Without Honor: Crimes of Camelot and the Impeachment of President Nixon

The House Judiciary Committee's recommendation in 1974 that Nixon be impeached, which led to his resignation, was nearly thwarted by a sham congressional inquiry, according to this blistering expose. Zeifman, now a lawyer in private practice, was chief counsel to the committee during the impeachment inquiry, and excerpts from the diary he kept during the proceedings are interpolated with his pointed analysis. He charges that John Doar, special counsel to the inquiry (and formerly a key figure in Robert Kennedy's Justice Department), intentionally orchestrated a charade because he feared that a thorough investigation of the Nixon administration's government-sponsored crimes would let out of the bag Kennedy-era wiretaps, burglaries and sanctioned murders carried out in the name of national security. Zeifman further contends that Doar and committee chairman Peter Rodino (D.-N.J.) attempted to keep Nixon in office until the end of his term to improve the odds of electing Ted Kennedy president in 1976. Finally, Zeifman maintains that Doar aide Hillary Rodham (now the First Lady) and her fellow staffer Bernard Nussbaum (who recently resigned as Clinton's chief White House counsel) helped Doar and Marshall gain control over the investigation through unethical tricks and faulty legal opinions. Zeifman has written a complex yet cogent blockbuster that traces a legacy of deceit to Whitewater. (Mar.)