The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal watchdog created after Watergate, invited Geoff Shepard, a former Nixon aide who has written books on the scandal, to give a two-hour presentation last month on his allegation that the Watergate special prosecutors committed misconduct, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 1. Shepard argues that special prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski violated defendants' due process rights by meeting secretly with judges and withholding evidence. In 2022 the department declined his request for an investigation, citing the time that had passed since the events.
The department confirmed the presentation to The Independent but said it is not an investigation: “OPR declined Mr. Shepherd's request to open an investigation in 2022 under the previous administration. Given his expertise and scholarship on Watergate, he was recently invited to give a presentation to OPR, but that presentation does not constitute an investigation.” According to the Journal's sources, the review is preliminary and it is unclear whether it will lead to a formal inquiry. Headlines saying the department is examining whether the “deep state” targeted Nixon overstate it; “deep state” was Vice President Vance's phrase in June (see Vance Says the 'Deep State' Took Down Nixon and That Watergate Today Would Be 'a 12-Hour News Story').
The same day, Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) said at a Nixon Foundation event that Nixon was “framed” and “couped out of office,” Mediaite reported.