Robert Mardian died in San Clemente, California on 17th July, 2006. He was one of those who escaped going to prison.

A member of the Republican Party he took part in the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater in 1964. Mardian was also chairman of the advisory committee when Ronald Reagan ran for the governor of California in 1966. Two years later he was western co-chair of the successful campaign to elect Richard Nixon as president.

Nixon appointed Mardian as general counsel to the department of health education and welfare. While in office Mardian came up with a plan which would secretly relax federal guidelines on Supreme Court ordered school desegregation. He was appointed head of the cabinet education committee.

In 1970 he was named assistant attorney general under John N. Mitchell. One of his responsibilities was for wiretapping and prosecuting anyone opposed to the Vietnam War. Mardian headed the government's team prosecuting Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971. Mardian was also appointed coordinator of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP).

Robert Mardian was charged with obstruction of justice. At his trial Mardian claimed that he was unaware of the burglary. However, Jeb Magruder testified that John N. Mitchell had ordered Mardian to telephone G. Gordon Liddy to put the cover-up in motion. Mardian now confessed that he was involved in organizing hush money for the burglars. He also admitted shredding papers linking CREEP with the operation.

Mardian was found guilty but at his appeal he argued that his actions were covered by lawyer-client privilege and the details of his participation in the cover-up revealed in Nixon's White House tapes were inadmissible as hearsay. However, when the appeal court quashed his conviction, it was ruled that his case should have been severed from the other defendants when his lead counsel fell ill during his trial.

On June 7, 2005 Lee Edwards wrote in National Review about the efforts of Lyndon Johnson to get the CIA to spy on Barry Goldwater.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/edwa...00506070751.asp

Edwards mentions Robert Mardian:

Most disturbing of all was the FBI's bugging of the Goldwater campaign plane where the senator and his inner circle often made their most confidential decisions. The bureau's illegal surveillance was confirmed by Robert Mardian, when he was an assistant attorney general in Nixon's first term.

During a two-hour conversation with J. Edgar Hoover in early 1971, Mardian asked about the procedures of electronic surveillance. To Mardian's amazement, Hoover revealed that in 1964 the FBI, on orders from the Oval Office, had bugged the Goldwater plane. Asked to explain the blatantly illegal action, Hoover said, "You do what the president of the United States orders you to do." William C. Sullivan, the bureau's number two man, confirmed to Mardian the spying operation against the Goldwater campaign.

Howard Hunt, as I remember, mentioned his own involvement in Johnson's efforts against Goldwater. Later, of course, when William Sullivan grew concerned that Hoover was gonna use Nixon's bugging efforts to blackmail Nixon, he stole the transcripts and gave them to...Robert Mardian.

Considering he served no time, Mardian was sure in the thick of it. One wonders if he didn't cut a deal or two with his old friends in the Justice Department.

Namebase entry for Robert Mardian:

http://www.namebase.org/main4/Robert-Charles-Mardian.html

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