Federal lawyer (1969–1971) The day after Nixon's election as president in November 1968, he asked Chotiner what job he would like, and Chotiner indicated that he wanted to be chairman of the
Republican National Committee (RNC), but was told that was impossible. However, Mitchell and soon-to-be White House Chief of Staff
H.R. Haldeman wished to see Chotiner given a position outside the
White House, as they saw him as a rival. Accordingly, they proposed that Chotiner be made RNC executive director, to wield the real power with the chairman as figurehead. A reluctant Nixon, who was worried about Chotiner's hatchet-man reputation, finally agreed, and Chotiner wrapped up his affairs in California. Chotiner was given an office at the RNC, nominally as the official in charge of tickets for the inauguration. RNC chairman
Ray Bliss and his aides were disturbed by his presence, and were told he would be gone after January 20. Meanwhile, Nixon and his aides considered a new RNC chairman, finally settling on Maryland Congressman
Rogers Morton, who agreed to take the position once Bliss left, though Morton was not told of the promise to Chotiner. When the President-elect met with Bliss on January 10, 1969, he could not bring himself to fire the chairman. With the situation unresolved, and Morton's appointment unannounced, Chotiner sat in his RNC office for a month after the inauguration with nothing to do, as the RNC staff wondered at his presence. Nixon, Haldeman, and Mitchell did nothing to clear up the situation, and Chotiner finally took action on his own and told Bliss that he was to take control. A shaken Bliss called Haldeman, who backed up Chotiner's account, and Bliss immediately resigned. Bliss's aides publicized the reasons for his resignation, and reporter
David Broder contacted Chotiner, who confirmed the story. Morton refused to be a figurehead for Chotiner, or indeed to have Chotiner at the RNC in any capacity, and so stated to the media. Mitchell dispatched his subordinate,
John Sears, to tell Chotiner he would have no place at the RNC. Chotiner took the bad news philosophically, stating that it was not the first time he had been treated badly, and that his estranged wife had predicted that Nixon would "screw" him. However, some job still had to be found for Chotiner, who had wound up his California practice and sold his home. Haldeman refused to have him in the White House, and Nixon's aides deemed that the Democratic-controlled Senate was unlikely to confirm Chotiner for any post requiring its approval. On April 10, 1969, acting
Special Representative for Trade Negotiations Theodore R. Gates appointed Chotiner as General Counsel to his office, as almost simultaneously, the White House announced Gates' replacement,
Carl J. Gilbert. On April 1, Nixon had issued Executive Order 11463, making the position of general counsel in that office a
Schedule C, or political appointment, and significantly raising the salary of the position. Nixon
press secretary Ron Ziegler stated that the salary had been raised because the new incumbent was expected to play a more active role than had previous holders of the position. suggesting Nixon "neutralize"
Johnny Cash On January 13, 1970, Nixon appointed Chotiner as a special counsel to the President, reporting to White House Chief of Staff Haldeman, a move the chief of staff described in his diaries as a "mixed blessing". Ziegler indicated that the new staffer would be handling "special projects of a wide variety", and
The New York Times speculated that in view of his past, his duties would most likely be political. Haldeman noted in his diaries that his new subordinate was to serve as the "inside White House man for political campaigns". Chotiner served as liaison between the White House and Republican organizations in 31 states. Chotiner taught at a March 1970 seminar for
Young Republican leaders where he suggested that the Republican running against Senator
Edward Kennedy mention the
Chappaquiddick incident at every opportunity, while insisting that it was not an issue in the campaign. Chotiner stated, "If he says it enough times, I think the voters of Massachusetts will understand all about Chappaquiddick." Chotiner was involved in recruiting Republican candidates in the unsuccessful attempt to get a Republican majority in the
1970 United States Senate elections. Some of Chotiner's friends stated that Nixon involved him in this project after news reports claimed that Nixon had abandoned his former campaign manager, however, Chotiner himself denied that and stated he had been made special counsel because some people in the White House had decided he could be useful. The special counsel also coordinated Vice President
Spiro Agnew's campaign against "radic lib" senatorial candidates, including New York Republican Senator
Charles Goodell, who was subsequently defeated by Conservative Party candidate
James L. Buckley. Chotiner stated that his twenty-year association with Nixon made it possible for him to move on matters without needing to consult the President on every detail.
Final years (1971–1974) In January 1971, Chotiner and his third wife, Mimi, divorced on the ground of irreconcilable differences, after five years of marriage and a bitter, contested trial. Mimi Chotiner testified that the couple's matrimonial difficulties began when he left California to work for the Nixon campaign, while Murray Chotiner retorted that his wife had said that his government job in the Nixon Administration "wasn't good enough for her". Mrs. Chotiner had refused to accompany her husband to Washington, stating at trial that she remained because her children were in California schools. Murray Chotiner married again on May 30. In March 1971, Chotiner resigned from his White House job and returned to the private practice of law. He represented former
Teamsters president
Jimmy Hoffa, who had been informally promised early parole from his jury tampering sentence. Chotiner wrote to Haldeman in November 1971, noting that no action on Hoffa's release seemed to be taking place, and President Nixon granted Hoffa clemency later that month. When Chotiner's role became public in 1973, he stated that he was proud of his actions on behalf of Hoffa. Chotiner also lobbied the White House on behalf of milk producers, who were seeking increased
United States Department of Agriculture price supports and who were major contributors to the Republican Party. Chotiner negotiated a $2 million campaign contribution from Associated Milk Producers to the
Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP) with
John Connally and
Herbert W. Kalmbach in exchange for an increase in price supports. The donation would have been illegal under the
Federal Election Campaign Act, but it had not yet gone into effect. Nevertheless, the money was funneled through
shell organizations created by
John Dean and
Bob Bennett to avoid suspicion. During the
1972 presidential election, Chotiner served as head of the Ballot Security Task Force for the Nixon campaign, a job that
The Washington Post described as "largely token". At the instructions of Mitchell, in March 1971, he hired out-of-work reporter Seymour Friedin to present himself as a working journalist and travel with the campaigns of various Democratic presidential hopefuls. Friedin sent reports back to Chotiner, who edited them, had them typed by his secretary, and forwarded them to Mitchell (who had resigned as
United States Attorney General in 1972 to manage Nixon's re-election bid) and Haldeman. When Friedin secured other employment in August 1972, Chotiner replaced him with
Lucianne Goldberg, who remained in that capacity for the remainder of the presidential campaign. The two journalists were collectively code-named "
Chapman's Friend", and were paid $1,000 per week plus expenses from Chotiner's law office account, with the account reimbursed by the CRP. The Committee reported the payments as reimbursement of his expenses, which the
General Accounting Office opined was a violation of federal election law. Chotiner, however, stated that there was "nothing underhanded or illegal" about the arrangement, and Watergate prosecutors later chose not to prosecute CRP officials concerning the payments, deciding they could not prove criminal intent. In April 1973, the
Manchester Union Leader accused Chotiner of having organized the
Watergate break-in. He responded by bringing suit for libel against the
Union Leader and its lead investigator. In December 1973, the parties reached a settlement by which Chotiner received an undisclosed, but substantial, sum of money and the newspaper printed a front-page apology and retraction of its accusations in its December 31, 1973 edition. Chotiner described Watergate in January 1973 as "a stupid, useless, inane experiment by people who have seen too many TV shows and especially too many productions of
Mission Impossible". According to
The Washington Post, Chotiner was not close to Haldeman,
John Ehrlichman, and most other staffers at the White House and CRP. In a taped discussion of the fallout from Watergate, Haldeman told Nixon that his former campaign manager was not "wired in", and the President expressed strong opposition to Chotiner being used as a White House contact. At the suggestion that Chotiner could defend him, Nixon worried that the attorney might not be willing to do so. Chotiner advised President Nixon to fire Special Prosecutor
Archibald Cox in October 1973 in what became known as the
Saturday Night Massacre, telling Nixon, "This guy Cox will use anything and everybody. It has to be taken away from him." According to Nixon biographer and Chotiner friend Earl Mazo, he was convinced that "Dick wouldn't have had anything to do with [the Watergate break-in]" and was also convinced that the President would put the scandal behind him by the spring of 1974. According to his brother Jack, "[h]e always considered Nixon a genius." ==Death and legacy==