WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 Picture the scene for a second. It is late at 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:08.080 night on October 20th, 1973. Oh man, what a night. 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:10.800 Right. Washington, D .C. feels like it's on the 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:13.560 brink of an actual nervous breakdown. The government 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:16.300 is effectively tearing itself apart in real time. 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.120 Yeah, it was a Saturday, but I guarantee you 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:19.940 nobody at the Department of Justice was sleeping. 00:00:20.489 --> 00:00:22.649 Not a chance. I mean, the attorney general has 00:00:22.649 --> 00:00:24.789 just resigned. The deputy attorney general has 00:00:24.789 --> 00:00:28.350 just resigned. And the special prosecutor investigating 00:00:28.350 --> 00:00:30.010 the president of the United States has just been 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:32.390 fired. The Saturday Night Massacre. Exactly. 00:00:32.429 --> 00:00:34.490 It sounds like a title for a horror movie. And 00:00:34.490 --> 00:00:36.649 honestly, for the American legal system, it essentially 00:00:36.649 --> 00:00:39.210 was. It was arguably the single most traumatic 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:41.750 night in the history of the Department of Justice. 00:00:41.990 --> 00:00:44.689 And amidst all this chaos. The phones are ringing 00:00:44.689 --> 00:00:47.109 off the hook. News reporters are scrambling all 00:00:47.109 --> 00:00:49.270 over the place. And then the physical reality 00:00:49.270 --> 00:00:51.710 of it all sets in. Right. The actual on the ground 00:00:51.710 --> 00:00:55.409 consequences. Yes, because FBI agents are literally 00:00:55.409 --> 00:00:58.070 marching toward an office building on K Street 00:00:58.070 --> 00:01:00.710 and they aren't there to investigate a crime. 00:01:01.219 --> 00:01:03.960 They are there to seal off the special prosecutor's 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:06.519 office. To completely shut it down. Shut it down, 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:09.379 seize the files, all of it. The order from the 00:01:09.379 --> 00:01:11.859 White House was to abolish the office entirely, 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.219 wipe it off the map. But when these federal agents 00:01:14.219 --> 00:01:16.560 get to the suite, ready to tape up the doors 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.620 and take total control, there is one man standing 00:01:19.620 --> 00:01:22.180 in the doorway. Just one guy. Yeah, and he isn't 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:24.239 the famous Archibald Cox because he's already 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:27.019 gone. And he isn't... The heavy hitter, Leon 00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:28.799 Jaworski, because he hasn't even arrived yet. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.700 It's this guy named Henry S. Ruth Jr. So everyone 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:34.060 in Washington just knew him as Hank. Hank Ruth. 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:36.640 Yeah. And he looks the FBI in the eye and basically 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:40.120 says, you are not touching these files. I'm going 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:42.700 up there. That confrontation right there is the 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:45.579 moment the entire Watergate investigation was 00:01:45.579 --> 00:01:48.180 saved. It really is. If Hank Ruth steps aside, 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:51.620 if he just lets the FBI seize those file cabinets 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:54.659 without putting up a fight. The whole case against 00:01:54.659 --> 00:01:56.739 Richard Nixon might have evaporated that very 00:01:56.739 --> 00:01:59.379 night. So welcome to the deep dive. Today we 00:01:59.379 --> 00:02:01.019 aren't focusing on the names you usually see 00:02:01.019 --> 00:02:03.060 in the movies, you know, the Nixons, the Woodwards, 00:02:03.140 --> 00:02:05.280 the Bernsteins. We are focusing on Hank Ruth. 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:08.539 The man who saved the evidence. And the man who 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:12.000 eventually became the third, yes, the third Watergate 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.500 special prosecutor. Which is such a necessary 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:16.360 correction to the history books if you think 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.400 about it. We totally love the great man theory 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:22.039 of history. Oh, absolutely. We have Cox the martyr 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:26.180 and Jaworski the closer. But Ruth was the glue. 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:28.960 He was the operational brain who basically kept 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:30.860 the heart beating when the head had been cut 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:34.219 off. The glue. I really like that. And looking 00:02:34.219 --> 00:02:36.419 at the stack of sources we have for you today, 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:39.740 his biography, the legal reports from the era, 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:43.439 his obituaries, this guy had a resume that reads 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:46.599 like a literal map. of 20th century American 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:49.039 tension. He really did. He didn't just stumble 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:51.120 into Watergate by accident. No, he did organized 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:53.300 crime, civil rights in the Deep South, and eventually 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:55.539 he even weighed in on the Clinton impeachment 00:02:55.539 --> 00:02:58.960 years later. He was this Zelig -like figure popping 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.439 up at every major stress test of the American 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:04.120 legal system. But what's so fascinating is that 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:06.560 he was not a showman. Not at all. He was a mechanic. 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:08.699 He understood how the machine of justice worked, 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:10.680 and more importantly, he knew how to fix it when 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.419 it broke. Okay, so let's unpack this. Because 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:15.360 you don't just wake up one morning with the nerve 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.340 to stare down the FBI. You have to be built for 00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:20.900 that. Who was Hank Ruth before that Saturday 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:23.479 night? Well, the foundation is pretty interesting. 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:27.159 He was born in Philadelphia in 1931, went to 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:29.500 Yale, was a member of St. Anthony Hall, then 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:33.439 got his law degree from UPenn in 1955. So a standard 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.090 Ivy League pedigree on paper. Exactly. Standard 00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:38.330 on paper. But his family background gives us 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:41.409 this little clue to his personality. His father, 00:03:41.569 --> 00:03:44.469 Henry Swartley Ruth, was a pioneer in modern 00:03:44.469 --> 00:03:48.250 anesthesiology. Wait, anesthesiology? Yes. That 00:03:48.250 --> 00:03:50.889 is actually oddly fitting. How so? Well, think 00:03:50.889 --> 00:03:52.729 about it. Anesthesiology is all about precision. 00:03:53.229 --> 00:03:55.090 Right. It's about monitoring the vital signs, 00:03:55.310 --> 00:03:58.870 keeping someone totally stable, managing a literal 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:02.050 life or death crisis calmly while everyone else 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:03.969 in the room is operating. I actually hadn't thought 00:04:03.969 --> 00:04:06.090 of it that way. But yes, it is entirely about 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:08.270 discipline. Right. And Hank Ruth took that exact 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:10.430 discipline to the U .S. Army Intelligence Service 00:04:10.430 --> 00:04:13.770 first. And then the real training began in 1961 00:04:13.770 --> 00:04:16.480 when he joined the Department of Justice. And 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.040 we should clarify, this isn't just any DOJ. This 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:21.600 is the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice. 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:24.720 Correct. And that distinction matters immensely. 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:28.240 Before RFK, the federal government, specifically 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:32.139 J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. was surprisingly reluctant 00:04:32.139 --> 00:04:35.399 to even admit that the mafia existed as a national 00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:38.199 network. Which is crazy to think about now. It 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:41.199 is, but Kennedy changed that. He created the 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.079 organized crime section and hired these young, 00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:46.540 hungry lawyers to go after systemic corruption. 00:04:46.939 --> 00:04:49.160 Hank Ruth was one of those guys. And they didn't 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:51.040 just send him to New York or Chicago immediately. 00:04:51.459 --> 00:04:53.379 I was reading about this one case in Redding, 00:04:53.379 --> 00:04:55.319 Pennsylvania. It sounds like small -town drama, 00:04:55.579 --> 00:04:58.560 but it was massive. It was a crucial testing 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:01.069 ground for him. Ruth teamed up with another prosecutor 00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:03.430 named Thomas McBride, and they weren't just looking 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:05.089 for some guy running a numbers racket on the 00:05:05.089 --> 00:05:06.509 corner. Right. They were looking at the whole 00:05:06.509 --> 00:05:08.610 structure. Yes, the structure that allowed the 00:05:08.610 --> 00:05:10.589 racket to exist in the first place. And they 00:05:10.589 --> 00:05:12.629 actually found it at the very top. They did. 00:05:13.050 --> 00:05:15.730 Their investigation led directly to the indictment 00:05:15.730 --> 00:05:18.269 of the mayor of Reading, John C. Kubacki, and 00:05:18.269 --> 00:05:21.449 the chief of police, Charles S. Wade. Then think 00:05:21.449 --> 00:05:23.829 about that for a second. He's this young lawyer, 00:05:23.930 --> 00:05:26.589 and he is indicting the chief of police in his 00:05:26.589 --> 00:05:29.459 own town. It takes a very specific kind of fortitude. 00:05:29.459 --> 00:05:31.740 You have to be willing to look at a badge or 00:05:31.740 --> 00:05:33.759 a title and say that doesn't make you innocent. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:37.019 It taught Ruth early on that corruption often 00:05:37.019 --> 00:05:39.160 wears a nice suit and sits in a fancy office. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:41.079 Which is a pretty good warm up for investigating 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:43.620 the White House. Exactly. But he definitely didn't 00:05:43.620 --> 00:05:47.420 stop there. In 1964, the DOJ sent him down the 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.569 Mississippi. This was right after the Civil Rights 00:05:49.569 --> 00:05:52.089 Act was passed, right? Immediately after. The 00:05:52.089 --> 00:05:54.629 federal government had to send lawyers down south 00:05:54.629 --> 00:05:57.829 to enforce the new law because local law enforcement 00:05:57.829 --> 00:05:59.850 just flat out refused to do it. That must have 00:05:59.850 --> 00:06:02.250 been incredibly tense. It was a very dangerous 00:06:02.250 --> 00:06:05.550 time. The Klan was highly active. There was violence 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:08.069 against civil rights workers constantly. And 00:06:08.069 --> 00:06:10.550 the local police were often openly hostile to 00:06:10.550 --> 00:06:13.050 the feds. So before he ever steps foot in the 00:06:13.050 --> 00:06:16.689 Watergate office, Ruth has dealt with mob racketeers. 00:06:17.550 --> 00:06:20.290 taken down corrupt mayors, and he's faced the 00:06:20.290 --> 00:06:23.250 intense racial hostility of the Deep South. He 00:06:23.250 --> 00:06:25.910 was battle -hardened. He wasn't some academic 00:06:25.910 --> 00:06:28.649 just theorizing about justice. He had been in 00:06:28.649 --> 00:06:31.569 the literal trenches. He also spent time in administration, 00:06:31.730 --> 00:06:34.209 too. Oh, right. He was a deputy director for 00:06:34.209 --> 00:06:36.990 LBJ's National Crime Commission and worked for 00:06:36.990 --> 00:06:39.370 New York City Mayor John Lindsay. Right. So he 00:06:39.370 --> 00:06:41.790 knew the bureaucracy inside and out. He knew 00:06:41.790 --> 00:06:43.430 how to run an office. He knew the paperwork, 00:06:43.569 --> 00:06:47.149 the procedures, all of it. So when May 1973 rolls 00:06:47.149 --> 00:06:49.449 around and Archibald Cox is setting up the brand 00:06:49.449 --> 00:06:53.069 new Watergate Special Prosecution Force, he needs 00:06:53.069 --> 00:06:55.389 a deputy who can actually make the place function 00:06:55.389 --> 00:06:58.189 day to day. And he hires Hank Ruth. He hires 00:06:58.189 --> 00:07:00.889 Hank Ruth. The number two. The guy who keeps 00:07:00.889 --> 00:07:03.750 the lights on. The guy who ensures the subpoenas 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:05.750 are filed correctly and the massive staff is 00:07:05.750 --> 00:07:09.029 organized. Cox was the public face, the distinguished 00:07:09.029 --> 00:07:12.069 Harvard professor. Ruth was the guy making sure 00:07:12.069 --> 00:07:14.310 the engine was actually running. Okay, so let's 00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:16.149 fast forward to the main event, the Saturday 00:07:16.149 --> 00:07:18.129 Night Massacre. We mentioned it at the top of 00:07:18.129 --> 00:07:20.029 the show, but let's really break down the mechanics 00:07:20.029 --> 00:07:22.769 of why it blew up the way it did. Because it 00:07:22.769 --> 00:07:25.629 wasn't just random. No, it was a slow -moving 00:07:25.629 --> 00:07:27.990 constitutional collision. It all came down to 00:07:27.990 --> 00:07:30.829 the tapes. Archibald Cox had subpoenaed the White 00:07:30.829 --> 00:07:34.209 House recordings. Nixon flat out refused to give 00:07:34.209 --> 00:07:36.769 them up. Nixon offered a written summary instead. 00:07:37.200 --> 00:07:40.339 Yes. And Cox said, no, I need the actual evidence. 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:42.220 I need the tapes themselves. And Nixon decides, 00:07:42.339 --> 00:07:44.079 OK, if you won't take the summary, you're fired. 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:46.720 But here is the catch. The president couldn't 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:49.620 just directly fire the special prosecutor. The 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:52.000 office was created under the specific authority 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.800 of the attorney general. Right. So Nixon calls 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:57.779 up Attorney General Elliot Richardson and orders 00:07:57.779 --> 00:08:00.560 him to fire Cox. But Richardson's a man of principle. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:03.259 He refuses. Refuses and resigns immediately. 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:06.160 That's chaos level one. Yeah. Then Nixon calls 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.620 the deputy attorney general William Ruckelshaus. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:11.500 He says, you're the boss now. Fire Cox. And Ruckelshaus 00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:14.959 also refuses. He refuses. And he resigns. Chaos 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.480 level two. Unbelievable. Finally, they get down 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:19.639 to the solicitor general, the number three guy 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.959 at the DOJ, Robert Bork. And Bork agrees to do 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:27.000 it. He writes the formal letter firing Cox. But 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.620 Nixon didn't just want the man gone. He wanted 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:33.700 the entire investigation dead. Correct. He ordered 00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:36.039 the office completely abolished. He wanted the 00:08:36.039 --> 00:08:38.419 charter revoked and all the files turned over 00:08:38.419 --> 00:08:41.200 to the FBI. He basically wanted to wipe the slate 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.009 completely clean. And that brings us right back 00:08:44.009 --> 00:08:47.250 to K Street. It's late. The DOJ leadership has 00:08:47.250 --> 00:08:50.809 just decapitated itself. And the FBI agents arrive 00:08:50.809 --> 00:08:53.590 at the office. And Hank Ruth is the senior man 00:08:53.590 --> 00:08:55.669 left standing there. Now put yourself in his 00:08:55.669 --> 00:08:57.730 shoes for a second. The president of the United 00:08:57.730 --> 00:09:00.629 States has just ordered your boss fired and your 00:09:00.629 --> 00:09:03.769 entire office closed. And these federal agents 00:09:03.769 --> 00:09:06.610 standing in front of you have valid orders. Honestly, 00:09:06.649 --> 00:09:08.049 most people would just grab their coat and leave. 00:09:08.230 --> 00:09:11.039 Most people would. But Ruth didn't. He told the 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:12.960 agents, let me tell you something. I'm going 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:15.879 up there. He just forces his way in. He basically 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:18.320 forced his way into the conversation to ensure 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:20.919 the handover wasn't just a hostile raid. But 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:23.059 more importantly, he turned to his staff, you 00:09:23.059 --> 00:09:24.919 know, the young lawyers and secretaries who are 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:27.580 crying and panicking. And he made a compact with 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:29.860 them. A compact. He told everyone, stay in your 00:09:29.860 --> 00:09:33.159 offices. Do not go home. Guard the files. Why 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:35.590 was that so critical? Like legally speaking. 00:09:35.789 --> 00:09:39.090 Chain of custody. If the FBI had swept in and 00:09:39.090 --> 00:09:42.169 seized everything without any oversight and those 00:09:42.169 --> 00:09:45.029 boxes just disappeared into some dark room at 00:09:45.029 --> 00:09:48.330 the DOJ for a week, any defense lawyer worth 00:09:48.330 --> 00:09:50.950 their salt could argue later on that the evidence 00:09:50.950 --> 00:09:53.100 had been tampered with. They could say, how do 00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:55.440 we know a file didn't go missing? How do we know 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:58.340 a fake one wasn't added? Exactly. By keeping 00:09:58.340 --> 00:10:00.460 the staff there, by physically occupying the 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:03.259 space, Ruth preserved the legal integrity of 00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:06.039 the evidence. Samuel Dash, the counsel to the 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:08.399 Senate Watergate Committee, said something incredibly 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:11.879 profound about this exact moment. He said, but 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:14.320 for Hank Ruth, there might not have been a Watergate 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.759 staff at all. And it is not an exaggeration. 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:18.600 The momentum could have completely died that 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:20.480 night. The files could have been buried forever. 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:23.159 Ruth kept the oxygen flowing to the investigation 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:25.840 when literally everyone else was trying to smother 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:27.700 it. So for the next two weeks, while the whole 00:10:27.700 --> 00:10:30.240 country is losing its mind, Ruth is technically 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.139 running the show. He was the acting special prosecutor 00:10:33.139 --> 00:10:36.080 and he didn't hide either. He publicly called 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:38.919 the firing of Cox, quote, straight obstruction 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:42.509 of justice. He held the line until Leon Jaworski 00:10:42.509 --> 00:10:45.210 was officially appointed. And then, and I think 00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:46.690 this really speaks to his character, he just 00:10:46.690 --> 00:10:48.950 goes right back to being the deputy. Zero ego. 00:10:49.090 --> 00:10:51.769 He served Jaworski just as loyally as he served 00:10:51.769 --> 00:10:54.429 Cox. They get the indictments. They get the big 00:10:54.429 --> 00:10:57.250 Supreme Court ruling. And Nixon resigns in August 00:10:57.250 --> 00:11:00.929 1974. But the story does not end there. I think 00:11:00.929 --> 00:11:03.149 a lot of people forget this part. Nixon gets 00:11:03.149 --> 00:11:05.909 on the helicopter, does the famous V sign, and 00:11:05.909 --> 00:11:08.620 leaves. But the special prosecutor's office did 00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:11.000 just close up shop the next day. Far from it. 00:11:11.019 --> 00:11:13.779 Jaworski actually resigns in October 1974, feeling 00:11:13.779 --> 00:11:16.360 like his main job is done. But there is still 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.220 a ton of work to do. So President Ford appoints 00:11:19.220 --> 00:11:21.379 Hank Ruth as the new special prosecutor, the 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:23.840 third man in the seat. And he had a massive loose 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.440 end to tie up, the 18 and a half minute gap. 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:29.379 The famous gap. Three days after the original 00:11:29.379 --> 00:11:31.820 Watergate break -in, there was a recorded conversation 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:34.600 between Nixon and his chief of staff, H .R. Haldeman. 00:11:35.069 --> 00:11:37.570 And the tape of that conversation had an 18 and 00:11:37.570 --> 00:11:40.190 a half minute buzz where the audio was deliberately 00:11:40.190 --> 00:11:43.669 erased. Ruth was obsessed with finding out who 00:11:43.669 --> 00:11:45.509 did it. He actually questioned Nixon about it 00:11:45.509 --> 00:11:47.570 in person, right? He did. Just imagine that scene. 00:11:48.330 --> 00:11:51.289 Ruth flies all the way to California to question 00:11:51.289 --> 00:11:54.049 the former president. The man who saved the files 00:11:54.049 --> 00:11:56.129 questioning the man who tried to destroy them. 00:11:56.509 --> 00:11:59.330 Did he actually get an answer? No. Nixon just 00:11:59.330 --> 00:12:02.309 gave non -answers. Ruth tried to find out if 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.710 it was Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods, or 00:12:04.710 --> 00:12:07.190 Nixon himself. But he just hit a brick wall. 00:12:07.429 --> 00:12:09.730 That must have been infuriating. He later expressed 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:11.649 this deep frustration with the whole, quote, 00:12:12.009 --> 00:12:14.789 code of silence. He said it wasn't as though 00:12:14.789 --> 00:12:16.690 we had a lot of cooperating witnesses walking 00:12:16.690 --> 00:12:19.090 into our office asking to be questioned. So even 00:12:19.090 --> 00:12:21.590 with the presidency gone, the cover -up culture 00:12:21.590 --> 00:12:24.059 was still holding strong. It absolutely was. 00:12:24.419 --> 00:12:27.159 Ruth couldn't legally prove who erased the tape, 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:29.720 but he didn't let that stop the rest of the work. 00:12:29.899 --> 00:12:34.100 He stayed in office until October 1975 and submitted 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:39.399 a massive final report, 277 pages. Let's look 00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:41.139 at the scorecard from that report because it 00:12:41.139 --> 00:12:45.039 is staggering. 55 individuals and 20 corporations 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:47.639 convicted or pleaded guilty. It was a massive 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.299 criminal enterprise. It wasn't just some third 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:52.899 -rate burglary like they claimed. It was a systemic 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:56.200 abuse of power involving dozens of powerful people. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.080 And Ruth made sure every bit of it was documented. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:01.460 But, and here's where it gets really interesting 00:13:01.460 --> 00:13:03.779 for you listening, there was one legal conclusion 00:13:03.779 --> 00:13:05.960 in that report that might actually surprise people, 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:09.000 especially given how hard Ruth fought against 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.179 the administration. You mean the pardon? Yes. 00:13:11.740 --> 00:13:13.919 President Ford had pardoned Nixon a month after 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:16.539 he resigned. The country was furious. People 00:13:16.539 --> 00:13:18.860 wanted Nixon in handcuffs. Hankruth had spent 00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:20.899 years chasing this guy. But what did he actually 00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:23.320 say in the report? He concluded that the pardon 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:25.799 was not illegal interference. He stated very 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:27.899 clearly it was an appropriate use of presidential 00:13:27.899 --> 00:13:30.519 power under the Constitution. That is just wild. 00:13:30.659 --> 00:13:33.259 The guy who literally called the firing of Cox 00:13:33.259 --> 00:13:36.000 obstruction of justice says letting Nixon off 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:39.049 the hook is totally legal. It demonstrates his 00:13:39.049 --> 00:13:42.590 absolute unshakable integrity. He wasn't a partisan 00:13:42.590 --> 00:13:45.570 headhunter. He was a lawyer. He believed the 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:48.090 firing of Cox was a crime because it directly 00:13:48.090 --> 00:13:50.110 interfered with an active investigation. Right. 00:13:50.450 --> 00:13:53.029 But he also believed the Constitution gave the 00:13:53.029 --> 00:13:55.549 president the explicit power to pardon, period. 00:13:55.690 --> 00:13:58.129 He didn't like it personally. He clearly wanted 00:13:58.129 --> 00:14:00.629 accountability, but he followed the law wherever 00:14:00.629 --> 00:14:03.820 it led. He separated his personal feelings from 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:06.519 the legal reality. That is incredibly rare. It 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:08.940 is. He trusted the system even when the outcome 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:11.080 of that system was deeply frustrating to him. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.720 So Watergate finally ends. The report is filed. 00:14:14.940 --> 00:14:17.919 Ruth steps down. What does a guy like that even 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:20.940 do next? Well, in a move that might seem totally 00:14:20.940 --> 00:14:23.379 contradictory to an outsider, he went into private 00:14:23.379 --> 00:14:25.639 practice and became a defense attorney. The ultimate 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:27.799 prosecutor becomes the defender. It's actually 00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:30.940 quite common for the best legal minds. He joined 00:14:30.940 --> 00:14:34.039 the firm Shea and Gardner. And get this, he ended 00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:36.379 up defending high -profile political figures 00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:39.100 like Billy Carter. Wait, President Jimmy Carter's 00:14:39.100 --> 00:14:42.799 brother, the Billy Beer guy. The very same. During 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:45.139 the Billigate investigation regarding his ties 00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:48.220 to Libya, Ruth also defended Hamilton Jordan, 00:14:48.500 --> 00:14:51.360 who was Carter's chief of staff. So he went from 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.519 prosecuting the president's men to literally 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:56.899 defending the president's men. It really shows 00:14:56.899 --> 00:14:59.320 his belief that the justice system only works 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:02.240 if everyone has a vigorous defense. But there 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.159 was one moment in the late 80s where his past 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:07.840 came roaring right back. Oh, the Bork nomination. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.720 Exactly. In 1987, President Reagan nominated 00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:14.200 Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Now, remember 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:16.059 Bork? He was the guy who pulled the trigger. 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:18.980 He was the solicitor general who fired Archibald 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:21.200 Cox during the Saturday Night Massacre. Correct. 00:15:21.259 --> 00:15:23.980 And Hank Ruth came forward to publicly testify 00:15:23.980 --> 00:15:26.059 against Bork's nomination. That must have felt 00:15:26.059 --> 00:15:28.409 personal. I think it was entirely principled, 00:15:28.409 --> 00:15:30.929 though. Ruth's argument wasn't, I hate this guy. 00:15:31.129 --> 00:15:33.649 It was that Bork had prioritized the president's 00:15:33.649 --> 00:15:35.809 political wishes over the independence of the 00:15:35.809 --> 00:15:38.649 justice system. Ah, I see. Ruth felt that if 00:15:38.649 --> 00:15:40.450 you are willing to fire a special prosecutor 00:15:40.450 --> 00:15:42.710 just because the president tells you to, you 00:15:42.710 --> 00:15:45.049 do not have the independence required to sit 00:15:45.049 --> 00:15:47.470 on the Supreme Court. And his testimony actually 00:15:47.470 --> 00:15:50.570 helped sink the nomination. So at this point, 00:15:50.649 --> 00:15:53.429 Democrats must absolutely love him right. He 00:15:53.429 --> 00:15:57.120 took down Nixon's crew. He stopped Bork. But 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.820 then we get to the 90s. And here is the plot 00:15:59.820 --> 00:16:03.539 twist. In the 1990s, Ruth wrote a series of columns 00:16:03.539 --> 00:16:06.220 for the Wall Street Journal, and he turned his 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:09.259 sights directly on Bill Clinton. This was regarding 00:16:09.259 --> 00:16:12.480 the Lewinsky scandal. Yes, he was scathing. He 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:14.980 outright accused President Clinton of, quote, 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:17.659 presidential perjury and obstruction. So he sees 00:16:17.659 --> 00:16:19.700 Clinton doing the same kinds of things, lying 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:22.840 under oath, hiding evidence, and he calls it 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:25.200 straight out. Exactly. He didn't say, well, he's 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.659 a Democrat, so it's different. He saw the pattern 00:16:27.659 --> 00:16:30.059 of obstruction and he attacked it. That is remarkably 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:32.379 consistent. I mean, he went after a Republican 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:34.539 president for obstruction. He testified against 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:36.519 a conservative judge. And then he went after 00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:38.779 a Democratic president for obstruction. It circles 00:16:38.779 --> 00:16:40.379 right back to what we said at the beginning. 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:43.960 Ruth was loyal to the law, not to a political 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:47.279 party. If you obstructed justice, he didn't care 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.740 if there was an R or a D after your name. He 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:52.039 called it out. He eventually retired to Tucson, 00:16:52.179 --> 00:16:55.480 Arizona and passed away in 2012. But looking 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.679 back at his entire life, it really feels like 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:01.440 the Saturday Night Massacre is the defining moment. 00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:04.980 It has to be. It is the fulcrum of his life and 00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:07.380 maybe even of that era of history. Because it's 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:09.599 the exact moment where everything hung in the 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.099 balance. You know, we talk about checks and balances 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:14.589 in civics class, like they're these... automatic 00:17:14.589 --> 00:17:16.789 machines, like, oh, the court checks the president 00:17:16.789 --> 00:17:18.470 and the Congress checks the court. But on that 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:20.470 specific night, the check wasn't a court order 00:17:20.470 --> 00:17:23.930 or a document. It was a human being. That is 00:17:23.930 --> 00:17:26.390 the most important lesson here, I think. The 00:17:26.390 --> 00:17:28.589 system is only ever as strong as the people manning 00:17:28.589 --> 00:17:31.450 the posts. When the institutions totally failed, 00:17:31.609 --> 00:17:33.509 when the AG resigned and the special prosecutor 00:17:33.509 --> 00:17:36.390 was fired, the last line of defense wasn't a 00:17:36.390 --> 00:17:39.089 rule book. It was Hank Ruth standing in a doorway 00:17:39.089 --> 00:17:41.910 telling the FBI to back off. I'm going up there. 00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:44.759 Precisely. If he doesn't do that, if he just 00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:47.059 packs up and goes home to his family like anyone 00:17:47.059 --> 00:17:50.240 else would, the chain of evidence breaks, the 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:52.940 whole narrative changes. We might not even know 00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:55.019 what was in those files today. He was the ultimate 00:17:55.019 --> 00:17:58.240 quiet professional. He didn't seek the limelight. 00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:00.640 He didn't write some sensational tell -all book 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:03.039 trashing everyone he worked with. He just did 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:05.319 the job. And he accepted the results of that 00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:08.539 job, even when it meant Nixon got a pardon. He 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:11.140 trusted the system, but he fought like hell to 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:12.920 make sure the system was actually allowed to 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:15.720 function first. It really is an incredible story 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:18.079 of a man who was always in the room where it 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.460 happened, even if history has sort of cropped 00:18:20.460 --> 00:18:23.799 him out of the main photo. Hank Ruth, the third 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:26.579 prosecutor, the one who saved the evidence. A 00:18:26.579 --> 00:18:28.819 legacy definitely worth remembering. Absolutely. 00:18:29.559 --> 00:18:31.660 Now, before I let you go, here's a provocative 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:34.190 thought to chew on. We talked about how Ruth 00:18:34.190 --> 00:18:36.869 concluded that Ford's pardon of Nixon was strictly 00:18:36.869 --> 00:18:39.349 legal. He spent his entire life fighting for 00:18:39.349 --> 00:18:42.029 accountability. Yet he accepted that one man 00:18:42.029 --> 00:18:44.390 could wipe away the crimes of another with a 00:18:44.390 --> 00:18:47.329 simple stroke of a pen. It is the great paradox 00:18:47.329 --> 00:18:50.569 of the presidency. It really is. So ask yourself 00:18:50.569 --> 00:18:54.630 this. In our system of checks and balances, is 00:18:54.630 --> 00:18:58.029 the presidential pardon the ultimate check against 00:18:58.029 --> 00:19:00.309 a vindictive justice system? Or is it the ultimate 00:19:00.309 --> 00:19:03.190 loophole that places one person? entirely above 00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:05.390 the law. And perhaps the deeper question for 00:19:05.390 --> 00:19:08.029 you to think about if Hank Ruth hadn't been stubborn 00:19:08.029 --> 00:19:10.490 enough to stand in that doorway that night would 00:19:10.490 --> 00:19:13.190 we even have enough evidence to be asking that 00:19:13.190 --> 00:19:15.569 question today? That is the question. Thanks 00:19:15.569 --> 00:19:17.089 for diving deep with us. See you next time.