Chotiner advised President Nixon to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in October 1973 in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, telling Nixon, "This guy Cox will use anything and everybody. It has to be taken away from him." According to Nixon biographer and Chotiner friend Earl Mazo, he was convinced that "Dick wouldn't have had anything to do with Watergate break-in" and was also convinced that the President would put the scandal behind him by the spring of 1974. According to his brother Jack, "e always considered Nixon a genius."