Law / Politics / Notorious figures
John N. Mitchell
1913–1988 · lawyer, U.S. attorney general
Detroit-born bond lawyer who became Richard Nixon's attorney general and campaign manager, and later the highest-ranking official imprisoned over Watergate.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Washington, D.C.
aged 75- Birth name
- John Newton Mitchell
- Detroit years
- 1913
- Field
- Law, Politics, Notorious figures
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John N. Mitchell was born in Detroit in 1913 to Joseph and Margaret Mitchell but grew up on Long Island, New York, where the family moved while he was a child, so his Detroit tie is his birth. After Fordham Law School he built a lucrative practice in municipal bonds on Wall Street, and a 1967 law-firm merger made him a partner and close adviser of Richard Nixon. He managed Nixon's winning 1968 campaign and served as U.S. attorney general from 1969 to 1972, then left to run the 1972 re-election campaign. Convicted in 1975 of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up, he served 19 months in federal prison, the only U.S. attorney general ever imprisoned. He died in Washington in 1988.
Highlights
- 67th U.S. attorney general, 1969–1972
- Campaign manager for Nixon in 1968 and 1972
- Convicted in the Watergate cover-up (1975)
- Only U.S. attorney general to serve a prison sentence