Leon Jaworski
Encyclopedia
Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski (September 19, 1905; Waco, Texas
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....

 – December 9, 1982; near Wimberley, Texas
Wimberley, Texas
Wimberley is a small town in Hays County, Texas, United States. Prior to its incorporation in May 2000, it was a census-designated place . The population was 2,626 at the 2010 census.-History:...

) was the second Special Prosecutor
Special prosecutor
A special prosecutor generally is a lawyer from outside the government appointed by an attorney general or, in the United States, by Congress to investigate a government official for misconduct while in office. A reasoning for such an appointment is that the governmental branch or agency may have...

 during the Watergate Scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...

. Jaworski was appointed to that position on November 1, 1973, soon after the Saturday Night Massacre
Saturday night massacre
The "Saturday Night Massacre" was the term given by political commentators to U.S. President Richard Nixon's executive dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on October 20,...

 of October 19 and October 20, 1973 that resulted in the dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox
Archibald Cox
Archibald Cox, Jr., was an American lawyer and law professor who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy. He became known as the first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and also an authority on...

.

Background

A child of German-speaking parents, a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 immigrant Presbyterian minister and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n immigrant mother, he was named after ancient Spartan king Leonidas, and had a brother named Hannibal. An earnest student who studied at night by the light of oil lamps, he was a champion debater at Waco High School, and graduated from Baylor Law School
Baylor Law School
Founded in 1857, Baylor Law School is the oldest law school in Texas and has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1931 and a member of the Association of American Law Schools since 1938. Baylor Law School is affiliated with Baylor University and located in Waco, Texas...

 and received his master's degree in law at The George Washington University Law School
The George Washington University Law School
The George Washington University Law School, commonly referred to as GW Law, is the law school of The George Washington University. It was founded in 1825 and is the oldest law school in Washington, D.C. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a charter member of the...

. In 1925 he became the youngest person ever admitted to the Texas bar. After starting out defending bootleggers during Prohibition, in 1931 he joined the Houston law firm that became Fulbright & Jaworski
Fulbright & Jaworski
The international law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. is one of the largest law firms in the United States with nearly 1,000 attorneys in over 50 practice areas. The firm was founded in Houston in 1919 by R. C. Fulbright, an attorney working in railway regulation, and J.H. Crooker, a litigator...

, one of the largest in the US, which became the first in Houston to hire African-American and Jewish staff.

World War II

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Jarworski prosecuted the Johannes Kunze
Johannes Kunze
Johannes Kunze was a German World War II prisoner of war held at Camp Tonkawa, Oklahoma. He was a Gefreiter in the Afrika Korps. Following a trial before a kangaroo court on November 4, 1943, he was beaten to death by fellow POWs for being a traitor. There was very strong evidence that Kunze had...

 murder trial, where five German prisoners of war were accused of beating to death a fellow prisoner for being a "traitor".

Fort Lawton court-martial

On the night of August 14, 1944, the Fort Lawton Riot
Fort Lawton Riot
”The largest and longest U.S. Army court-martial of World War II took place at Seattle's Fort Lawton. 43 U.S. soldiers, all of them African-American, were charged with rioting; three were also charged with the lynching death of an Italian prisoner of war named Guglielmo Olivotto.Some resources ...

 between African-American U.S. soldiers and Italian prisoners of war at Fort Lawton
Fort Lawton
Fort Lawton is a United States Army fort located in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The fort was included in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list.-History:...

 near Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 resulted in Italian POW Guglielmo Olivotto being lynched, after which forty-three African-American soldiers were charged and twenty-eight were convicted of participating in the longest U.S. Army court-martial of World War II, prosecuted by Jaworski.

War crimes prosecutor

After the war, Jaworski served as a war crimes prosecutor in Germany. However, he declined to participate in the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

 on the grounds that the prosecution there was based on laws that did not exist at the time of the culpable acts. He became a colonel, and subsequently, in his law firm, he was commonly addressed as "Colonel Jaworski."

Political connections

He was a friend of fellow Texan Lyndon Baines Johnson, representing him in a lawsuit filed to prevent him from campaigning for the US Senate from Texas at the same time he was running for vice-president during 1960, which he won. However, Jaworski did not always support Democratic candidates. He supported Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 and voted for him twice, contributed to George H.W. Bush in his campaign for the presidency in 1980, and after Bush conceded the nomination he became treasurer of Democrats For Reagan during the 1980 election.

Having been convinced of his integrity, in 1980 Mr. Jaworski aided former Nixon staffer Egil "Bud" Krogh, whom he had sent to prison in 1973, in his request to be reinstated to the Washington State Bar.

At the 1976 Democratic National Convention
1976 Democratic National Convention
The 1976 Democratic National Convention met at Madison Square Garden in New York City, from July 12 to July 15, 1976. The assembled United States Democratic Party delegates at the convention nominated Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia for President and Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota for Vice...

, Jaworski, who was not a candidate received the vote of one delegate to the convention (0.03%).

Watergate

Jaworski's greatest fame came from his tenure as Watergate Special Prosecutor, when he managed a protracted contest with President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 in an attempt to secure evidence for the trial of former senior administration officials on charges relating to the Watergate cover-up. Initially believing that only Nixon's aides had committed misconduct, he learned that Nixon had discussed the Watergate cover-up with the accused on numerous occasions, and that these conversations had been recorded by the White House taping system. This discovery caused Jaworski to request tapes of sixty-four Presidential conversations as evidence for the upcoming criminal trial, but Nixon refused to release them, citing executive privilege.

After unsuccessful attempts by Nixon to reach a compromise acceptable to the special prosecutor's office, including supplying edited transcripts of some recordings, Jaworski subpoenaed the tapes. Nixon appealed on two grounds: first, that the office of Special Prosecutor did not have the right to sue the office of President; and second, that the requested materials were privileged presidential conversations. Aware that an important constitutional issue was at stake, and unwilling to wait any longer, Jaworski asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly, bypassing the Court of Appeals.

On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that the Special Prosecutor did have the right to sue the President; and that "the generalized assertion of [executive] privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial". Nixon was forced to give the unedited tapes to Jaworski, including the so-called Smoking Gun Tape which included a compromising discussion of June 23, 1972. The President's remaining support waned, and he resigned on August 9, 1974.

Jaworski resigned as special prosecutor on October 25, 1974, once the cover-up trial had begun, and a new special prosecutor was appointed. Jaworski was a close friend of Dean Ernest Raba of St. Mary's University School of Law where he taught as an Adjunct Professor for several years.

In 1977 Jaworski reluctantly agreed to serve as special counsel to a House Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether members had indirectly or directly accepted anything of value from the government of the Republic of Korea. The investigation, known as Koreagate
Koreagate
"Koreagate" was an American political scandal in 1976 involving South Korean political figures seeking influence from 10 Democratic members of Congress. An immediate goal of the scandal seems to have been reversing President Richard Nixon's decision to withdraw troops from South Korea...

 or the Tongsun Park Investigation, potentially involved hundreds of members of Congress and their families and associates, and included charges of bribery and influence-peddling via envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.

Jaworski died on December 9, 1982 while chopping wood at the Circle J Ranch near Wimberly, Texas.

Publications

  • Jaworski, Leon, The Right and the Power, New York: Reader's Digest Press, 1976.
  • Jaworski, Leon and Herskowitz, Mickey, Confession and Avoidance: A Memoir, Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1979.
  • Jaworski, Leon, Crossroads, Elgin, Ill.: Cook Press, 1981.
  • Read more: http://law.jrank.org/pages/7818/Jaworski-Leon.html#ixzz0M0f64tRP

External links

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