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A federal jury in Baltimore has opened the door to freer discussion of the “Silent Coup” explanation of the Watergate break-in that took place thirty years ago. The jury found G. Gordon Liddy not guilty of libeling Ida “Maxie” Wells, who had sued for him for the third time for over five million dollars. The first suit was dismissed by the judge and the jury in the second split seven to two in Liddy’s favor. Wells was a secretary at the Democratic National Committee when the break-in occurred.

Liddy spent four years in prison for his role in organizing the break-in. He claims that it wasn’t until he read “Silent Coup,” a book by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin published eleven years ago, that he learned the real reason for it. Wells sued him for saying that the first break-in was to bug a phone on her desk that was used to arrange dates with call girls for visitors and the second was to see if photos of the girls believed to be in her desk drawer included one of White House Counsel John Dean’s girl friend, Mo Biner.

“Silent Coup” claims that Dean ordered the break-ins because he wanted to find out if the Democrats had information about him and Mo Biner that could cost him his job. Biner, who Dean later married, was a close friend and sometime roommate of a madam who ran a call girl ring out of an apartment near the Watergate that the DNC was said to have patronized. One of the Cubans involved in the break-in was caught trying to swallow a key to Wells’ desk. This is the basis for the claim that her desk was the main target of the break-in.

Colodny and Gettlin had found support for their theory that Dean, not Nixon or Mitchell, was the driving force behind the break-ins. They found support for this in several contradictory things that Dean had written. He had tried to explain some of them by claiming that he didn’t write or even read his own book, Blind Ambition. Nevertheless, the media have treated Dean as a respected figure. Liddy called Dean a liar and virtually dared him to sue, which Dean did in 1992. Dean settled out of court with Gettlin and Colodny’s insurers. Liddy refused to settle, and two years ago, Dean dropped the charges against him. He was one of those who encouraged Maxie Wells to keep suing Liddy.

Her suits represented a chance to challenge the credibility of “Silent Coup” and John Dean in court, but in the most recent case, the jury did not address the truth or falsity of what Liddy had said. It simply found that her reputation had not been damaged by it. That can be seen as reflection of the lowering of standards about what is acceptable when it comes to matters involving sex. In today’s environment to say that a job involved arranging dates with call girls is pretty mild stuff.

Maxie Wells, encouraged by John Dean and others, may decide to try one more time and appeal the jury’s verdict. Her attorney, David Dorsen, who served as a lawyer on the Watergate committee, seems to be dedicated to the cause of getting a court decision that will deny the accuracy of the “Silent Coup” theory. He can’t have any reasonable hope of getting five million dollars from Liddy, who is said to have minimized the assets held in his name.

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