Episode 142 RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE 1974 Through the Fire (Part 17) The Get Nixon Squad

Send us a Text Message.

"A small Justice Department unit of lawyers and investigators, informally known as the "Get-Hoffa Squad," was assembled to uncover and prosecute any unlawful activity within organized labor.'....
Yet Robert Kennedy's campaign against union corruption, and Hoffa in particular, raised questions about the role of an attorney general in prosecuting crimes. The constant investigations resembled a vendetta to those who suspected Kennedy's motives. Some thought the Attorney General was dogging Hoffa out of personal spite. Others questioned the ethics of the nation's chief law enforcement officer aggressively investigating an individual before evidence of wrongdoing presented itself."  ---  Law Library - American Law and Legal Information
Read more: Law Library - American Law and Legal Information - JRank Articles https://law.jrank.org/#ixzz7e7ijWCVX

This was the type of Justice practiced by the Kennedy - Johnson Justice Department under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy.  They felt Jimmy Hoffa was likely a criminal and they intended to prove it and put him in jail.  Perhaps with an enormous amount of justification in that belief but the method developed certainly bordered on harassment.  They decided that Hoffa was their target and they would keep on investigating him, from every angle, even when no real evidence of a crime was present, until they found something to hang their hat on. 

So What? You may be asking.

An extraordinary number of people involved in the "Get Hoffa Squad" and the Kennedy - Johnson Justice Department, who had been relieved of their duties when Richard Nixon was elected to the Presidency in 1968, would be chosen to serve as members of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office or in other strategic positions in the legal fights that made up the Watergate Scandal. This show examines this fact and puts together how important this set of facts is to the overall outcome of the Watergate Scandal.
 
By the time this simple , third rate burglary, and campaign screw up case had run its course the prosecutors were investigating every possible angle they could think of on Richard Nixon personally, and on his administration.  They investigated potential Presidential candidates, Vice Presidential candidates, staffers, contributors, friends of Richard Nixon,  at the rate of secret files being discovered it would not even surprise me if an investigation of Vicky, Pasha, and King Timahoe won't someday surface. (the President's dogs) 

This story looks into the overwhelming use of the unlimited powers of the Special Prosecutor's Office, an office we soon hear described by House Judiciary staffer and future aid to Bill Clinton, Bernard Nussbaum as "A dangerous, dangerous office" 

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

Support My Work

If you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " too

Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!