August 16, 1971
A memo from White House Counsel John Dean set forth his ideas about using federal agencies, such as the IRS, to punish people the Nixon administration believed were their enemies. The list was exposed in the Watergate hearings two years later. JOHN DEAN: “This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly — how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”
