press conference could be held, however, Leon 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 happened on 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 in 1960. "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." Bush's statement to the press prediscounted Democratic charges that his
revelations were part of a Nixon Administration counter-offensive to deflect Watergate.
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 some serious 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 to see 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."