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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dwight D. Eisenhower.md
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---
title: Dwight D. Eisenhower
aliases:
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Eisenhower
- Ike
- President Eisenhower
- Dwight David Eisenhower
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-10-05
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- KeyFigure
- Person
- President
- CIA
- Politician
- Israel
- Dimona
- MJ12
- Soviet
- Military
- 1950s
- 1960s
summary: "Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961) who authorized Operation AJAX, Operation PBSUCCESS, and the U-2 aerial reconnaissance program, and whose farewell address warning against the military-industrial complex became foundational to critiques of Cold War national security state expansion."
summary: "Thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953-1961) who authorized CIA operations in Guatemala, received the first intelligence on Dimona, and warned in 1961 against the military-industrial complex."
born: 1890-10-14
died: 1969-03-28
location: "Denison, Texas"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[United States]]"
start: 1953-01-20
end: 1961-01-20
role: "34th President"
fn: 1
- type: appointed
with: "[[Allen Dulles]]"
role: "Director of Central Intelligence"
fn: 3
- type: appointed
with: "[[Christian A. Herter]]"
role: "Secretary of State, 1960"
fn: 6
- type: appointed
with: "[[Thomas S. Gates]]"
role: "Secretary of Defense, 1960"
fn: 6
- type: appointed
with: "[[John McCone]]"
role: "Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, 1960"
fn: 6
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Operation PBSUCCESS]]"
start: 1953-08
role: "authorized the operation with a $2.7 million budget"
fn: 2
- type: investigated
with: "[[Church Committee]]"
reverse: true
start: 1975
role: "Committee examined whether he authorized the 1960 plot against Patrice Lumumba and found the record unclear"
fn: 3
---
Dwight D. Eisenhower, born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890 and died on March 28, 1969, served as the 34th President of the [[United States]] from January 20, 1953 to January 20, 1961.[^1] The record below follows his administration through the clusters on which the vault holds material: covert action, the discovery of [[Dimona]], the Majestic-12 documents, and the farewell address.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the [[United States]], serving from 1953 to 1961. His reliance on aerial photography as Allied Commander in Chief in World War II was reaffirmed by postwar bombing surveys, which concluded that a significant portion of useful intelligence came from overhead reconnaissance. Upon becoming president, he was concerned about the lack of aerial intelligence on the [[Soviet Union]] and ordered the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to address this.[^1]
### Covert action
Eisenhower authorized a daring reconnaissance program, primarily targeting the [[Soviet Union]], and assigned the development of the revolutionary [[U-2 Spy Plane]] jointly to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and the Air Force. The U-2 became operational in July 1956, providing crucial intelligence on Soviet military and nuclear programs.[^1]
The National Security Archive's edition of the CIA's 1997 Guatemala release states that [[Operation PBSUCCESS]] was authorized by Eisenhower in August 1953 with a $2.7 million budget for "psychological warfare and political action" and "subversion," after an earlier effort, PBFORTUNE, had been authorized by [[Harry S. Truman]] in 1952; the release included an assassination instruction guide found among PBSUCCESS training files.[^2] The CIA's internal history of the 1953 Iran coup was published by the Archive in 2000 (see [[Operation AJAX]]).
Eisenhower and his administration, including [[John Foster Dulles]] and [[Allen Dulles]], were angered by [[Israel]]'s attempt to mask its military buildup before the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]]. The U-2 continued to monitor sensitive areas, including the [[Middle East]], and by 1958, CIA photo interpreters observed significant activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of [[Beersheba]], which turned out to be the early signs of the [[Dimona]] nuclear reactor.[^1]
In 1975 the [[Church Committee]] investigated the 1960 plot against the Congolese premier [[Patrice Lumumba]]. It reported that in the fall of 1960 two CIA officials were asked by superiors to assassinate Lumumba, that poisons were sent to the Congo, and that Lumumba was killed in early 1961 by Congolese rivals with no evidence of United States involvement in the killing. On August 25, 1960, at a Special Group meeting, [[Gordon Gray]], Eisenhower's national security adviser, reported that the President "had expressed extremely strong feelings on the necessity for very straightforward action" against Lumumba; the next day [[Allen Dulles]] cabled the Leopoldville station that "in high quarters" Lumumba's "removal" was "an urgent and prime objective." The National Security Council staff member Robert H. Johnson testified that at a summer 1960 NSC meeting Eisenhower said something that "came across to me as an order for the assassination of Lumumba," while adding that he had since had doubts and that it would have been uncharacteristic of Eisenhower to announce a decision in an NSC meeting. Under Secretary of State [[C. Douglas Dillon]] gave the opinion that the August 18, 1960 meeting was most likely the one Johnson meant, said he would not have taken the remark as a clearcut order, and testified that it was "perfectly possible" that Dulles would have treated strong presidential language as implicit authorization, and Gray testified that "it was not my impression that we had in mind the assassination of Lumumba." The Committee concluded: "the record is unclear and serious doubt remains concerning whether assassination was authorized by the respective Presidents," and that the system of command and control left open "the possibility that there was a successful 'plausible denial' and that a Presidential authorization was issued but is now obscured."[^3]
Despite being sympathetic to [[Israel]]'s precarious international position in 1958, Eisenhower secretly authorized the U.S. Air Force to provide fighter pilot training and courses in aerial reconnaissance and photo interpretation to the Israelis. However, when presented with clear evidence of the secret nuclear reactor at [[Dimona]] in late 1958 or early 1959, Eisenhower showed no interest in a follow-up investigation, a decision that puzzled intelligence officials like [[Arthur C. Lundahl]] and [[Dino A. Brugioni]].[^1]
### Atoms for Peace and the Soreq reactor
Under the 1955 "Atoms for Peace" bilateral agreement the United States gave [[Israel]] a 1 megawatt swimming-pool light-water reactor at Nahal Soreq, installed by American Machine and Foundry Atomics; see [[Atoms for Peace]].[^4]
### The discovery of Dimona, 1960
The journalist [[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Eisenhower had been concerned about the lack of aerial intelligence on the [[Soviet Union]], that the U-2 became operational in July 1956, that by 1958 CIA photo interpreters saw activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of [[Beersheba]] that proved to be the early Dimona reactor, that Eisenhower secretly authorized the Air Force to train Israeli fighter pilots and to teach aerial reconnaissance and photo interpretation, and that when shown clear evidence of the reactor in late 1958 or early 1959 he showed no interest in a follow-up, which puzzled [[Arthur C. Lundahl]] and [[Dino A. Brugioni]]. Hersh also wrote that the Eisenhower administration, including [[John Foster Dulles]], was angered by Israel's attempt to mask its military buildup before the 1956 Suez crisis.[^5]
The published Eisenhower Library and National Archives record, assembled by the [[National Security Archive]] and the Wilson Center, dates the administration's discovery to the last months of 1960. In late July 1960 embassy officials in Tel Aviv learned from an American Machine and Foundry employee that French personnel were building what he described as a 60 megawatt power reactor near Beersheba; Professor Henry Gomberg of the [[University of Michigan]], a consultant to the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, reported on December 1, 1960 that Israel was building a large secret project; and Special National Intelligence Estimate 100-8-60, issued on December 8, 1960, determined that the complex included a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. The January 1961 CIA post-mortem stated that "information was available to some elements of the intelligence community as early as April 1958" and that information from "special intelligence sources in mid 1959" had been discounted. The Wilson Center editors wrote that it "is still a puzzle whether, and to what extent, U-2 overhead photographs were especially telling or whether they were being distributed within the intelligence community."[^6]
On December 8, 1960, with Eisenhower presiding, the National Security Council heard [[Allen Dulles]] report that Israel was building with French assistance a complex including a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, and passed around photographs taken by the United States Army attaché; Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter]] said the Arab reaction would be "severe," and Under Secretary of the Treasury Fred Scribner suggested that "Jewish charitable organizations in the U.S." with tax-deductible contributions might have been a funding source. On December 19, 1960, after press reports partly based on leaks by Atomic Energy Commission chairman [[John McCone]], Eisenhower met Herter, Dulles, McCone, [[Thomas S. Gates]] (Secretary of Defense), the science adviser [[George Kistiakowsky]] and Gray. Gates said "our information is that the plant is not for peaceful uses"; McCone said his people believed there was a chemical separation plant; Herter said the plant had been built "through diversions from private and public [U.S.] aid to Israel"; and Eisenhower said "we had evidence" the cost was between $100 and $200 million and that "we do not know where they have obtained the funds." Eisenhower agreed that the American public statement should call on Israel, as an IAEA member, to allow inspection, said a visit to the site by the United States would be unnecessary if the agency inspected it, and the meeting ended with the decision that the State Department rather than the White House would handle the matter. Portions of the December 8 and December 19 records remained classified, and the editors noted that the classified portions of the December 8 record were the subject of a mandatory declassification review request filed in 2014.[^6]
On January 19, 1961 the State Department told the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy that Israel and France had given "unequivocal" official statements as to the non-military character of the Israeli program, that Israel had given "formal assurance that visitors from the United States or another friendly country will be received when the present intense public interest in the question has subsided," and that the Department would "take any feasible measures to damp down speculation."[^7]
### The Majestic-12 documents
A document headed "Briefing Document: Operation Majestic 12 Prepared for President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower (Eyes Only), 18 November 1952," and a memorandum dated July 14, 1954 from the presidential assistant [[Robert Cutler]] to General [[Nathan Twining]] referring to an "NSC/MJ-12 Special Studies Project" and a briefing on July 16, 1954, are the two documents on which the Majestic-12 claims connect to Eisenhower; see [[Majestic-12]] and [[Cutler-Twining memorandum]].
The National Archives' Military Reference Branch recorded on July 22, 1987, in a reference report signed by Jo Anne Williamson, that the Cutler memorandum in Record Group 341 lacks the top secret register number the series requires, is the only item in its folder about "NSC/MJ-12," carries a marking, "Top Secret Restricted Information," that the National Security Council and the Eisenhower Library said was not used in the Eisenhower administration, and bears no eagle watermark of the kind found on all Cutler documents in the Library's collection; that a search of National Security Council meeting minutes found no meeting on July 16, 1954 and no mention of MJ-12 or Majestic; and that a folder titled "Special Meeting July 16, 1954" held a notice that NSC members would be called to a civil defense exercise. The Eisenhower Library wrote on July 16, 1987 that the President's appointment books contain no entry for a special meeting on July 16, 1954, that Cutler was visiting overseas military installations on July 14, 1954 at Eisenhower's direction (a report to the President dated July 20, 1954 refers to visits between July 3 and 15), and that the NSC's declassification office had no record of declassification of the memorandum.[^8] The researchers who published the documents, [[William L. Moore]] and [[Jaime Shandera]], and later commentators including [[Stanton T. Friedman]] took positions on authenticity that are recorded on the [[Majestic-12]] page.
### Farewell address, January 17, 1961
In his farewell radio and television address on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower said: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government." He continued: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." On research he said that "a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity" and warned "that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."[^9]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4.
[^1]: Miller Center, University of Virginia, "Dwight D. Eisenhower" (born October 14, 1890, Denison, Texas; inaugurated January 20, 1953; term ended January 20, 1961; died March 28, 1969). https://millercenter.org/president/eisenhower
[^2]: Doyle, Kate, and Peter Kornbluh, eds. "CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents." National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 4, documents released by the CIA on May 23, 1997. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/ ; "The Secret CIA History of the Iran Coup, 1953," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 28. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/index.html
[^3]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, 94th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Reports vol. 3-8, 1975, summary of findings on Lumumba; section on the Congo; testimony of Robert H. Johnson (June 18, 1975), C. Douglas Dillon (September 2, 1975) and Gordon Gray (July 9, 1975); findings on authorization. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^4]: "The U.S. Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project," Wilson Center, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, with the National Security Archive, document headnote on American Machine and Foundry Atomics. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-us-discovery-israels-secret-nuclear-project
[^5]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991, ch. 4. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^6]: "The U.S. Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project," sections "The Eisenhower Administration and the Discovery of Dimona," Documents 1 to 14, including the post-mortem on SNIE 100-8-60, the National Security Council meeting of December 8, 1960 and the meeting of December 19, 1960 (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Christian Herter Papers; White House Office, Office of the Staff Secretary, International Series, box 8, Israel (3)); also National Security Archive, "Israel and the Bomb: Dimona Revealed." https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/israel/documents/reveal/
[^7]: Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations William B. Macomber, Jr., to Executive Director of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, January 19, 1961, with enclosed summary of January 17, 1961, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, Volume XVII, Near East 1961-1962, Document 3. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v17/d3
[^8]: National Archives and Records Administration, Military Reference Branch, "Reference Report on MJ-12," July 22, 1987 (Jo Anne Williamson, Chief), quoting the Eisenhower Library letter of July 16, 1987 to NNMR; text as transcribed at https://mirror.cyberbits.eu/textfiles.com/ufo/UFOBBS/2000/2437.ufo
[^9]: Eisenhower, Dwight D. "Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People," January 17, 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/farewell-radio-and-television-address-the-american-people

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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Thomas Gates.md
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@ -1,18 +1,82 @@
---
aliases:
- Thomas Gates
- Tom Gates
- Special Agent Thomas Gates
- Thomas Gates (FBI)
created: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Person
- Journalist
summary: "Gates conducted a wiretap of MCA under the supervision of U.S."
- FBI
- LosAngeles
- OrganizedCrime
- Inslaw
- Casolaro
- MCA
- RobertBoothNichols
summary: "FBI special agent in Los Angeles who led the 1987 investigation of Robert Booth Nichols, was sued by Nichols's company, and gave the House Judiciary Committee a sworn statement on Danny Casolaro in March 1992."
location: "Los Angeles, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
start: 1987-09
role: "special agent, Los Angeles Division"
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[Robert Booth Nichols]]"
start: 1987-09
role: "led the organized-crime investigation of Nichols and Meridian International Logistics"
fn: 1
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Meridian International Logistics]]"
start: 1989-06-16
role: "defendant in a libel, slander and interference-with-contract suit for $11,000,000; the United States was substituted as defendant"
fn: 2
- type: participant_in
with: "[[House Committee on the Judiciary]]"
start: 1992-03-25
end: 1992-03-26
role: "gave a sworn statement on Danny Casolaro and Nichols in the INSLAW investigation"
fn: 4
---
[[Thomas Gates]] was an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent in Los Angeles who played a significant role in the investigation of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] for organized crime penetration and was a key contact for investigative journalist [[Danny Casolaro]].[1]
Thomas Gates was a special agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] assigned to its [[Los Angeles]] Division, where in September 1987 he began leading the investigation of [[Robert Booth Nichols]], who was suspected, "acting through Meridian," of involvement in organized crime.[^1] The Ninth Circuit's opinion in the later civil suit records that Gates learned Nichols "had potential illegal contacts with individuals in both Japan and Australia" and pursued those leads through the Japanese and Australian legal attaches.[^1] He is not the same person as [[Thomas S. Gates]] (Thomas S. Gates Jr.), the Secretary of Defense under [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].
Gates conducted a wiretap of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] under the supervision of [[United States Attorney|U.S. Attorney]] [[Marvin Rudnick]] and later [[Richard Stavin]]. He, along with Rudnick and Stavin, believed that [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] had been penetrated by organized crime, based on the wiretaps. These wiretaps recorded communications between [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Eugene Giaquinto]], then president of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] home entertainment division, revealing connections to [[La Cosa Nostra]], including the [[Gambino Crime Family]] and [[Bufalino Crime Family]].[1]
### Meridian International Logistics v. United States
Gates had frequent conversations with [[Danny Casolaro]] until three days before Casolaro's death. Casolaro reportedly told Gates that [[Robert Booth Nichols]] had warned him to drop his investigation into "[[The Octopus]]." Gates was also involved in learning about [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s statement to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in October 1992, which implicated Nichols, [[Glenn Shockley]], [[Jose Santacruz Londono|Jose Londono]], [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela|Gilberto Rodriguez]], and [[Michael Abbell]] in illicit financial activities.[1]
On June 16, 1989, Nichols's company [[Meridian International Logistics]] sued Gates in California state court, in his individual capacity, for libel, slander and interference with contractual relationships, and prayed for $11,000,000. The complaint alleged that Gates had told the [[Australian Federal Police]] and various individuals in Australia and Japan that Meridian was involved in organized crime and specific frauds, and that he acted outside the scope of his employment in making those contacts.[^1][^2]
Despite the evidence gathered, the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] sealed the wiretaps, and no prosecutions were pursued in the [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] organized crime investigation. The Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force was disbanded, and Gates closed the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] investigation. He was one of the investigators who found themselves on a collision course with the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] when their inquiries led to high-level organized crime, drugs, and money laundering.[1]
On July 20, 1989, the [[United States Attorney]] certified that Gates had acted within the scope of his FBI employment, which removed the case to federal court and substituted the United States as sole defendant. The government filed declarations from Gates, his supervisor and a [[Department of Justice]] attorney, which the district court sealed on an ex parte application and reviewed in camera. Meridian filed a declaration from the former FBI special agent [[Ted Gunderson]], who stated that the types of foreign contacts Gates made "would never, under FBI policies, be initiated by an agent assigned to the Los Angeles field office." On September 25, 1989, the district court found that Gates had at all material times acted within the scope of his employment and dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act. On July 19, 1991, the [[Ninth Circuit]] (Judge Wiggins) reversed the dismissal and remanded.[^1]
### The MCA wiretap, as described by Seymour
The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Gates conducted a wiretap of [[Music Corporation of America]] under the supervision of the Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force prosecutors [[Marvin Rudnick]] and later [[Richard Stavin]] (both Department of Justice attorneys, not United States Attorneys), and that the three believed on the basis of the recorded calls that MCA had been penetrated by organized crime. In Seymour's account the calls were between Nichols and [[Eugene Giaquinto]], then president of MCA's home entertainment division, and showed connections to [[La Cosa Nostra]], including the [[Gambino Crime Family]] and the [[Bufalino Crime Family]]. Seymour wrote that the Department of Justice sealed the wiretaps, that no prosecutions followed, that the Los Angeles Strike Force was disbanded, and that Gates closed the FBI investigation.[^3] Seymour is the sole source for the passages so cited.
Stavin gave the House Judiciary Committee a 72-page affidavit that Gates had submitted to a federal court, containing the results of an FBI wiretap on individuals in the entertainment industry suspected of ties to organized crime.[^4] The committee wrote that it "takes no position on any of Gates' assertions or suppositions vis-a-vis Nichols, except to note again that they were duly sworn statements."[^4]
### Danny Casolaro
[[Danny Casolaro]], the writer investigating what he called [[The Octopus]], was found dead in a Martinsburg, West Virginia hotel room on August 10, 1991, with his wrists cut numerous times. The Martinsburg Police investigation concluded in January 1992 that the death was a suicide.[^4] Three separate people (Riconosciuto's attorney, a private investigator and an FBI agent) told House Judiciary Committee investigators that Gates likely had information on Casolaro's efforts to investigate the INSLAW matter; Director [[William S. Sessions]] agreed to let Gates give a sworn statement, which the committee described as the first time it knew of that the FBI permitted a field agent to do so, after "initial resistance from the Bureau."[^4]
Gates gave the statement on March 25 and 26, 1992, after Rudnick and Stavin had given theirs on March 13 and 14. According to the committee's summary, Gates stated that Casolaro claimed to have found a link between the [[INSLAW]] matter, the activities at the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]], and the federal investigation of organized crime influence in the entertainment industry in which Gates had been involved; that Casolaro had several conversations with Nichols in the weeks preceding his death; and that Casolaro called Gates several times beginning approximately four weeks before his death. Gates said Casolaro sounded "upbeat" in conversations held even days before the death, that a phone book of Casolaro's containing Gates's number had not been located in the police investigation, that Martinsburg police told him the wounds were "hacking" wounds inconsistent in his view with a self-inflicted wrist cut, and that an open bottle of wine had been reported in the room but not tested when he spoke to the local authorities. He called the Martinsburg authorities and the local FBI office with his suspicions, and concluded under oath that "there is cause for suspicions to be raised."[^4]
Throughout the statement Gates tied several strands of his conversations with Casolaro to Nichols, and acknowledged that Nichols had sued him over another crime investigation centered in southern California; he maintained that important information on Nichols's past remained in sealed wiretap and confidential grand jury investigations that by law he could not disclose without a subpoena.[^4] Seymour wrote that Casolaro told Gates that Nichols had warned him to drop his investigation of the Octopus, and that Gates spoke with Casolaro until three days before his death.[^3] The House report places the start of the calls at about four weeks before the death.[^4]
### Faith Burton and the Department's transcripts
At the March 25 statement Gates and his attorney Richard Bauer said that Faith Burton of the Department of Justice's Office of Congressional Affairs had told them the committee routinely gave the Department copies of all depositions in the INSLAW investigation, and that "to date, the Department has reviewed all transcripts and no wrongdoing has been found." The committee wrote that the implication was that the Department would know everything Gates said, that this may have had a "chilling effect" on his testimony, and that its policy in fact barred giving the confidential statements to anyone but the witness or the witness's attorney. On March 26 Burton told committee investigators the allegation was "totally false" and that Gates and Bauer must have misunderstood her, which she attributed to their long flight; asked whether he could have misunderstood, Gates answered "It's always possible, but it was fairly clear to me, what she said." Bauer said there had been a clear indication of receipt and review of transcripts. The committee listed the episode under the heading "Department Official May Have Attempted to Influence a Key Witness."[^4]
### After the House report
Seymour wrote that in early 1992 [[John Cohen]] began communicating closely with Gates, and that in October 1992 Gates and Cohen learned of [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s statement to the FBI implicating Nichols, [[Glenn Shockley]], [[Jose Santacruz Londono]], [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela]] and [[Michael Abbell]] in illicit financial activities.[^3] Seymour is the sole source for the passages so cited.
The Department of Justice's 1993 report by Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] concluded that Casolaro's death was a suicide, that the physical evidence in the hotel room supported that conclusion, and that there was no evidence of any Justice Department influence on the West Virginia authorities' investigation; the report does not name Gates.[^5] The House committee, for its part, wrote that "the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death have led some law enforcement professionals and others to believe that his death may not have been a suicide" and that further investigation was "imperative."[^4]
---
### Footnotes
[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
[^1]: *Meridian International Logistics, Inc. v. United States*, 939 F.2d 740 (9th Cir. July 19, 1991) (Wiggins, J.). https://static.case.law/f2d/939/cases/0740-01.json ; also https://openjurist.org/939/f2d/740
[^2]: Same, Facts and Procedural Background (complaint filed June 16, 1989; certification July 20, 1989).
[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^4]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report*, H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, sections "Additional Questions," "Possible Connection Between Earl Brian, Michael Riconosciuto, Robert Booth Nichols and the Cabazon Indian Reservation," "Department Official May Have Attempted to Influence a Key Witness," and notes 214 to 217 and 323 (citing Gates's sworn statement of March 26, 1992, pp. 10, 56, 61). https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, March 1993, section "The Death of Joseph Daniel Casolaro," pp. 246 to 248. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993