Ex-Watergate prober: Thompson 'was mole for the White House' Will Menaker

Published: Thursday July 5, 2007 Print This Email This Enjoy this story? Get headlines instantly with RSS . According to an article in Wednesday's Boston Globe, GOP presidential hopeful, and one-time Republican Senator from Tennessee, Fred Thompson leaked information to the Nixon white house during the height of the Watergate investigation. In his capacity as the Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel, Thompson tipped off Nixon's attorney that the committee was aware of the president's secret tapping device, and would be making the information public. In his Watergate memoir, "At That Point in Time," Thompson recalls that he acted with "no authority" in disclosing this information to Nixon. Former investigator for the Democratic majority on the Watergate committee, Scott Armstrong, claims this was just one of many leaks Thompson provided to the Nixon administration. "Thompson was a mole for the White House," Armstrong claims. "Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was." When asked to comment on today's article, Thompson responded, "I'm glad all of this has finally caused someone to read my Watergate book, even though it's taken them over thirty years." Earlier this year, Watergate icon Bob Woodward stated that Fred Thompson's role in the Watergate investigation was exaggerated and that when Thompson famously asked about the existence of a secret White House taping system, he already "knew the answer." The role of Thompson as a "mole" for the Nixon White House undermines the cultivated image of a straight shooting and independent minded prosecutor who played a role in bringing down the president. Thompson's website even proclaims that he "gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office."



