Who is harry daugherty

Smith, a friend of the attorney general and a member of the so-called Ohio Gang. Smith had received an appointment from Daugherty, but his subsequent unsatisfactory performance included corrupt involvement with the Alien Property Custodian and taking bribes to settle matters before the Justice Department.

Harding asked that Smith be sent back to Ohio, but Smith committed suicide in May , which caused considerable discomfort for the administration.

As rumors spread about corrupt officials in Harding's administration, eventually Attorney General Daugherty launched various investigations. Critics, especially in the United States Congress, claimed that Daugherty did not vigorously pursue the investigations. Smith also was supposedly involved in Daugherty's illegal activities. Rather than face legal charges and a possible prison sentence, Smith took his own life.

Daugherty eventually claimed that Smith's suicide resulted from poor health, including an appendicitis and diabetes, but most contemporaries linked Smith's death to his legal troubles. The United States Senate launched an investigation of Daugherty. The investigation failed to find any wrongdoing by Daugherty. Still, on March 28, , while the Senate investigation was ongoing, Daugherty resigned as attorney general.

Daugherty's supposed actions, along with those of several other of Harding's cabinet officials, caused a great deal of distrust of government officials among the American people and also solidified Harding's reputation as a poor president. Upon resigning as attorney general, Daugherty returned to his law practice. He also devoted significant time to authoring a book that he hoped would exonerate him of all wrongdoing during Harding's presidency.

Daugherty asserts that the delegates will cross over to Harding if this happens. Nucky tells him not to expect Harding to be nominated early but that by the time the fifth or sixth ballot is held the delegates will be desperate to nominate someone who can win. Nucky promises to put the Jersey delegation behind Harding if things go as they have predicted.

Daugherty assumes that Nucky wants Edge to be nominated for Vice President in return. Nucky asks for the opposite and Daugherty asks what he is missing. Nucky elucidates that Edge double crossed him and gave away his road appropriations funding to Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague a Democrat. Daugherty wonders how Nucky knows this; Nucky observes that Hague is just as two faced and was his source as well as a friend.

Daugherty asks which lady and Nucky is surprised that there is more than one. Daugherty says that he has lost count and that one woman is blackmailing Harding. Nucky wonders if this is Britton and Harding says that it is not her and that she is merely in love. Daugherty confirms that the baby belongs to Harding. Nucky offers to sequester Britton with Margaret in Atlantic City until Harding is elected and says that he expects to receive his road funding in return. Daugherty says he will need to sell the idea to Harding and Nucky asserts that Daugherty must be quite the salesman.

Nucky asserts that Eddie Cantor is better and strides towards the exit. Harding later wins the nomination on the tenth ballot. When Harding is elected president he makes Daugherty the Attorney General. In season 2 Daugherty initially refuses to help Nucky in his power struggle with the commodore claiming that he is too new to office and that he cannot intercede in state proceedings.

He attends an event to mark the beginning of the construction of the Atlantic County War Memorial. Nucky is careful to note Daugherty's presence in his speech and Daugherty stands and gives the crowd a wave. He receives a round of applause and then proceeds to read the list of departed soldiers. After the event Daugherty and Nucky play a round of golf.

In the changing room Nucky complains about Darmody. Daugherty is more concerned with his expanding waistline. Daugherty informs Nucky that he has found a cooperative federal prosecutor; Charles Kenneth Thorogood. Means, an ex-convict employed by the FBI, testified before a Senate investigative committee that Jesse Smith had charged him with collecting Federal protection money from bootleggers. Means said he would rent two hotel rooms in New York and place a fishbowl on a table in one room. Bootleggers came, by appointment, and dropped their payments in the bowl.

Means said he then turned the money over to Smith. However, because Smith was dead, and Daugherty could not be directly connected to the payoffs, Daugherty was never indicted. Legend has it that Warren Harding would not have been nominated as the Republican candidate were it not for a shrewd plan executed by Daugherty.

The crafty campaign manager knew the Republican leaders were frustrated over not having a solid front runner. Rather than push for Harding's nomination, Daugherty allegedly proposed Harding's candidacy to the Republican party bosses in the wee hours of the morning, when they were exhausted from the selection process and seated around a table in "a smoke-filled room.

Nevertheless, the phrase "smoke-filled room" became permanently linked with Daugherty and the notion of shady political maneuvering.