Richard Kleindienst
Richard Gordon Kleindienst (* August 5, 1923 in Winslow, Arizona; † February 3, 2000 in Prescott, Arizona ) is an American politician ( Republican) and U.S. Attorney General.
Studies and political career in the state of Arizona
Kleindienst graduated in law in 1950 from Harvard Law School and then worked as a lawyer.
He began his political career in 1953 as the youngest MP in the House of Representatives from Arizona. As such, he later became one of the supporters of the Republican senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater, in the so-called "Arizona Mafia ". When Goldwater in 1964 applied for the Republicans to the office of U.S. President, Kleindienst was his national campaign manager in the intra-party primary campaign. After Goldwater's nomination for presidential candidate, however, Kleindienst withdrew from the campaign team.
Kleindienst then ran for Governor of Arizona, but was defeated by the Democratic candidate Sam Goddard. In 1966, he was campaign manager of the successful candidate for governor of Arizona, John R. Williams.
Ascent to the Minister of Justice and Watergate
1968 Kleindienst was a supporter and one of the campaign manager for the successful presidential candidacy of Richard Nixon. President Nixon appointed him in 1969, first as Deputy Minister of Justice ( Deputy Attorney General ). As Attorney General John N. Mitchell in 1972 Chairman of the Committee re-election of President Nixon was appointed this small service to the new Attorney General.
Kleindienst was sworn in June 1972, shortly before the Watergate scandal, the break in the office of the Democratic Party in the Watergate building in Washington. Less than a year in office, Kleindienst, however, resigned in protest of disability in investigation by members of the staff of the White House in April 1973 together with the Chief of Staff of the White House, Harry Robbins Haldeman, the domestic political presidential adviser John Ehrlichman as well as the legal advisor to the White House John Dean, back.
Kleindienst denied any knowledge of the scandal and changed Nixon with no word. During a process at a same time instead found another scandal, the so-called ITT affair, to Kleindienst called the guilty and was sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment and a fine of $ 100. Then he retired from political life.
Publications
- Kleindienst, Richard: Justice: The Memoirs of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst Washington, 1985.