John Dean: Mueller Findings ‘More Damning’ than Watergate, Iran Contra, Starr Report

Appearing Thursday on CNN’s The Lead, former Nixon White House counsel and network contributor John Dean claimed special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings are “more damning” than the Watergate, Iran Contra, and Ken Starr reports.

A partial transcript is as follows: 

JAKE TAPPER: What is your reaction to the Mueller report?

JOHN DEAN: Well Jake, what I did is I looked on my shelf for the Senate Watergate Committee report, I looked at the Iran Contra report. I also looked at the Ken Starr report, which is too big to bring to the set here… In 400 words, this report from the special counsel is more damning than all those reports about a President. This is really a devastating report.

TAPPER: And yet, it concluded that there’s insufficient evidence to say that the president and his team conspired with Russia, which was the most important part of the investigation, one might argue.

DEAN: Exactly. I think we’ve lost some of the context of what’s going on here. This was a campaign that Trump has all but admitted was not a serious presidential campaign. It was a branding undertaking and they wanted all the help they can get from wherever they can get and it’s clear they got a lot from the Russians — an unusual amount. Does it rise to the level of a criminal conspiracy? Apparently not.