was." Certain elements of this infamous "campaign" are known. Banking Committee
member Frank Brasco, a lieral Democratic Congressman from New York, voted to stop
the probe. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller had arranged a meeting between
Brasco and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell. Brasco was a target of a Justice
Department investigation for alleged fraud and bribery since 1970, and Mitchell
successfully warned Brasco not to back Patman. Later, in 1974, Brasco was convicted of
bribery.
Before Watergate, both John Mitchell and Henry Kissinger had FBI reports implicating
California Congressman Richard Hanna in the receipt of illegal campaign contributions
from the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Hanna surprised Patman by voting against
the investigation. Hanna was later (1978) convicted for his role in the Koreagate scandal
in 1978. The secretary of Congressman William Chappell complained in 1969 that the
Florida Democrat had forced her to kick back some of her salary. The Justice
Department, holding this information, had declined to prosecute. Chappell, a member of
the Banking Committee, voted to stop Patman's investigation. Kentucky Democratic
Congressman William Curlin, Jr., revealed in 1973 that "certain members of the
committee were reminded of various past political indiscretions, or of relatives who
might suffer as a result of [a] pro-subpoena vote." The Justice Department worked
overtime to smear Patman, including an attempt to link him to "Communist agents" in
Greece. [fn 19]
The day before the Committee vote, the Justice Department released a letter to Patman
claiming that any Congressional investigation would compromise the rights of the
accused Watergate burglars before their trial.
House Republican leader Gerald Ford led the attack on Patman from within the Congress.
Though he later stated his regrets for this vicious campaign, his eventual reward was the
U.S. Presidency.
Cancelling the Patman probe meant that there would be no investigation of Watergate
before the 1972 Presidential election. The Washington Post virtually ended reference to
the Watergate affair, and spoke of Nixon's opponent, George McGovern, as unqualified
for the Presidency. The Republican Party was handed another four year Administration.
Bush, Kissinger, Rockefeller and Ford were the gainers. But then Richard Nixon became
the focus of all Establishment attacks for Watergate, while the money trail that Patman
had pursued was forgotten. Wright Patman was forced out of his Committee
chairmanship in 1974. On the day Nixon resigned the Presidency, Patman wrote to Peter
Rodino, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asking him not to stop investigating
Watergate. Though Patman died in 1976, his advice still holds good. ***
As the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover told the journalist Andrew Tully in the days
before June, 1972, "By God, he's [Nixon's] got some former CIA men working for him
that I'd kick out of my office. Someday, that bunch will serve him up a fine mess." [fn 20]
The CIA men in question were among the Plumbers, a unit allegedly created in the first
place to stanch the flow of leaks, including the Jack Anderson material about such