The Prosecutor Departs

Within hours after a jury was selected and sequestered in the Watergate conspiracy trial last week, Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski submitted his resignation. During the eleven-month tenure of the courtly, mild-mannered Texan, 14 major Watergate defendants, twelve corporations and 17 corporate executives had been indicted or pleaded guilty. Jaworski's dogged pursuit of Richard Nixon's White House tapes had led to a unanimous Supreme Court decision in the prosecutor's favor and, because of the contents of those tapes, finally to Nixon's resignation.

With that record part of U.S. history and the conspiracy trial in the ca pable hands of an ace prosecutor, James Neal (see THE LAW), Jaworski felt free to return, as he has long yearned, to his 800-acre horse ranch outside Houston and a $200,000-a-year law practice. As far as is known, there was no protest la tent in the tuning of his departure. He was not outraged by President Ford's premature pardoning of Nixon, al though he would have argued against it if he had been asked; Ford had not consulted him.

Jaworski was especially emphatic on one point: he had no intention of challenging Ford's right to pardon Nixon, since he was convinced of its legality. He said it would have been "intellectually dishonest" for him to have tried to overturn the pardon in court; such "a spurious proceeding," he added, would have amounted to "unprofessional conduct" on his part. Jaworski strongly urged that his top deputy, Henry S. (Hank) Ruth Jr., be named his successor. Ruth, a quiet but effective attorney from Pennsylvania, had also served as deputy to the first special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, and had helped hold the staff together after Nixon ordered Cox fired last Oct. 20. Jaworski said he will aid his successor in preparing a final report to the Congress; if Congress so requests, the report will include a detailed account of Nixon's Watergate involvement.

The Nixon pardon immensely complicated Federal Judge John J. Sirica's task of selecting a jury in the conspiracy trial of five Nixon associates, chief among them H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell. Defense attorneys often argue that pretrial publicity may prejudice jurors against their clients; in this case, the pardon created sympathy for the defendants. Many prospective jurors expressed doubts that Nixon's men should be convicted if their leader escaped trial.

Short Leash. Once the jury was chosen, Judge Sirica unsealed a number of previously submitted defense motions calling for Nixon's testimony at the trial. In their motions, both Haldeman and Ehrlichman contended that they had urged Nixon, in unrecorded conversations, to tell the full truth of Watergate rather than conceal it. That runs counter to their prevailing advice as expressed in published White House tape transcripts. Sirica is expected to reveal this week what he intends to do about the claim of Nixon's lawyers that he is too ill to testify. Sirica can appoint other doctors to examine the former President.

At the Justice Department, Henry Petersen, chief of the criminal division, wrote to Nixon's attorneys offering the aid of Justice Department lawyers in defending the ex-President against any civil suits arising out of his presidential service. At least five such cases, mostly involving Nixon's wiretapping practices, are pending. Petersen, whom Nixon once claimed to have on a "short leash," did not consult either Jaworski or Saxbe on the letter. After Jaworski privately objected, Petersen's offer was modified. In any case that might affect possible criminal prosecutions of Nixon aides, by either the special prosecutor or the Justice Department, the ex-President will not receive such legal help.

Why should any public funds be used to protect Nixon? A Justice Department spokesman said that it has been "common practice" for federal officials to be so defended, lest they shun their official duties out of fear of future suits.

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