Obituaries: ROBERT MARDIAN

The Independent – United Kingdom; Jul 24, 2006
Rupert Cornwell

Robert Mardian was among the most intriguing minor actors in the
Watergate scandal – a high Justice Department and Nixon campaign
official who was convicted for his part in the scandal, only to have
the sentence overturned on appeal. He led the administration’s pursuit
of alleged subversives and trouble-makers. But he was also briefly
rumoured to have been "Deep Throat", the secret source who helped
bring about the resignation of the 36th US President. The son of an
Armenian immigrant from what was then the Ottoman empire, Mardian was
a member of the large Californian contingent in and around the Nixon
administration. He cut his political teeth on Barry Gold-water’s
presidential campaign in 1964, and worked on Ronald Reagan’s first
campaign for governor, before helping Richard Nixon in his victorious
1968 bid. In 1970 he was appointed Assistant Attorney General, and
the following year headed the federal government’s prosecution of
Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon Papers.

In 1972 he was appointed a lawyer and "co-ordinator" for Nixon’s
re-election committee, the infamous "Creep" (Committee to Re-elect
the President) which was behind the break-in attempt on 17 June
1972 at the Democrats’ national offices in the Watergate building
in Washington. Despite his enthusiasm at the Justice Department for
bugging and surveillance operations, Mardian insisted he knew nothing
of the incident. That did not prevent his indictment.

Mardian was in California preparing for a fund-raising dinner
when he learnt that the five burglars had been arrested at the
Watergate complex. Prosecutors contended that on the orders of John
Mitchell, Creep’s director, Mardian telephoned G. Gordon Liddy,
one of the burglars, telling him to contact the Attorney General,
Richard Kleindienst, to have the leader of the group, James McCord,
released from custody before his identity was discovered.

Thus Mardian became one of the "Watergate Seven" to be indicted on
1 March 1974, almost five months before Nixon resigned. It was an
eminent group, including Bob Haldeman and John Erlichman, the two
Californians and top Nixon aides who formed a so-called "Prussian
Guard" at the White House, as well as Mitchell and Charles Colson,
the head of the secret White House plumbers’ unit.

Charged with obstruction of justice, Mardian faced a possible five
years in prison and a $5,000 fine. All along he maintained he had
done nothing wrong. But in January 1975 he was convicted on one count
of conspiracy to hinder the Watergate investigation. In 1976 however
his conviction was quashed. The technical ground was that he should
have been tried separately because his lawyer fell ill during the
trial. But the appeals judges also noted that the evidence against
him was not as strong as that facing his co-defendants.

Robert Charles Mardian, lawyer: born Pasadena, California23 October
1923’Assistant Attorney General 1970-72′ married 1946 Dorothy Denniss
(three sons)’ died San Clemente, California 17 July 2006.