By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-02 23:35:12 | Updated at 2026-10-03 00:49:00
2 hours ago
The Trump administration has launched a review of the decades-old investigation into President Richard Nixon and the infamous Watergate scandal, with the Department of Justice (DOJ) hearing a presentation from a former Nixon aide who argued that the deep state used “lawfare” to take down the 37th president.
The DOJ’s renewed interest in Nixon and the drama that led to his resignation comes after Vice President JD Vance compared the probe of the late California Republican and the Watergate break-in to the multiple investigations into President Donald Trump.
“If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people—the same institutions—tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration,” Vance said during a June appearance at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. “There is a parallel.”
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s DOJ “is reviewing whether the special prosecutor’s office that investigated the famed Watergate break-in committed misconduct.”
Geoff Shepard, who was a White House staffer functioning as principal deputy to Nixon’s defense counsel during the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, later became a lawyer and extensively dug into the case that plagued Nixon.
After authoring multiple books about it, Shepard asked for an investigation into how Nixon was treated by prosecutors. In October 2021, he filed a formal complaint with the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, alleging misconduct by members of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF). Over the course of the next year, Shepard followed up with eleven submissions.
Then-President Joe Biden’s DOJ declined Shepard’s request in August 2022, citing the amount of time that had passed:
Your allegations that WSPF attorneys engaged in misconduct are related to events that occurred nearly 50 years ago during the investigation and prosecution of offenses arising out of the Watergate scandal. To the best of our knowledge, there are no former WSPF attorneys currently serving as Department attorneys, and none would be subject to disciplinary action by the Department. Moreover, in all likelihood, few, if any, former WSPF attorneys are still actively practicing law, and even if OPR determined that they engaged in misconduct, a referral to bar disciplinary authorities would be futile. Given the pressing demands on its limited resources, OPR determined that it is unable to investigate misconduct allegations that are of purely historical interest.
Accordingly, we are unable to assist you regarding these allegations.
In a 180-degree turnaround, the Trump administration has answered Shepard’s call to look at his allegations.
Sources that spoke to the Wall Street Journal said that the former Nixon staffer recently gave a two-hour presentation titled “Watergate as Lawfare” at the DOJ headquarters, arguing that the deep state took Nixon down:
During his presentation, Shepard showed officials some of those internal documents from the Watergate Special Prosecution Force first led by special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Leon Jaworski took over the probe after Nixon ordered Cox’s firing in the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre.”
Shepard alleges that Cox and Jaworski violated the due process rights of defendants caught up in the Watergate probe by meeting secretly with the judges overseeing their trial and suppressing evidence from the defense.
While the outlet reported that a review is now taking place, it noted that it is “preliminary,” and it is unclear where it will lead to a full-fledged probe.
“Given his expertise and scholarship on Watergate, he was recently invited to give a presentation,” a DOJ spokesperson told the Journal, adding, “but that presentation does not constitute an investigation. OPR remains focused on ensuring that Department attorneys meet the highest professional standards.”
Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) added fuel to the fire during his remarks at the Nixon Foundation’s annual Grand Strategy Summit in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, claiming that Nixon was “absolutely couped out of office” and “framed.”
“We now know more about the deep state and its power and ability to literally change things at the top,” the Republican congressman said, before comparing Trump to Nixon.
“The truth is now out there, so I think people feel a bit more liberated to talk about Richard Nixon and what an amazing president he was in this country,” Moore concluded.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
