Albert E. Jenner Options

[John Simkin]

I thought it was about time we had a thread on Albert E. Jenner.

Jenner attended the University of Illinois. He was also circulation manager at the Daily Illini, the student newspaper. Jenner spent a year in law school before joining the legal firm of Poppenheusen, Johnston, Thompson and Cole. He became a partner of the firm in January 1939. During this period Jenner developed relationships with several prominent clients, most notably Henry Crown, the principal shareholder in General Dynamics. Jenner later was to become a director of General Dynamics

In 1947 he became the president of the Illinois State Bar Association. In 1951, President Harry S. Truman appointed Jenner to serve on the National United States Loyalty Review Board and four years later he became a name partner at the firm. (The firm eventually changed its name to Jenner & Block).

In 1963 J. Lee Rankin, chief counsel of the Warren Commission, appointed Jenner as a senior counsel that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As Russ Baker, the author of Family of Secrets (2009), has pointed out: "Albert Jenner was truly a curious choice for the commission staff. He was fundamentally a creature of the anti-Kennedy milieu - a corporate lawyer whose principal work was defending large companies against government trust-busting... Jenner's most important client was Chicago financier Henry Crown, who was the principal shareholder in General Dynamics, then the nation's largest defense contractor and a major employer in the Fort Worth area."

It should be mentioned at this point that a few days before the assassination of JFK, Fred Korth had resigned as Secretary of the Navy. According to author Seth Kantor, Korth only got the job after strong lobbying from Lyndon Johnson. A few weeks after taking the post, Korth overruled top Navy officers who had proposed that the X-22 contract be given to Douglas Aircraft Corporation. Instead he insisted the contract be granted to the more expensive bid of the Bell Corporation. This was a subsidiary of Bell Aerospace Corporation of Forth Worth, Texas. This created some controversy as Korth was a former director of the company.

Korth also became very involved in discussions about the TFX contract. Korth, was the former president of the Continental Bank, which had loaned General Dynamics considerable sums of money during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Korth later told the John McClellan committee that investigated the granting of the TFX contract to General Dynamics “that because of his peculiar position he had deliberately refrained from taking a directing hand in this decision (within the Navy) until the last possible moment.”

As I. F. Stone pointed out, it was “the last possible moment” which counted. “Three times the Pentagon’s Source Selection Board found that Boeing’s bid was better and cheaper than that of General Dynamics and three times the bids were sent back for fresh submissions by the two bidders and fresh reviews. On the fourth round, the military still held that Boeing was better but found at last that the General Dynamics bid was also acceptable.” Stone goes on to argue: “The only document the McClellan committee investigators were able to find in the Pentagon in favour of that award, according to their testimony, was a five-page memorandum signed by McNamara, Korth, and Eugene Zuckert, then Secretary of the Air Force.”

The TFX program involved the building of 1,700 planes for the Navy and the Air Force. The contract was estimated to be worth over $6.5 billion, making it the largest contract for military planes in the nation’s history.

On 24th October, 1962, Seth Kantor reported in the Fort Worth Press that: “General Dynamics of Fort Worth will get the multibillion-dollar defence contract to build the supersonic TFX Air Force and Navy fighter plane, the Fort Worth Press learned today from top Government sources.”

This was confirmed the following month when the Pentagon announced that the TFX contract would be awarded to General Dynamics. Henry M. Jackson was a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Government Operations Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He learned that: “Boeing’s bid was substantially lower than its competitor’s. Reports indicated Boeing’s bid was $100 million lower on an initial development contract and that the cost difference might run as high as $400 million on the total $6.5 billion procurement.”

At this time John McClellan, chairman of the Permanent Investigations Committee, was looking into the activities of Billie Sol Estes and Bobby Baker. During this investigation evidence emerged that LBJ was also involved in political corruption. This included the award of a $7 billion contract for a fighter plane, the TFX, to General Dynamics, a company based in Texas. It was also discovered that the Continental National Bank of Fort Worth, was the principal money source for the General Dynamics plant. As a result of this revelation Korth was forced to resign.

On 22nd November, 1963, a friend of Baker's, Don B. Reynolds told B. Everett Jordan and his Senate Rules Committee that he saw a suitcase full of money which Baker described as a "$100,000 payoff to Johnson for his role in securing the Fort Worth TFX contract". The meeting came to an end when it was announced that JFK had been killed in Dallas.

Jenner headed the team that looked into the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. This included several interviews with George de Mohrenschildt. His chapter of the report was called: "Oswald's Background History, Acquaintances and Motives."

In 1973 the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee named Jenner as the Committee's Chief Minority Counsel. He therefore took part into the HSC investigations into the Watergate allegations against Richard M. Nixon. Jenner, who was a staunch Republican, was ultimately forced to resign as special counsel when he recommended the impeachment of Nixon.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKjennerA.htm

[John Simkin]

This is what Russ Baker has to say about Jenner in his book Family of Secrets (2009):

Commission assistant counsel Albert E. Jenner Jr. was the staffer who conducted the interrogations of George and Jeanne de Mohrenschildt, which lasted two and a half days. As he did with several other key witnesses, Jenner had private conversations with George de Mohrenschildt both inside and outside the hearing room. Perhaps to ensure that he would not be accused of something underhanded, he went out of his way to state the fact of those outside consultations for the record.' Aside from asking de Mohrenschildt, on the record, to verify that everything they had discussed privately was reiterated in the public session, Jenner never made clear what the subject matter of those private conversations was.
The transcript of the de Mohrenschildts' testimony runs 165 pages." It reveals George to be a remarkably interesting, dynamic character, whose life resembled that of a fictional adventurer. But numerous points of his testimony, especially relating to his background and connections, cried out for further scrutiny. Instead, Jenner consistently demonstrated that he was either incompetent or deliberately incurious when it came to learning anything useful about de Mohrenschildt.

To wit, here is an exchange between Jenner and de Mohrenschildt, in Washington, on April 22, 1964, with a historian, Dr. Alfred Goldberg, present. Jenner, who had already read extensive FBI reports on de Mohrenschildt, could be forceful when he wanted answers. But most of his moves were away from substance. He seemed determined to reach the commissions conclusion that de Mohrenschildt was a "highly individualistic person of varied interests," and nothing more. In fact, Jenner stonewalled so assiduously that even de Mohrenschildt registered amazement:

MR. JENNER: You are 6' 1", are you not?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: Yes.

MR. JENNER: And now you weigh, I would say, about 195?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: That is right.

MR. JENNER: Back in those days you weighed around 180.

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: That is right.

MR. JENNER: You are athletically inclined?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: That is right.

MR. JENNER: And you have dark hair.

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: No gray hairs yet.

MR. JENNER: And you have a tanned-you are quite tanned, are you not?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: Yes, sir.

MR. JENNER: And you are an outdoors man?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: Yes. I have to tell you-I never expected you to ask me such questions.

Why was Jenner even on the commission staff? Chairman Warren offered an oblique justification for his hiring that perhaps was more revealing than the chief justice intended. He was a "lawyer's lawyer," Warren said, and a "businessman lawyer" who had gotten good marks from a couple of unnamed individuals. Commission member John McCloy timidly inquired whether they shouldn't hire people with deep experience in criminal investigations. "I have a feeling that maybe somebody who is dealing with government or federal criminal matters would be useful in this thing." Warren then implied that this was unnecessary because the attorney general (Robert Kennedy) and FBI director (J. Edgar Hoover) would be involved, totally ignoring the strong personal stakes of both officials in the outcome - and the strong animosity between them. Allen Dulles said little during this discussion of Jenner.

[Tom Scully]

....Why was Jenner even on the commission staff? Chairman Warren offered an oblique justification for his hiring that perhaps was more revealing than the chief justice intended. He was a "lawyer's lawyer," Warren said, and a "businessman lawyer" who had gotten good marks from a couple of unnamed individuals. Commission member John McCloy timidly inquired whether they shouldn't hire people with deep experience in criminal investigations. "I have a feeling that maybe somebody who is dealing with government or federal criminal matters would be useful in this thing." Warren then implied that this was unnecessary because the attorney general (Robert Kennedy) and FBI director (J. Edgar Hoover) would be involved, totally ignoring the strong personal stakes of both officials in the outcome - and the strong animosity between them. Allen Dulles said little during this discussion of Jenner.[/color]

In reaction to Earl Warren's December 16, 1963, Albert E. Jenner Jr., "lead in", (second page, below....) I would love to know who "we" is.... I think it is fair to say, based on the sentiments displayed in the first image below, Henry Crown, largest shareholder and chairman of General Dynamics' executive committee, should have been, with the TFX contract award decision under investigation in 1963, considered a "person of interest", in any legitimate WC investigation of at least, the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby.

I think Warren's daughter, Virginia Daly, is still alive. While the opportunity to talk to her still exists, (she was 32 years old in December, 1960, at the time of her marriage to ABC News executive, John C Daly), I think she should be asked if and when she met Albert Jenner, or first heard of him, and who brought up the name, or introduced her to Jenner. She should also be asked if she knows how her father first knew of Jenner, and any awareness she had of their relationship. Before her marriage, Virginia Warren Daly was frequently reported to be in the company of Conrad Hilton, close business associate of Albert Jenner's client, Henry Crown. Conrad Hilton has also been described as an "old friend" of Earl Warren. In 1957, at an Empire State Building reception, hosted by Henry and Renee Schine Crown and the other Empire State building directors and their wives,

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://books.g...lqQBsRMCN1wGw7g
The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark
Escorted by Colonel Crown and his wife, the couple (Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip) was introduced to the Empire ... and, quite inexplicably, to Miss Virginia Warren, daughter of Chief ...

Henry Crown's son, John J., joined Jenner's law firm in 1959, and was described as a partner in that firm by 1969.

Warren: "We have been thinking of a lawyer from Chicago, by the name of Albert Jenner".



http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...x1216_0027a.htm



http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...x1216_0028a.htm

On edit....I cannot read the entire article, but the highlights show Warren appointing Jenner to one of six study groups in 1960:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?as_us...amp;btnG=Search
US PANELS NAMED ON COURTS' RULES; Warren Appoints 6 Groups to...
- New York Times - Apr 4, 1960
St. : Albert B. Jenner Jr.. Chicaeo: Prof. Charles W. Joiner, Unlversitv of Michigan Law School. v.Also David W. Louisell. University of California Law ...

This post has been edited by Tom Scully: Jan 10 2009, 09:51 AM

[Tom Scully]

45 years pass, and nothing changes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Chabraja
Nicholas D. Chabraja (pronounced cha-brah-ya) is the Chief Executive Officer[1] of General Dynamics Corporation

# Jenner & Block (Law Firm)

* 1968–1997[2]
* 1984-1993 as a partner[2]

[Tom Scully]

Don't know how I missed this when I read the Obit snippets of John Crown, Henry Crown's son, Albert E. Jenner Jr.'s law partner, and now we find, law clerk for three years to the Supreme Court Justice who was one of the two named references Earl Warren provided to his fellow Warren commissioners in support of his appointment of Jenner as assistant WC counsel responsible for investigating if Oswald or Ruby were participants in larger conspiracy.
The only other Jenner reference that Warren named on the record was Dean Acheson's, one of fellow WC commisioner John McCloy's:

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/02/books/co...an-century.html
COHORT OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY
New York Times - Nov 2, 1986
THE WISE MEN Six Friends and the World They Made: Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, McCloy. By Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas.

http://books.google.com/books?um=1&q=e...nG=Search+Books

And We are All Mortal: New Evidence and Analysis in the John F. Kennedy ...‎ - Page 388

by George Michael Evica - 1978 - 465 pages

The Jenner-Henry Crown connection alone should have suggested conflict of interests to those responsible for selecting the Warren , Commission's counsel,...

Here is one of the many things that Evica didn't know in 1978.:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=jud...391724319249464
Ex-farmer, judge Crown remembered as 'wise, fair'
- Daily Herald - NewsBank - Mar 8, 1997
Crown clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark from 1956 to 1959 and ... law at the Chicago firm of Jenner and Block, where he became a partner. ...

John J. Crown, judge, philanthropist
- Chicago Sun-Times - NewsBank - Mar 6, 1997
John J. Crown, 67, a former Cook County Circuit Court judge and youngest son of ... In 1959, he joined the law firm of Jenner & Block. ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=7bl3AAAAM...BJWg&edge=1

http://books.google.com/books?cd=1&q=t...nG=Search+Books

The Kennedy assassination cover-up‎ - Page 96
Donald Gibson - History - 2000 - 306 pages+

Doesn't the Warren appointment of Albert Jenner rise at least to the level of official impropriety as the CIA's designation of George Joannides as its liason to the HSCA investigation?
What else would be required to raise doubt to a level where the conflicts of interests in the appointment of Jenner would rise to a level sufficient to disqualify the WC's findings related to whether or not Oswald or Ruby were part of larger conspiracy?

This post has been edited by Tom Scully: Jan 19 2010, 08:31 AM