John Dean, the White House counsel for President Richard Nixon credited as a part of the latter's demise, has reportedly been brushing up on his Constitution after learning about the most recent maneuvers of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA).
As Politico reported Tuesday, Dean believes Nunes' "secret meetings" with fellow Republican legislators to build a case for corruption at the Department of Justice and the FBI are not protected under the U.S. Constitution's speech and debate clause because they're bypassing typical committee procedure.
"Members of Congress in both the House and Senate have tried to use the speech and debate clause to protect themselves from everything from bribery to taking care of constituents with the executive branch, and been shown that that clause is not that broad,” Dean told Politico. “I think they’re on dangerous ground."
In the same interview, Dean also suggested that had Fox News existed during the Nixon era, the former president "might have survived."