[Deathwatch] Sam Dash, Watergate counsel, 79

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Dash, Watergate counsel, dead at 79
Sunday, May 30, 2004 Posted: 10:09 AM EDT (1409 GMT) 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/29/dash.death/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sam Dash, former chief counsel for the Senate
Watergate Committee whose probe led to the resignation of President
Nixon, died Saturday. He was 79.

Dash died at Washington Hospital Center, said hospital spokeswoman
Paula Faria. She provided no other details.

Dean Judith Areen of the Georgetown University Law Center said in a
statement that she was saddened by Dash's death.

"He was one of the great figures of the legal profession and a force
for good around the world," Areen said.

According to the Georgetown University Web site, Dash's career spanned
more than 50 years.

He was probably best known for his role as chief counsel for the Senate
Watergate Committee during 1973-74 as it investigated the Nixon
administration's involvement in the June 1972 break-in of the National
Democratic Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in
Washington.

The investigation of the White House's cover-up of its involvement in
the break-in and related illegal activities during the 1972 campaign
led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974 after the House Judiciary
Committee voted three articles of impeachment.

"As a member of the House Judiciary Committee that conducted hearings
on the impeachment of President Nixon, I and all the members of this
group appreciated and built upon the outstanding work of Sam Dash in
his role as counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee," said the Rev.
Robert F. Drinan, now a law professor at Georgetown University.

"This was a part of Sam Dash's lifelong contributions to the
improvement of the administration of criminal justice."

Dash participated in several other inquiries as well.

He was ethics adviser to independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the
Whitewater investigation (1994-1998), but resigned in protest when
Starr advocated for the impeachment of President Clinton.

Dash, who helped to write the independent counsel law, felt Starr's
testimony went beyond the scope of his legal role.

Dash joined the Law Center in 1965 and served as director of its
Institute of Criminal Law and Procedure.

His latest book, "The Intruders: Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
from King John to John Ashcroft," criticizes the government's expanded
search, seizure and wiretapping powers following the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks.