Leonard Garment (May 11, 1924 – July 13, 2013) was an American attorney, public servant, and arts advocate. He served U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the White House in various positions from 1969 to 1976, including Counselor to the President, acting Special Counsel to Nixon for the last two years of his presidency, and U.S. Ambassador to the Third Committee at the United Nations. He played a key role in the Ford pardon of Nixon.
Early life, family and education
Garment was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. He had two brothers, Charles and Martin.
After graduating from Brooklyn College, he earned his law degree at Brooklyn Law School in 1949. He became the head of litigation and a partner in the late fifties. Garment met Richard Nixon when the politician joined the firm in 1963. (Later the firm would be called Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Mitchell. Before Deep Throat's identity was revealed in 2005 as being former FBI Acting Associate Director W. Mark Felt, Garment himself was a suspect.
Felt was listed as a possible Deep Throat in the book (as are many others), but was dismissed by Garment because the author believed the secret source had to have strong White House connections. He was mistaken in his selection of Sears, who told Garment explicitly that he was not Deep Throat. To prove his argument, Sears admitted that he was an anonymous source for Carl Bernstein, but Garment still did not believe Sears, a longtime friend, was being truthful about not being Deep Throat.
When President Nixon's records were subpoenaed in connection to the Watergate investigation it was Garment who received the subpoena on behalf of Nixon on July 23, 1973 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Garment unilaterally took steps to press Ford to pardon Nixon. On Aug. 27, 1974, Garment and Nixon speechwriter Raymond Price, also a holdover from the Nixon administration, drafted a memo and pardon announcement for consideration by Ford. Garment speculated that, if a pardon were not quickly offered, "the whole miserable tragedy will be played out to God knows what ugly and wounding conclusion." He also thought the nation would at first recoil, but soon enough welcome the pardon.
Other pursuits
Garment had a long association with the arts. In the 1970s, he was chairman of the board of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He was one of the founders of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2005 as an arts advocate and patron.
Personal life and demise
Garment was married twice; his first wife died in 1980. He had three children, daughter Dr. Ann Garment and a son and daughter who predeceased him.