Morgy also didn’t go away quietly
In 1968, he resisted push by Nixon to quit
A NEW “law and order” Republican President, a highly-regarded federal prosecutor, and an ugly public showdown.
President Richard Nixon and U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau, way back in 1968, went toe-to-toe when the White House moved to dump the corruptionbusting prosecutor.
The political battle, where Morgenthau finally blinked after a year, was reminiscent of the spat that ended far more quickly with the Trump administration firing respected U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
The man who would become the Manhattan district attorney for 34 years resigned from the federal job after the year-long feud once Nixon finally named his successor in December 1969.
“He’s being replaced,” said Nixon spokesman Ron Ziegler at the time. If Morgenthau wouldn’t resign, he would be fired. The impasse lasted five days, with Morgenthau officially announcing his departure on Dec. 22, 1969.
His Nixon-named replacement was Whitney North Seymour, a GOP stalwart. Then, as now, all the U.S. attorneys served at the President’s invitation: 83 of the 93 U.S. attorneys were replaced in the first year after Nixon moved into the White House.
Morgenthau’s final days began once the administration dispatched an emissary to Manhattan to discuss a transfer of power in the office. But Morgenthau replied that he had no intention of leaving — and the fight was on.
Morgenthau had staved off the Nixon Administration for more than a year after the 1968 election. The prosecutor insisted that he needed to stay on as U.S. attorney because of several pending investigations by his office.
Some of those cases involved Nixon campaign donors.
New York’s political elite sprang to Morgenthau’s defense when Nixon finally brought the gavel down on the prosecutor’s run.
Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, Mayor John Lindsay and U.S. Sens. Jacob Javits and Charles Goodell all supported keeping the patrician Morgenthau on the job.
“I regret the action taken with regard to Mr. Morgenthau,” Rockefeller said while vacationing in Puerto Rico. “And I have so expressed myself to the party leadership.”
The Nixon administration was unmoved by the words of support and praise, driving Morgenthau out in short order.
The federal prosecutor joked he would have resigned immediately — if only Nixon had asked him to stay on.
Morgenthau, whose father served as treasury secretary under President Franklin Roosevelt, was in the middle of a four-year term that expired June 11, 1971.
He was appointed by President John Kennedy in 1961, and soon developed a reputation for prosecuting white collar criminals and the Mafia.
When his federal tenure came to a close, Morgenthau went out with both guns blazing against Nixon — blasting the “harsh, narrow, partisan views on law enforcement currently in favor at the Department of Justice in Washington.”
The departing prosecutor managed to leave ’em laughing on his way out the door. Asked why, after a year, he decided to resign, Morgenthau offered a deadpan response.
“I didn’t want it said that a Morgenthau couldn’t take a hint,” he said.