Geoff Shepard, the youngest lawyer on President Richard Nixon’s Watergate defense team, has given a revealing interview to The New American magazine as the nation marks 50 years since Nixon’s resignation. Shepard, who played a key role in transcribing Nixon’s tapes and managing crucial White House documents, now characterizes the legal actions taken against Nixon as part of a “coordinated coup.”
In the interview, Shepard, who served in the Nixon White House, shared his firsthand perspective on the events that led to the president’s downfall. “I wasn’t just observing; I was right there in the middle of it,” Shepard said, reflecting on his unique position during the Watergate crisis. Despite the intense pressure on Nixon’s team, Shepard is notably the only White House staff member to have received a letter of clearance from the special prosecutor.
Shepard’s interest in Watergate reignited in 2003 when he accessed records from the Watergate special prosecution force at the National Archives. What he found was evidence of a “secret cabal” of high-ranking government officials across all three branches who were coordinating their efforts to bring down Nixon. This cabal, Shepard discovered, engaged in unethical and illegal activities, including secret meetings with federal judges presiding over key Watergate cases.
These revelations, which Shepard details in his book The Real Watergate Scandal, suggest that the legal process was manipulated to ensure Nixon’s removal from office. Shepard draws parallels between the tactics used against Nixon and those currently being employed against former President Donald J. Trump, warning that such practices undermine the integrity of the American political system.
