Former White House Aide and later Evangelical Christian Chuck Colson
Britt Hume (Fox News Report) on Chuck Colson
Watergate figure Chuck Colson, who was in prison for seven months due to his role in a Watergate-related case, has died at the age of 80. He died Saturday at a northern Virginia hospital due to a brief illness. Jim Liske, the chief executive of the Landsdowne, Va.-based Prison Fellowship Ministries that Colson founded said that the preliminary cause of death was complications from brain surgery Colson had at the end of March. Colson will be remembered as the tough-as-nails special counsel for president Richard Nixon who once made the statement that he would "run over his grandmother to ensure Richard Nixon's re-election." Colson was known for the trademark horn-rimmed glasses. He was the "evil genius" of the Nixon administration. The Washington Post described him in 1972 as "one of the most powerful presidential aides, variously described as a troubleshooter and as a 'master of dirty tricks.'" He helped run the Committee to Re-elect the President when it set up an effort to gather up intelligence on the Democratic Party. The arrest of CREEP's Security Director, James W. McCord, and four other men burglarizing the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate building complex in 1972 set off the scandal that led to Nixon's resignation in 1974.
In 1974 Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with attempts to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, though charges were dropped that Colson actually played a role in the burglarly of Ellsberg's
psychiatrist's office. Charges related to the actual Watergate burglarly and cover-up were also dropped. He served seven months in prison. Before he went to prison, Colson became a born-again Christian. Critics said his profession was a ploy to get his sentence reduced.
Colson said his going to prison was a great blessing. In 1976 he created the Prison Fellowship Ministries to minister to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. It runs work-release programs, marriage seminars, and classes once prisoners leave prisoner. An international offshoot establsihed chapters around the world.
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