Leonard Garment

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.

Leonard Garment
White House Counsel
In office
April 30, 1973 – August 9, 1974
PresidentRichard Nixon
Preceded byJohn Dean
Succeeded byWilliam Casselman
Personal details
Born(1924-05-11)May 11, 1924
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 13, 2013(2013-07-13) (aged 89)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Grace Albert (deceased 1976)
Suzanne Garment
Children3
EducationBrooklyn College (BA)
Brooklyn Law School (LLB)

Life and career

Garment was born in Brooklyn, New York. In 1949, he graduated from Brooklyn Law School and 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.

External video
Booknotes interview with Garment on Crazy Rhythm, April 20, 1997, C-SPAN
Presentation by Garment on In Search of Deep Throat, September 28, 2000, C-SPAN

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.

Garment had a long association with the arts, starting with his early career as a jazz saxophonist with Woody Herman's band playing with Alan Greenspan before he entered law school. In the 1970s, he was chairman of the board of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. More recently, he was one of the founders of the Jazz Museum in Harlem. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2005 as an arts advocate and patron. Tim Russert credited Leonard Garment with getting him into the news business as Garment had a friend at NBC News who was looking to rebuild their news division. Garment and Russert had previously worked together in 1976 during the U.S. Senate election of Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Garment was a close associate of I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, as law partners, at Dechert, Price & Rhoads.

Garment, who had been ill, died July 13, 2013, at his Manhattan home. He was 89.[1]

References
  1. "Ex-Nixon adviser Leonard Garment dies in N.Y. at 89". USA Today. July 15, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
Legal offices
Preceded by
John Dean		 White House Counsel
1973–1974		 Succeeded by
William Casselman
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