Voting Station

Leonard Garment

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Attorney

The Resume

    (May 11, 1924-July 13, 2013)
    Born in Brooklyn, New York
    White House Counsel (1973-74)
    US representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights (1975-77)
    Post White House clients included Oral Roberts, Ed Meese and Marc Rich
    Wrote 'Crazy Rhythm: From Brooklyn and Jazz to Nixon's White House, Watergate and Beyond' (1997) and 'In Search of Deep Throat' (2000)
    Received the National Medal of the Arts as an art patron and advocate (2005)

Why he might be annoying:

    He joined the Nixon administration despite having voted for Kennedy over Nixon in 1960.
    He said he got the post as White House Counsel because he was 'the last staffer who (a) had a license to practice law and (b) was not a potential indictee.'
    He likened the press conference where he first presented the Nixon administration's explanation of Watergate to 'a public stoning.' (May 22, 1973)
    At Nixon's behest, he asked Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, triggering the chain of resignations and firings dubbed the 'Saturday Night Massacre.' (October 20, 1973)
    He developed the 'executive privilege' argument for not turning over the White House tapes, which was rejected by the Supreme Court.
    He concluded that Deep Throat was strategist Pete Sears, and accused Woodward and Bernstein of lying when they publicly said Sears wasn't the right man.
    Deep Throat turned out to be FBI agent Mark Felt, who Garment had dismissed because Deep Throat 'simply did not sound to me like a career FBI man.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He helped pay for college by playing sax and clarinet in the band of Woody Herman.
    He graduated first in his class from law school.
    William Safire called him 'the resident liberal conscience' of the Nixon administration.'
    He persuaded Nixon not to destroy the Watergate tapes by pointing out it would be obstruction of justice. (Although he later said that while sound legal advice, it may not have been the best move politically.)
    He resigned as White House counsel after Nixon 'went over the line' and suggested fabricating a tape recording to comply with a subpoena.
    The night before resigning, Nixon called him and said, 'I'm sorry I let you down, Len.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 123 Votes: 65.85% Annoying