Word: mclarens
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...appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to establish the principle that business competition can be unlawfully hindered by the growth of conglomerates, which expand by acquiring unrelated businesses, as much as by corporate growth in a single industry. The test suit was being pushed by Richard McLaren, chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division and now a federal judge. It had the support of then Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Solicitor General Erwin Griswold. (Attorney General John Mitchell had withdrawn from the case because his New York law firm had handled some ITT matters...
Kleindienst and McLaren met on April 19, 1971, and agreed that there should be no delay; the appeal would be filed that day. Kleindienst so informed New York Lawyer Edward Walsh, who was helping to advise ITT. Within hours Kleindienst received a telephone call from John Ehrlichman, then Nixon's top domestic affairs adviser. Ehrlichman said the President was "directing" Kleindienst not to file any appeal at all. Kleindienst said he could not agree with this. He explained that the decision to appeal had been made by McLaren and Griswold and declared that it would be carried out. Snapped...
Seeking time to dissuade the President, Kleindienst talked to McLaren and Griswold and suggested that the appeal be delayed, although he did not tell them of the White House orders. They agreed. Kleindienst then insisted on an immediate meeting with Mitchell. He told Mitchell flatly that he would resign rather than carry out Nixon's command, and that Mitchell should tell Nixon this. McLaren and Griswold also would resign, Kleindienst suspected, rather than drop the suit at Nixon's behest. Within a couple of days Mitchell told Kleindienst: "I've talked to your friend [Nixon]. He says...
Worst Context. In the meantime, on June 17, 1971, McLaren reversed his previous position by proposing a compromise settlement in the ITT case. The proposal was by no means totally favorable to ITT; it permitted the company to retain the highly prized Hartford Fire Insurance Co., though it did require that it get rid of several other subsidiaries, including Canteen Corp. and the fire-protection division of Grinnell. A month later, the Republican National Committee announced its decision to hold its 1972 convention in San Diego-though it did not make any mention at the time of the offer...
Neither the White House nor ITT had any comment on the Colson memo last week; neither did McLaren, who on Dec. 2, 1971, was appointed by President Nixon to a federal judgeship. Colson, however, insisted that as "a good staff guy," he had merely been playing the part of "a devil's advocate"-outlining the problems that the Judiciary Committee might raise "in their worst context...