in this kind of jeopardy and in this kind of position with regard to serious accusations against a sitting president, for once, michael bescs was able to tell us, actually, yeah, this has happened before. herb kalmbach went to prison, and that is something in american presidential history that casts a kind of shadow that looks a little bit like what might be going on with michael cohen and president donald trump right now. he also told us that the herb kalmbach story has not just a shadow, but also kind of a long tail that reaches directly to thtrump presidency because the man who is widely believed tbe president trump s best friend, the wealthy investor tom barrack, you might remember him speaking at the republican national convention, he then became head of the trump inaugural committee. you might remember that the trump inaugural committee, like nixon s presidential campaign apparently generated way more cash than it needed and was left with a slush fund thereafter that has now come
agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the watergate scandal as the president s personal lawyer. kalmbach showed no emotion. he said i d like you to know how deeply embarrassed i am and how sorry i am to be here thjudge announced the sentence.not six n 18 months with a fine of $10,000. he left the court and went straight to a waiting car without comment. he is the 14th person to be sentenced for a crime related to watergate. as president richard nixon s personal attorney, herb kalmbach and his firm did a lot of run-of-the-mill personal legal tasks for e president. they, for example, signed the checks for president to make his mortay they made sure he kept up on his property taxes they arranged the purchase of the mansin san clemente, california, that the nixon administration liked to call the western white house. before mar-a-lago there was san clemente. but as nixon s personal
kalmbach ended up personally involved in. i mean, he was the guy who actually paid the hush money to the watergate burglars. and kalmbach ended up cooperating and telling ecutorand telling the watergate committee that tale. what he ultimately went to jail for was a fraction of what he was widely believed to be implicated in. kalmbach ultimately went to jail for an illegal campaign fund, illegal and secret campaign fund that he d set up with the nixon white house to help republicans win in the 1970 mid terms. he also went to jail for effectively selling an ambassadorship in exchange for yet more campaign doons to republicans. but even with just those two counts that they prosecuted him on, it looked like herb kalmbach would serve potentially years in prison. at least a year and a half in prison. the judge ended up springing him from federal prison after only six months, specifically because of kalmbach s thorough
to the waterglars, he didn t know that it was for any nefarious purposes. he certainly didn t know that it you could hear the room laughing, right, that anybody would not understand that that s obviously what that money was for. but he insisted, seriously, under oath, that he didn t know that s what the money was for. later, when the judge in the watergate case case, judge sirica confronted him with the fact that that was hush money, that s what he had been the bagman for, when the judge confronted him on the stand, herb kalmbach actually broke down and cried on the stand in judge s courtroom. this is july 1st, 1974 when herb kalmbach was on way to prison. pay attention to the date here. july 1, 1974. nixon was still president, but not for long, right? nixon ended up resigning in august 74, but when this was written, the president s
that didn t suggest to you any impropriety when you re doing that? no, it did not. why not? it suggested to me that the concern was that this would have a if it got into the press, misinterpreted. how could it be misinterpreted? misinterpreted in whatever way these peop were being give now how could your providing funds through either egis, through the committee, toe burglars and wiretappers and conspirators be misinterpreted? well, theinterpretation would be this is done to silence these people. well, could anybody have any other interpretation? i did. richard nixon s personal lawyer, herb kalmbach saying during the watergate hearings that he was under a different impression. when he delivered all that cash