For Immediate Release
For further information contact:
Robert Hughes, (202)483-5700
July 29, 2003
ANOTHER WATERGATE THREATENS BUSH ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. --- With the recent revelation of Watergate figure Jeb
Stuart Magruder that he overheard President Richard Nixon order the
Watergate break-in, the White House has become increasingly concerned that
senior White House aide Karl Rove and several other key White House
staffers will be identified with a $400,000 political slush fund.
The fund is part of litigation in the D.C. Superior Court that
was
financed in part by Rove political ally Richard Hines, who also financed
the victorious campaign of then-presidential candidate George W. Bush
in the South Carolina primary. Hines has been a major Bush contributor
ever since. The White House is reported to be closely watching the case
and is expected to be monitoring a hearing on the matter scheduled for
Friday, August 8, before Judge Michael Rankin.
John Edward Hurley, president of the Confederate Memorial
Association said
that both his board of trustees and his family have been the targets of an
unremitting attack in the courts over the past fifteen years, with much of
it financed from the political fund controlled by Hines. He said that
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, a lawyer for the Committee to Re-elect
the
President (CREEP) during Watergate, had been forced to rescind a $70,000
sanction against Hurley. The court record also shows that the U.S. Coast
Guard and Special Forces personnel and resources were used against Hurley
in the litigation.
Hurley said the evidence indicates that the White House
both knew and
covered up their involvement in the litigation since the election of George
W. Bush, which he describes as another Watergate.
John Dean, former White House counsel, and Magruder, a former
Nixon White
House communications officer and a director of CREEP, were sent to federal
prison for their part in Watergate. Dean has said that there is some
evidence to suggest that Magruder's latest claim is true.
Hurley said that he has corresponded with Attorney General John
Ashcroft
on three different occasions reporting that the Hines financial support of
Bush in the South Carolina primary was illegal and was not reported as
required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Hines has been a
Washington representative for both Cambodia and Saudi Arabia.
Several White House aides who were promoting the war in Iraq
either knew
of or participated in the litigation, Hurley charged. He also said that
a sub-
contractor employee of SAIC, which employed WMD expert Dr. David Kay,
was
listed as a plaintiff against Hurley. Dr. Kay also works for the
Potomac
Institute. The Potomac Institute has a member on its board who is active
with
the Reserve Officers Association, an organization whose attorney sued
Hurley.
Dr. Kay was designated by the White House and the CIA to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.
"This is nothing short of domestic terrorism from the White
House against
a U.S. citizen," Hurley said.