the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) on March 17, 1973. In June, 1973
Leonard was special counsel to George Bush personally, hired by BusLeonard says today that his job consisted in helping to keep the Republican Party separate fromh and not by the RNC. (^)
Watergate, deflecting Watergate from the party "so it would not be a party thing." [fn 29] As
Hougan tells it, "Leon was convinced that Watergate was a set-up, that prostitution was at the heart
of the affair, and that the Watergate arrests had taken place following a tip-off to the police; in other
words, the June 17 buglprove it." [fn 30] "Integral to Leon's theory of the affair was Russell's relationship to the Ervinary had been sabotaged from within, Leon believed, and he intended to
committee's chief investigator, Carmine Bellino, and the circumstances surrounding Russell's
relocation to Silver Spring in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate arrests. In an investigative
memorandum submitted to GOP lawyer Jerris Leonard, Leon described what he hoped to prove:
that Russell, reporting to Bellino, had been a spy for the Democrats within the CRP, and thatRussell had tipped off Bellino (and the police) to the June 17 break-in. The man who knew most (^)
about this was, of course, Leon's new employee, Lou Russell."
Is it possible that Jerris Leonard communicated the contents of Leon's memorandum to the RNC
and to its Chairman George Bush during the days after he received it? It is possible. But for Rusthe game was over: on July 2, 1973, barely two weeks after his release from the hospital, Russellsell,
suffered a second heart attack, which killed him. He was buried with quite suspicious haste the
following day. The potential witness with perhaps the largest number of personal ties to Watergate
protagonists, and the witness who might have re-directed the scandal, not just towards Bellino, but
toward the prime movers behind and above McCord and Hunt and Paisley, had perished in a waythat recalls the fate of so many knowledgeable Iran-contra figures.
With Russell silenced forever, Leon appears to have turned his attention to targetting Bellino,
perhaps with a view to forcing him to submit to depositioning or other questioning in which
questions about his relationship to Russell might be asked. Leon, who had been convicted in 1964of wiretapping in a case involving El Paso Gas Co. and Tennesse Gas Co., had weapons in his own (^)
possession that could be used against Bellino. During the time that Russell was still in the hospital,
on June 8, Leon had signed an affidavit for Jerris Leonard in which he stated that he had been hired
by Democratic operative Bellino during the 1960 presidential campaign to "infiltrate the operations"
of Albert B. "Ab" Hermann, a staff member of the Republican National Committee. Leon assertedin the affidavit that although he had not been able to infiltrate Hermann's office, he observed the
office with field glasses and employed "an electronic device known as 'the big ear' aimed at Mr.
Hermann's window." Leon recounted that he had been assisted by former CIA officer John Frank,
Oliver W. Angelone and former Congressional investigator Ed Jones in the anti-Nixon 1960
operations.
Leon collected other sworn statements that all went in the same direction, portraying Bellino as a
Democratic dirty tricks operative unleashed by the Kennedy faction against Nixon. Joseph Shimon,
who had been an inspector for the Washington Police Department told of how he had been
approached by Kenndy opeBellino, with a request to help Angelone gain access to the two top floors of the Wardman Parkrative Oliver W. Angelone, who alleged that he was working for (^)
Hotel (now the Sheraton Park) just before they were occupied by Nixon on the even of the Nixon-
Kennedy television debate. Edward Murray Jones, then living in the Philippines, said in his
affidavit that he had been assigned by Bellino to tail individuals at Washington National Airport
and in downtown Washington. [fn 31] Aprovided by Leon to Republican attorneys on July 10, 1973, eccording to Hougan, "these sensational allegations werexactly a week after Russell's funeral. (^)
Immediately, attorney Jerris Leonard conferred with RNC Chairman George Bush. It appeared to
both men that a way had been found to place the Watergate affair in a new perspective, and,
perhaps, to turn the tide. A statement was prepared and a press conference scheduled at which Leon
was to be the star witness, or speaker. Before the press conference could be held, however, Leon