March 2, 1973: Nixon to Invoke Executive Privilege in Preventing White House Lawyer from Testifying

President Nixon says he will invoke “executive privilege” to prevent White House counsel John Dean from testifying at the confirmation hearings of FBI director L. Patrick Gray (see February 28-29, 1973). “No president could ever agree to allow the counsel to the president to go down and testify before a committee,” Nixon says. “I stand on the same position there that every president has stood on.” The Washington Post reports Nixon’s claim along with the news that Dean has apparently made two critical sets of Watergate documents disappear (see June 28, 1972). [Bernstein and Woodward, 1974, pp. 273; Reeves, 2001, pp. 574]