Overview
- In September, Geoff Shepard, a longtime Nixon aide and Watergate revisionist, delivered a two‑hour slide presentation titled “Watergate As Lawfare” to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
- The DOJ says the meeting was a presentation and not an opened investigation, and it describes any review as preliminary with no clear path to a full probe.
- Shepard alleges that special prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski met privately with judges and withheld defense evidence, claims he illustrated with internal Watergate Special Prosecution Force documents.
- Practical limits make discipline unlikely because the alleged actors are mostly retired or deceased and OPR told Shepard in 2022 under the prior administration that historical complaints were not a use of its limited resources.
- The unusual review comes as conservative figures, including Vice President J.D. Vance and several Republican commentators, compare Nixon to President Donald Trump and push a narrative that could be used to weaken post‑Watergate oversight.