Episode 141 RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE 1974 Through the Fire (Part 16) The Fix Is In

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American Bar Association Rulebook defines the rules on ex parte meetings

(A) A judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers, concerning a pending* or impending matter,* except as follows:

(1) When circumstances require it, ex parte communication for scheduling, administrative, or emergency purposes, which does not address substantive matters, is permitted, provided:

(a) the judge reasonably believes that no party will gain a procedural, substantive, or tactical advantage as a result of the ex parte communication; and

(b) the judge makes provision promptly to notify all other parties of the substance of the ex parte communication, and gives the parties an opportunity to respond."

In what can only be described as absolutely stunning, ex parte meetings between the Special Prosecutor's Office and Judge John Sirica did not just happen once or twice, they occurred so often there are actual memos where staffers are asking for a couple in what appears to be almost routine practice. 

This is more than just frowned upon in the law, if it had been known at the time a number of these people, including the vaunted Judge Sirica, would no longer have been practicing law after it made the news.  It so frowned upon you actually have to wonder if the record of these meetings was intentionally sealed and hidden from public view in the hopes that it would never see the light of day. But, thankfully, it has now seen the light of day sadly four decades to late. 

Geoff Shepard, one of the Nixon Defense team lawyers, sued the National Archives to get access to these records and a court agreed with him and released it all in 2013.  It is the equivalent of more than just a bombshell, but more like a guided nuclear missile, to the credibility of any of the convictions in any case in the Watergate Scandal. None of these defendants received a fair trial, in my opinion, when you examine a record of almost routine secret meetings between prosecutors and the Judge who was supposed to be impartially sitting in judgement in their cases. Even the ACLU stepped up and sided with former Attorney General John Mitchell to no avail at the time of his trial. 

To make matters even worse there is more than just little bit of hearsay evidence that prosecutors had met with Judge David L. Brazelon of the Appellate Court to insure that Judge Sirica, often seen as one of the worst Judges on the entire Federal Bench , would never be overturned on Appeal. It is just staggering that all of this could happen in a case that would eventually lead up to a sitting President of the United States. 

Yes, there is corruption everywhere you look , ironically, none of it is coming from the place most of the historical record has claimed it came from. You see for a half century it seems that when it comes to the Watergate Scandal,  that the narrative was in place, and the FIX was in, and there was no interest from anyone in real justice as long as Richard Nixon could be brought to his knees. 

*** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,com

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