Word: indictibility
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Before the trial is held, Jaworski will have to decide how to treat Nixon, whether as a defense witness, a prosecution witness or defendant. The grand jury that only named Nixon an unindicted co-conspirator because of doubts that a sitting President could be indicted can reconvene at any time to indict Citizen Nixon. A decision of some sort is inevitable since one defendant, John Ehrlichman, last week issued a subpoena for Nixon's testimony at the trial. Accompanying the subpoena, which presumably will be served on Nixon at San Clemente this week, was a check...
Little Leverage. Unless Congress recommends otherwise or Ford intervenes with a pardon (although a pardon before an indictment apparently is unprecedented), Nixon's most probable trial role may well be as a defendant. He conceivably could attempt to plea bargain with Jaworski, although he has little leverage remaining for that purpose, considering the evidence against him already on record and the fact that there is no higher official that Jaworski could seek to indict. Only a detailed admission of guilt, including his cover-up activities relating to such defendants as Ehrlichman, Haldeman and John Mitchell, would be likely...
...behave like a banana republic and hound the ex-leader. But I regret to say I would go ahead and prosecute. It's a very strong case of obstruction of justice." In fact, even before the latest tape disclosure, the Watergate grand jury had vigorously wanted to indict Nixon while he was President, but was persuaded by Jaworski only to name him an unindicted co-conspirator on the argument that he could only be prosecuted after leaving office. Now the grand jury, which is still sitting, might insist on returning that indictment...
...observed, "With grand juries sitting all over the United States, and occasionally you find a politically motivated prosecutor?that's a rather far-reaching power, if it exists." Stewart, on the other hand, did not accept the St. Clair argument that if a grand jury lacks the power to indict a sitting President, it cannot name nun as an unindicted co-conspirator either: "I should think you could run the argument the other way, saying that since the President cannot be indicted, then all that can happen to him is that he can be named as an unindicted co-conspirator...
...last week, the Richard Nixon displayed on the transcripts was surely musing on the legal liabilities he might face whenever he again becomes a private citizen. The range of possible difficulties is formidable. While Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski was able to persuade a grand jury that it could not indict a sitting President, his arguments do not apply to a former President. And if the President is impeached and convicted, the Constitution explicitly notes that criminal charges can still be brought...