John Dean (born October 14, 1938,Akron,Ohio, U.S.) is an American lawyer who served asWhite Housecounsel (1970–73) during the administration of U.S. Pres.Richard M. Nixon and whose revelation of official participation in theWatergate scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the president and the imprisonment of Dean himself and other top aides.

Dean attendedColgate University (Hamilton, New York) and then the College of Wooster (Ohio), where he received abachelor’s degree in 1961. He received alaw degree fromGeorgetown University (Washington, D.C.) in 1965. He first joined a law firm in Washington, D.C., and then served in 1966–67 as chief minority (Republican) counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. A two-yeartenure as associate director of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws preceded his accepting appointment in the Nixon administration as an associate deputyattorney general. In 1970 the president selected Dean as White House counsel.

Dean first came to national attention in 1972, when Nixon named him to head a special investigation into possible involvement of White House personnel in the Watergate case. As was later revealed, he refused to issue a proposed fictitious report denying a cover-up, and, whenimplications of White House involvement became stronger, Dean began telling federal investigators what he knew.

Nixon fired Dean on April 30, 1973. Two months later Dean testified publicly before the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, explaining in great detail how White House officials—including the president—had obstructedjustice in order to mask their participation in the events following the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Watergate headquarters of theDemocratic National Committee. Dean was convicted of obstruction of justice and served four months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. He recounted his role in Watergate inBlind Ambition (1976) andLost Honor (1982).

After his stint in prison, Dean became an investment banker. In the 2000s he published several books and was a frequent television commentator, emerging in particular as a leading critic of the administration of Pres.George W. Bush and calling for hisimpeachment and that of Vice Pres.Dick Cheney inWorse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (2005). He later voiced opposition to Pres.Donald Trump. Dean’s other books includedThe Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment That Redefined the Supreme Court (2001),Warren G. Harding (2004),Conservatives Without Conscience (2006),Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches (2007),Pure Goldwater (2008; withBarry Goldwater, Jr.),The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It (2014), andAuthoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers (2020; written with Bob Altemeyer).