Three months after the break-in and before anyone knew the extent that it was tied to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, White House counsel John Dean handed Walters, commissioner of the IRS, a list with the names of 200 Democrats and asked him to find information about them and "not cause ripples." Walters' famous refusal came in the aftermath of the arrests in June 1972 of five men caught trying to bug the office of the National Democratic Party in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. "He had the courage to speak the truth to power," said Jim Pitts, the retired chaplain of Furman University and longtime friend of Johnnie Mac Walters, who died Tuesday night at the age of 94. ![]() He was a man who carried an Index card in his shirt pocket to remind him of all he needed to accomplish each day.Ī gentleman of the old school, he opened car doors for women and pulled out chairs for them to sit down.Īnd when the president of the United States gave him an enemies list and directed that the IRS collect dirt on them through their tax returns, he refused.
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