In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Monday, former Richard Nixon counsel John Dean slammed attempts by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to paint investigations of his opponent’s private email server as a bigger disgrace than Watergate.

“Watergate was about a criminal president of the United States who presided over a criminal administration from the day he took office to the day he left,” he said.

“Whatever mistakes Mrs. Clinton made, her actions bear no similarities whatsoever to Nixon’s criminalization of his presidency, and his efforts to corrupt much of the executive branch,” Dean said.

Dean continued. “[T]o compare them to Watergate is more than historical ignorance. It distorts our understanding of what actually constitutes an abuse of power, and raises the risks that we will someday install another leader who is all too happy to misuse historical memory to indulge a dark and nasty nature.”