Nick Davies Quotes

It's hard to tell whether [Attorney General] Janet Reno is engaged in a cover-up or she's merely incompetent.

But look, you did not have to be well versed in politics to know that some stupid things were going on. It is the counsel's job to stop them, and instead the coverup was created.

I think recent revelations about who's in what bed speak to the problems with what happened in the Gulf.

Scandal begins when the police put a stop to it.

Even Napoleon had his Watergate.

It's a lot of crooked cops out there. They manipulate the system.

Things happened there that I don't think are the finest hours for anybody, whether it was a journalist, the legal system or, in that case of the political system, who would say that was an example of when Washington worked best.

I had enabled the development of a corrupt system right under my very eyes..

I never will ascribe to this government [Liberal Party] such wrongdoing as mere stupidity will explain.

You learn to look the other way. If you go after all the corruption, you end up blowing up your own administration.

New York is having awful corruption scandals. The charges involve politicians acting in such an insanely stupid way, it shatters our longstanding confidence that taking money was the one thing they know how to do well.

Even Napoleon had his Watergate.

Americans can tolerate some secrecy, particularly when it is rooted in protection of the public's interests. But when the claims appear to hide wrongdoing, they begin to curdle.

Comey has left a trail of suspicious activities in his wake.

Criminals gravitate into government positions like natural law.

If you abuse the public trust, we're going to find you, and and we're going to prosecute you.

The police had a practice of entrapping people. This was done all over the country, but we had a particularly vicious group here in Southern California because of the Hollywood situation. They knew they could get a lot of them. They were shaking down people for thousands in blackmail.

… the polluted harpies that, under the pretense of governing this city, are feeding day and night on its quivering vitals. They are a lying, perjured, rum-soaked and libidinous lot

I’m positive that the President is innocent of any involvement in Watergate

Corruption is the most dangerous public disease haunting the humanity, which diagnoses the public state of heath. The deeper is the corruption and corruption activities the sicker is the society and it needs a treatment.

Corruption was not merely political; it was financial, commercial, social.

The whole of your political conduct has been one continued series of weakness, temerity, despotism, ignorance, futility, negligence, blundering, and the most notorious senility, incapacity, and corruption.

There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great length of time enjoy office and power without being more or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their public duties. Their integrity may be proof against improper considerations immediately addressed to themselves, but they are apt to acquire a habit of looking with indifference upon the public interests and of tolerating conduct from which an unpracticed man would revolt. Office is considered as a species of property, and government rather as a means of promoting individual interests than as an instrument created solely for the service of the people.

Nixon clearly broke laws. He clearly believed he needed to stay in power to protect the country. But he recognized that he was breaking the law, and he tried to cover it up.

When police are shutting down cameras, it is a sign that they know the truth is not going to be kind to them.