Late on the afternoon of April 19, 1971, Richard Nixon picked up the White House telephone and told his deputy attorney general, Richard Kleindienst, to kill a federal antitrust case against the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT). “The IT&T thing,” he said, “stay the hell out of it. Is that clear? That’s an order.” When Kleindienst tried to explain the legal complexities, Nixon cut him off: “I know all the legal things, Dick. You don’t have to spell out the legal things.” Then he added a crucial detail: Unless the message got through, he said, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief—the man actually bringing the case—would have his “ass out within one hour.”
The call lasted less than two minutes. It has never before been transcribed in full, cross-referenced with related conversations. Now, thanks to a project we are launching this week with the Hoover Institution, it’s one of thousands that can be.
Listen to the audio of the conversation here:
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