page_title: Robert Odle
section_title: Politics and government service
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Odle / Politics and government service
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Rob Odle
context_page_description: Robert C. Odle, Jr. was a public official in the Nixon Administration and Reagan Administration, and an American lawyer, based in Washington, D.C.
context_section_description: Odle worked on the Nixon campaign in 1968, while still in law school, and after graduation in 1969 he joined the staff of White House communications director Herb Klein. He left the White House for the 1972 presidential campaign, serving as Director of Administration of the Committee to Re-Elect the President. In President Nixon's second term, Odle was appointed deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  Because of his role in the 1972 re-election campaign, Odle became a witness before the Watergate Committee, testifying as the first witness on the first day of televised hearings on May 18, 1973. In his testimony, he praised President Nixon and the "million volunteers across the country” and most of the 400 in the re-election committee headquarters who had nothing to do with Watergate, including himself. He also testified about contact he had with James McCord, Jeb Stuart Magruder, and G. Gordon Liddy, and particularly H. R. Haldeman and Attorney General John N. Mitchell.
  In 1981, Odle was nominated by Ronald Reagan to be the Assistant Secretary for Congressional, Intergovernmental and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy. He was confirmed by the Senate and served in this role until 1985.
caption: Robert Odle during the Nixon administration
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