suffered a heart attack on July 13, 1973, and died the same day." [fn 32 ]
Two important witnesses, each of whom represented a threat to reopen the most basic questions of
Watergate, dead in little more than a week! Bush is likely to have known of the import of Russell's
testimony, and he is proven to have known of the content of Leon's. Jerris Leonard later told
Hougan that the death of John Leon "came as a complete shock. It was...well, to be honest with you,
it was frightening. It was only a week after Russell's death, or something like that, and it happenedon the very eve of the press conference. We didn't know what was going on. We were scared." [fn
33] Hougan comments: "With the principal witness against Bellino no longer available, and with
Russell dead as well, Nixon's last hope of diverting attention from Watergate--slim from the
beginning--was laid to rest forever."
But George Bush went ahead with the press conference that had been announced, even if John
Leon, the principal speaker, was now dead. According to Nixon, Bush had been "privately pleading
for some action that would get us off the defensive" since back in the springtime. [fn 34] On July
24, 1973, Bush made public the affidavits by Leon, Jones, and Shimon which charged that the Ervin
committee chief investigator Carmine Bellino had recruited spies to help defeat Nixon back in1960. "I cannot and do not vouch for the veracity of the statements contained in the affidavits," said (^)
Bush, "but I do believe that this matter is serious enough to concern the Senate Watergate
committee, and particularly since its chief investigator is the subject of the charges contained in the
affidavits. If these charges are true, a taint would most certainly be attached to some of the
committee's work." Busrevelations were part of a Nixon Administration counter-offensive to deflect Watergate. h's statement to the press prediscounted Democratic charges that his
Bush specified that on the basis of the Shimon and Leon affidavits, he was "confident" that Jones
and Angelone "had bugged the Nixon space or tapped his phones prior to the television debate." He
conceded that "there was corruption" in the ranks of the GOP. "But now I have presented someserious allegations that if true could well have affected the outcome of the 1960 presidential race. (^)
The Nixon- Kennedy election was a real cliff-hanger, and the debates bore heavily on the outcome
of the people's decision." Bush rejected any charge that he was releasing the affidavits in a bid to
"justify Watergate." He asserted that he was acting in the interest of "fair play."
Bush said that he had taken the affidavits to Sen. Sam Ervin, the chairman of the Senate Watergate
Committee, and to GOP Sen. Howard Baker, that committee's ranking Republican, but that the
committee had failed to act so far. "I haven't seen much action on it," Bush added. When the
accuracy of the affidavits was challenged, Bush replied, "We've hear a lot more hearsay bandied
about the [Watergate] committee than is presented here. I'd like to know how serious it is. I'd like tosee it looked into," said Bush. He called on Sam Ervin and his committee to probe all the charges
forthwith. Bush was "convinced that there is in fact substance to the allegations."
In 1991, the Bush damage control line is that events relating to the 1980 "October surprise" deal of
the Reagan-Bush campaign with the Iranian Khomeini mullahs of Iran to block the freeing of theUS hostages are so remote in the past that nobody is interested in them any more. But in 1973, Bus (^) h
thought that events of 1960 were highly relevant to Watergate.
Bellino labelled Bush's charges "absolutely false." "I categorically and unequivocally deny that I
have ever ordered, requested, directed, or participated in any electronic surveillance whatsoever inconnection with any political campaign," said Bellino. "By attacking me on the basis of such false
and malicious lies, Mr. Bush has attempted to distract me from carrying out what I consider one of
the most important assignments of my life. I shall continue to exert all my efforts to ascertain the
facts and the truth pertinent to this investigation."