four years by [[United States District Court]] Judge [[John J. Sirica]]. Mitchell served 19 months of his sentence at [[Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery]] (in [[Maxwell Air Force Base]]) in Montgomery, Alabama, a minimum-security prison, before being released on parole for medical reasons.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/mitchobit.htm |title=John N. Mitchell, Principal in Watergate, Dies at 75| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=December 4, 1997 | access-date=May 7, 2010}}</ref>

==Death==
Around 5:00 pm on November 9, 1988, Mitchell collapsed from a heart attack on the sidewalk in front of 2812 N Street NW in the  [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] area of Washington, D.C., and died that evening at [[George Washington University Hospital]].<ref> {{Cite news |last=Times |first=Special to the New York |date=1988-11-10 |title=John N. Mitchell Dies at 75; Major Figure in Watergate |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/10/obituaries/john-n-mitchell-dies-at-75-major-figure-in-watergate.html |access-date=2023-06-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He was buried with [[full military honors]] at [[Arlington National Cemetery]]. He was eligible for the honor because of his [[World War II]] Naval service and having held the cabinet post of [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]].

==In popular culture==
* [[John Randolph (actor)|John Randolph]] had an uncredited role in the 1976 film ''[[All the President's Men (film)|All the President's Men]]'' as the voice of John Mitchell.
* Randolph portrayed Mitchell again, this time in a credited role, in ''[[Blind Ambition (miniseries)|Blind Ambition]]''
* Mitchell's archival footages are shown in ''[[Slow Burn (podcast)|Slow Burn]]''.
* He was portrayed by [[E. G. Marshall]] in [[Oliver Stone]]'s 1995 film ''[[Nixon (film)|Nixon]]''.
* He was portrayed by [[John Doman]] in the 2020 film ''[[The Trial of the Chicago 7]]''.
* Mitchell is portrayed by [[Sean Penn]] in the 2022 limited series ''[[Gaslit (TV series)|Gaslit]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/gaslit-teaser-sean-penn-julia-roberts-1235169845/|title='Gaslit' Teaser: Sean Penn and Julia Roberts Transform Into John and Martha Mitchell for Starz Watergate Series|first1=Jennifer|last1=Maas|date=February 2, 2022|website=Variety}}</ref>
* He was portrayed by [[John Carroll Lynch]] in the 2023 miniseries ''[[White House Plumbers (miniseries)|White House Plumbers]]''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite book |first=James |last=Rosen |title=The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHIGQTGemnAC&pg=PA136 |isbn=978-0-385-50864-3 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.TurkewitzLaw.com/watergate/index.htm Watergate trial sketches]
*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/mitchobit.htm ''The Washington Post'' obituary]

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ramsey Clark]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Attorney General]]|years=1969–1972}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Richard Kleindienst]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{USAttGen}}
{{Nixon cabinet}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, John N.}}
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