Whatever the causes of the Hughes power shift, however legal it was, the Nixon White House had to have known that Maheu and Meier knew too much to anger. And that a hurt and cornered beast was still dangerous. But stupidly, the initial While House response to the Hughes upheaval was jubilant. Maheu had retained Larry O’Brien, for some of the Hughes public relations work in Washington. Once Maheu was out, so was O’Brien—no friend to the Republican White House. The powerful Hughes account was turned over to Robert F. Bennett, who was, like Bill Gay, a Mormon. Bennett purchased Mullen & Company, a public-relations firm that also served as a CIA front organization, and which employed E. Howard Hunt.
1/13/1971