Leonard Garment
| Leonard Garment | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| White House Counsel | |
|
In office April 30, 1973 – August 9, 1974 |
|
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | John Dean |
| Succeeded by | William Casselman |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 11, 1924 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 13, 2013 (aged 89) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Grace Albert (Deceased 1976) Suzanne Garment |
| Children | 3 |
| Education |
State University of New York, Brooklyn (BA) Brooklyn Law School (LLB) |
Leonard Garment (May 11, 1924 – July 13, 2013) was an American attorney, public servant, and arts advocate. He served U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the White House in various positions from 1969 to 1976, including Counselor to the President, acting Special Counsel to Nixon for the last two years of his presidency, and U.S. Ambassador to the Third Committee at the United Nations.
Garment was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a graduate of Brooklyn Law School (1949) and that same year he joined the law firm of Mudge, Stern, Baldwin, and Todd. He became the head of litigation and a partner in the late fifties. (Later the firm would be called Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander.) Garment met Richard Nixon when the politician joined the firm in 1963. He assisted with Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. In 1969, Garment became a part of Nixon's White House staff as special consultant to the president. He advised the president and worked on various special projects—particularly in the areas of civil and human rights, Indian affairs, and the arts.
Garment was the author of two books: the autobiography Crazy Rhythm: From Brooklyn and Jazz to Nixon's White House, Watergate, and Beyond, and In Search of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time. Published in 2000, the latter book supported the theory that Deep Throat was John Sears. Before Deep Throat's identity was revealed in 2005 as being former FBI Acting Associate Director W. Mark Felt, Garment himself was a suspect.
Felt was listed as a possible Deep Throat in the book (as are many others), but was dismissed by Garment because the author believed the secret source had to have strong White House connections. He was mistaken in his selection of Sears, who told Garment explicitly that he was not Deep Throat. To prove his argument, Sears admitted that he was an anonymous source for Carl Bernstein, but Garment still didn't believe Sears, a longtime friend, was being truthful about not being Deep Throat.
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