The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson
(above left) made
the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight -- asking an aide to
President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system -- he telephoned
Nixon's lawyer.Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about
the taping system and would be making the information public. In his
all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, "At That Point in Time," Thompson said he
acted with "no authority" in divulging the committee's knowledge of the tapes,
which provided the evidence that led to Nixon's resignation. It was one of many
Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for
Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson's
actions.
"Thompson was a mole for the White House," Armstrong said in an interview. "Fred
was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what
happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president
was."
Asked about the matter this week, Thompson -- who is preparing to run for the
2008 Republican presidential nomination -- responded via e-mail without
addressing the specific charge of being a Nixon mole: "I'm glad all of this has
finally caused someone to read my Watergate book, even though it's taken them
over thirty years."
The view of Thompson as a Nixon mole is strikingly at odds with the former
Tennessee senator's longtime image as an independent-minded prosecutor who
helped bring down the president he admired. Indeed, the website of Thompson's
presidential exploratory committee boasts that he "gained national attention for
leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White
House Oval Office." It is an image that has been solidified by Thompson's
portrayal of a tough-talking prosecutor in the television series "Law and
Order."
But the story of his role in the Nixon case helps put in perspective Thompson's
recent stance as one of the most outspoken proponents of pardoning I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Just
as Thompson once staunchly defended Nixon, Thompson urged a pardon for Libby,
who was convicted in March of obstructing justice in the investigation into who
leaked a CIA operative's name.
Thompson declared in a June 6 radio commentary that Libby's conviction was a
"shocking injustice . . . created and enabled by federal officials." Bush on
Monday commuted Libby's 30-month sentence, stopping short of a pardon.
The intensity of Thompson's remarks about Libby is reminiscent of how he
initially felt about Nixon. Few Republicans were stronger believers in Nixon
during the early days of Watergate.