“I have never been a Quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.
To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.
CUT TO: INT. FBI BUILDING HALLWAY - DAY Sam walks to the front desk]
RECEPTIONIST Yes, sir?
SAM I'm here to see Special Agent Casper. My name is Sam Seaborn.
RECEPTIONIST Seaborn?
SAM Yeah.
RECEPTIONIST I'm sorry, I'm not seeing your name here. Agent Casper knows you're coming?
MIKE CASPER [from down the hall] Sam.
CUT TO: INT. CASPER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Sam and Casper enter.
SAM How are you doing, Mike?
Casper slams the door, and both sit down.
CASPER Just requesting the file on Daniel Gault is so wildly outside the parameters of your authority as a political appointee...
SAM I came here to...
CASPER Listen...
SAM Mike, you guys got it wrong and you know it.
CASPER Really?
SAM Yes.
CASPER What else do I know?
SAM Michael, I gave you the heads-up as a courtesy. I don't need your permission to go to the OPA. I don't need your permission to tell the press why I did.
CASPER Sam, the guy did six months for a capital crime. Now you want to get him a Presidential pardon?
SAM He did six months for perjury before vexingly dying of a heart attack.
CASPER You know why?
SAM 'Cause the prosecutor couldn't make espionage.
CASPER That's right.
SAM Well, why do you suppose that was?
CASPER I don't suppose, I know. It was because the U.S. Attorney blew it.
SAM Twelve jurors say no and you're still...
CASPER The man was named by Joe McCarthy as part...
SAM The "20 Years of Treason".
CASPER Yes. Which was called at the time, a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man.
SAM Somebody, wake me up from this 'cause I think you just deputized Joe McCarthy into your argument.
CASPER My point...
SAM You know who else was on that list?
CASPER Sam.
SAM General George Marshall, author of the Marshall Plan and mentor to Eisenhower. Course that was after he won World War II.
CASPER We made more than we missed.
SAM Owen Lattimore, I.F. Stone.
CASPER Not everybody at State was wrongly accused.
SAM
You guys rounded up some pretty dangerous TV comedy writers, too.
CASPER
Sam...
SAM
Ring Larder's just died.
How many years does he get back?
CASPER
Listen to me. The Bureau's had moments in its past that it's not proud of. I'll bet if we comb through the fine print of history we might be able to find one or two occupants of the Oval Office who could say the same thing. [Sam lowers his eyes.] But the difference is our failures are public and our successes are private. So when we apprehend an enemy of the state, like say, a fugitive member of West Virginia White Pride we don't take a curtain call on Sunday with Sam and Cokie. When we learned that it wasn't the Secret Service who ordered the canopy down in Rosslyn we kept is to ourselves.
SAM Please, God, Mike. Please tell me you weren't just threatening Toby Ziegler.
CASPER I wasn't, Sam.
SAM Good.
CASPER Yeah.
SAM Anyway..."Because the Bureau will be embarrassed" isn't a good enough reason. I'm putting Daniel Gault on the list. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.
CASPER Anything else?
SAM Nope.
Sam exits. Casper picks up the phone and starts dialing.
CUT TO: INT. THE WHITE HOUSE MESS - NIGHT
Sam is tossing sugar packets into a metal pot.
Sugar packets clang as they hit the pot. Donna enters.
DONNA
Sam? What are you doing?
SAM
I don't know.
DONNA
Where've you been all afternoon?
SAM
Been around.
Then I came down here to practice my sugar tossing, 'cause if you don't practice, then you might as well give the clarinet to a kid who'll use it.
DONNA
Stephanie's upstairs.
I put her in your office 'cause Josh is back.
SAM
When she said that from what she's heard I'm the one to talk to, that...
I have the ear of the President, you told her to say that, right?
DONNA
It was... This was so important to her.
I... [chuckles nervously]
I wanted to give...
Yes. I did. I'm sorry. I didn't...
SAM
I don't know why you'd think I was like that.
I mean, for fun, but... I don't know why you'd think I was like that.
DONNA
It was wrong.
SAM
Yeah.
DONNA
Were you able to...?
SAM
He Was a Spy.
DONNA
You're sure?
SAM
Yes.
DONNA
No. I mean it's not possible that...
SAM
His code name was "Black Water".
He copied by hand State Department and White House documents and delivered them to the Soviets.
They included...
DONNA
Sam...
SAM
Roosevelt's plans to enter the war...
DONNA
You can't tell her.
You have to tell her something else.
SAM
Possible recruitment targets.
DONNA
Sam, it was...
SAM
Lists of Communists and Communist sympathizers in the State Department and National Recovery Administration.
DONNA
Sam...
SAM
What are you, out of your mind?
I'm telling her right now.
Sam starts to walk out, Donna chases after him.
DONNA
No. No, Sam.
Please, you really can't do this.
SAM
Secret memoranda on the U.S. negotiating stance at Yalta...
DONNA
Please stop walking.
Both start climbing the STAIRS.
SAM
Good, 'cause Stalin needed an advantage and we wanted a fair fight.
DONNA
Sam, nothing good comes from telling her.
SAM
The Truth isn't good?
DONNA
Not right now, no.
The Father is not going to live another three months... let it go till then.
SAM
I'm not her Fairy Godmother.
She asked me to look into this.
DONNA
I'm saying, you wait three months until...
SAM
Hey.
DONNA
You're in a bad...
SAM
Donna...
DONNA
Listen to Me.
You're in A Bad Place right now and you shouldn't make this decision.
If you don't tell her tonight, you can tell her tomorrow.
If you tell her tonight, that's it.
SAM
Donna.
DONNA
It was people pushing paper around fifty years ago.
Why Does it Matter?
Both stop on the STAIRS.
SAM
It was High Treason, and it mattered A Great Deal!
This Country is An Idea, and one that's Lit The World for two centuries and Treason against That Idea is not just A Crime Against The Living!
This Ground holds the graves of People Who Died for It, who gave what Lincoln called The Last Full Measure of Devotion. Of fidelity.
You understand The Last Full Measure of Devotion to...
Treason against them is...
[almost crying]
DONNA [softly]
Sam...
SAM
There was a translator in the Hungarian trade mission named Shaba Demsky.
She was murdered in 1952.
She was about to reveal the name of a Soviet agent called 'Black Water'.
This Girl's going to find out Who Her Father Was.
He continues to climb stairs.
DONNA
Sam...
[he turns]
You meant Grandfather.
Sam turns around and continues down the hall.
CUT TO: INT. SAM'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Sam enters his office. Stephanie stands as he comes through the door.
STEPHANIE
Tell me there's Good News.
SAM
......have you ever heard of a woman named Shaba Demsky?
STEPHANIE No. [pause] Sam?
Sam looks past Stephanie to Donna as she stands just outside his door.
SAM
I'm sorry, Stephanie.
I wasn't able to get access to the people I needed, to have it considered this time around.
Why don't you tell your father you'll be able to try again in three months.
STEPHANIE
So, you're open to it?
SAM
Absolutely.
STEPHANIE
[relieved sigh]
That's all he needed. That's all I needed.
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