Nixon’s Watergate lawyer blasts Trump’s wiretapping claims

Former President Nixon’s White House counsel during Watergate says President Trump’s discussion of the 1970s scandal shows he may not even understand Watergate.

John Dean on Monday called Trump’s comparison “way off base” during an interview with CNN, two days after Trump accused former President Obama of wiretapping him and calling it “Nixon/Watergate.”

“It shows, first of all, that Trump may not even understand Watergate,” Dean said. “He seems to be conflating the act of the wiretapping, which never happened — in fact, it was a bungled effort, they went in to try to repair a bungled bug, and Nixon had nothing to do with that. He’s confusing that with the coverup, which he seems to have a little more understanding projecting himself into that situation.”

{mosads}CNN’s Don Lemon asked Dean what he thought of Trump’s wiretapping accusation, and if he understood the rules surrounding wiretaps. Dean said he wasn’t sure if Trump does, but that Nixon did understand those rules.

“Nixon had actually called for surveillance of some 17 people, newsmen, a number of people on the [National Security Council] staff, and one of his own speech writers,” Dean explained. “Nixon did issue directions to the FBI to wiretap.”

Dean later added that he believes the accusations by Trump are libelous.

During the same interview, historian Douglas Brinkley added that if anyone is similar to Nixon, it’s actually Trump.

“There’s a lot of story gone here,” Brinkley said. “And I think what Donald Trump is, is Nixonian in the sense of using the media to lash out at them, blame them, and then derail the attacks on himself by putting it on the opposition.”