Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski on the cover of Time magazine.

Leon Jaworski (September 19, 1905, in Waco, Texas - December 9, 1982) was the Special Prosecutor during the Watergate Scandal. Jaworski was appointed to that position on November 1, 1973, shortly after the Saturday Night Massacre which led to the dismissal of prosecutor Archibald Cox. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Look up time in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1905 (disambiguation). ... For the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas, see Waco Siege. ... is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... A special prosecutor is a lawyer from outside the government appointed by the attorney general or Congress to investigate a federal official for misconduct while in office. ... “Watergate” redirects here. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the song by James Blunt, see 1973 (song). ... The Saturday night massacre (October 20, 1973) was the term given by political commentators to U.S. President Richard Nixons executive dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the forced resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus during the controversial and drawn-out... Archibald Cox, Jr. ...

During his tenure as Special Prosecutor, Jaworski was perhaps most famous for his protracted constitutional battle with the White House concerning his attempts to secure evidence for the trial of former senior administration officials on charges relating to the Watergate cover-up.

The Special Prosecutor knew that President Richard Nixon had discussed the Watergate cover-up with the accused on numerous occasions and that these conversations had been recorded by the White House taping system. Jaworksi requested tapes of sixty-four Presidential conversations as evidence for the upcoming trial. The President refused to hand them over, citing executive privilege. Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...

After attempts to find a compromise - including supplying edited transcripts of some recordings - had failed, Jaworski subpoenaed them. The White House appealed on two grounds: firstly, that the Special Prosecutor did not have the right to sue the President; and secondly, that the requested materials were privileged presidential conversations. Aware that an important constitutional issue was at stake, and unwilling to wait any longer, Jaworski asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly, bypassing the Court of Appeals.

On July 24th 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that the Special Prosecutor did have the right to sue the President; and that "the generalized assertion of [executive] privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial". The President was forced to hand over the unedited tapes to Jaworski, including one of a very compromising discussion on 23rd June 1972 (known as "the smoking gun" tape). The President resigned in early August.

Jaworski resigned as Special Prosecutor on 25th October 1974, once the cover-up trial had begun.

Background

A child of Polish and Austrian immigrants, he became the youngest person ever admitted to the Texas bar (1925), and in 1931 he joined the Houston firm that became Fulbright & Jaworski. Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Houston redirects here. ... Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. is one of the largest law firms in the United States with more than 900 attorneys in over 50 practice areas. ...

During World War II, he prosecuted one of the largest Army court-martials of that war, the case of Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war, who died with a noose around his neck, lynched at a military post on Puget Sound in 1944. Twenty-eight African-American soldiers were indicted and convicted. However, in October of 2007, a review board issued a ruling that could lead to overturning the convictions of all 28 soldiers, granting honorable discharges and providing them with back pay. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Puget Sound For the university in this region, see University of Puget Sound. ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ...

The board found that the court-martial was flawed, that the defense was unjustly rushed and that Jaworski, a young lieutenant colonel at the time, had important evidence that he did not share with defense lawyers.^[1]

During the Second World War, Jarworski also prosecuted the Johannes Kunze murder trial, where five German prisoners of war were accused of beating to death a fellow prisoner for being a "traitor".^[2] Johannes Kunze (1903-1943 was a German World War II prisoner of war (POW) held at Camp Tonkawa, Oklahoma. ...

Subsequently, he served as a war crimes prosecutor in Germany. He declined to participate in the Nuremberg Trials on grounds that the prosecution there was based on laws that did not exist at the time of the culpable acts.^[3] He rose to the rank of colonel, and subsequently, in his law firm, he was commonly addressed as "Colonel Jaworski." For the 1947 Soviet film about the trials, see Nuremberg Trials (film). ...

He was a friend of President Lyndon Johnson. In the 1960 Presidential election, Jaworski represented Johnson in the lawsuit filed to stop Johnson from running for the US Senate from Texas at the same time he was running for Vice-President. Jaworski won. However, Jaworski did not always support Democratic candidates. He supported Richard Nixon, contributed to George H.W. Bush in his run for the Presidency in 1980, and after Bush conceded the nomination he became Treasurer of Democrats For Reagan during the 1980 election. Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Order: 41st President Vice President: Dan Quayle Term of office: January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 Preceded by: Ronald Reagan Succeeded by: Bill Clinton Date of birth: June 12, 1924 Place of birth: Milton, Massachusetts First Lady: Barbara Pierce Bush Political party: Republican George Herbert Walker Bush, KBE (born...

Having been convinced of his integrity, in 1980 Mr. Jaworski aided former Nixon staffer Egil "Bud" Krogh, whom he had sent to prison in 1973, in his request to be reinstated to the Washington State Bar.

References

1. ^ *New York Times
2. ^ *Tulsa World Centential
3. ^ Jaworski, Leon. Confession and Avoidance:A Memoir. with Mickey Herskowitz. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1979, pp. 112-116.

External links

• Leon Jaworski at Find-A-Grave