Fire Library’s Director, Attorney for Nixon Daughter Urges

An attorney for one of former President Richard M. Nixon’s daughters has accused the Nixon library’s director of sullying the president’s legacy and urged the library board to remove him from office.

The charges by Irvine attorney Thomas Malcolm, who represents Tricia Nixon Cox, come just days after Cox and her sister, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said they were working to end their dispute over how the library is run.

In a letter sent to board members over the weekend, Malcolm says John Taylor created a “media frenzy” by suing over a $19-million bequest to the library by the former president’s longtime friend Charles “Bebe” Rebozo. The lawsuit pits Eisenhower, who wants the money sent to the library, against Cox, who wants a smaller committee comprising the sisters and a Nixon friend to control the money.

“By launching a frivolous lawsuit and initiating a media frenzy about a feud between the president’s daughters, Mr. Taylor has abrogated his duties to the legacy of the 37th president,” Malcolm said.

Taylor could not be reached for comment. But others involved in the library defended him, saying Malcolm’s letter contains half-truths.

The letter also accuses Taylor of failing to encourage and support scholarly efforts during his 12 years as director of the Yorba Linda library and of not effectively promoting Nixon’s impact both nationally and globally.

Malcolm also told board members that he will provide them with information that will cause them concern about the library and its staff. He did not elaborate.

“The intent is to reform the governance of the library and educate the board, and hopefully replace the director of the library. That’s our goal,” Malcolm said in an interview Tuesday. “This is something that needs to be addressed. It was poor judgment in launching this litigation. The damage done by the executive director, as far as [Cox’s] reputation, is irreparable.”

Florida attorney Robert Landon, who represents the library in the lawsuit over the Rebozo bequest, called Malcolm’s comments “puzzling” and said the letter is filled with “inaccuracies and misrepresentations.”

Malcolm accused Taylor of initiating the lawsuit over the Rebozo money, when, in fact, the decision to file the litigation was made by the library board’s nine-member executive committee, Landon said.

Landon said Malcolm might have another agenda, suggesting that the real goal might be for Cox and her husband, New York attorney Edward Cox, to gain more power over the library.

Dimitri K. Simes, director of the Nixon Center foreign policy think tank in Washington, said it was ridiculous for Malcolm to say the Nixon library has not supported scholarly efforts.

The Nixon Center, which is affiliated with the Nixon Library and is overseen by the same board, is a leading public policy institution on issues of national security and Chinese and Russian relations, Simes said.

Rebozo’s bequest has been bottled up in Probate Court in Florida because of the dispute between the president’s daughters.

Eisenhower wants the funds to be controlled by the library’s board of directors, saying it’s the most professional way to manage the money. Cox wants a committee comprising the sisters and Robert Abplanalp, a Nixon friend, to oversee the foundation’s gift, as she says Rebozo’s will instructs.

With Eisenhower’s blessing, the Nixon Library filed lawsuits this year in Miami, where Rebozo died, and in Orange County, demanding that the money be handed over to the foundation immediately.