Daniel Ellsberg (a former U.S. military analyst) released the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War to the New York (NY) Times in 1971. U.S. President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) was so angered by Ellsberg that he told White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, Special Counsel Chuck Colson and Attorney General John Mitchell on July 1, 1971:
 
“The difficulty is that all the good lawyers always say, ‘Well, we’ve got to win the court case.’ Screw the court case! Let’s convict the son-of-a-bitch in the press! That’s the way it’s done!”
 
The quotation has been used to describe how government can manipulate the press to “convict” someone (in the court of public opinion) before that person has a day in a court of law.
 
   
Wikipedia: Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He is also known for popularising part of decision theory, the Ellsberg paradox (postulated before by John Maynard Keynes in 1921).
     
Google Books
Abuse Of Power
By Stanley Kutler
New York, NY: The Free Press
1997
Pg. 10:
JULY 1, 1971: THE PRESIDENT, COLSON, HALDEMAN, AND EHRLICHMAN, 10:28-11:49 A.M., OVAL OFFICE
(...)
PRESIDENT NIXON: It’s out position—I don’t want that fellow Ellsberg to be brought up until after the election. I mean, just let—convict the son of a bitch in the press. That’s the way it’s done.
 
Rolling Stone
Tales from the Inquisition The Prosecutor
Kenneth W. Starr in the tangled web of right-wing extremists, paranoids and big money
By Eric Schlosser
March 19, 1998
I mean, just . . . convict the son of a bitch in the press. That’s the way it’s done.
—Richard Nixon, July 1st, 1971 to Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, on Daniel Ellsberg
   
MostDangerousMan.org
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
A film by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
USA – 2009 – 94 Minutes
(...)
Ellsberg is targeted by President Nixon himself, who fears Ellsberg might leak some of Nixon’s own war plans. “Screw the courts,” says the President, “let’s try the son-of-a-bitch in the press.” But Nixon’s obsession with Ellsberg leads to the President’s downfall, and, by a series of events Ellsberg couldn’t have imagined, an end, finally, to the Vietnam War.
(...)
President Nixon Recordings Transcript
02:15:36;28
Nixon: The difficulty is that all the good lawyers always say, “Well, we’ve got to win the court case.” Screw the court case! Let’s convict the son-of-a-bitch in the press! That’s the way it’s done!
-Nixon speaking to White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, Special Counsel Chuck Colson, and Mitchell, on July 1, 1971
 
Twitter
WikiLeaks
‏@wikileaks
RT @kade_ellis: ‘Screw the court case! Let’s convict the sonofabitch in the press! That’s how it’s done!’ Nixon direct quote, on D.Ellsberg
6:21 AM - 24 Dec 2011
 
Twitter
McKiGravKuciPaulNade
‏@McKGraKucPauNad
#freeJahar Tsarnaev Boston’s patsy
“Let’s convict the son-of-a-bitch in
the press. That’s the way it’s done.”
—President Richard Nixon
9:43 AM - 6 Oct 2013
 
Memory Hole
October 6, 2013
Convicted on Wikipedia
By Vivian Lee
“Let’s convict the son-of-a-bitch in the press. That’s the way it’s done.”-President Richard Nixon[1]
[1] Richard Nixon on Daniel Ellsberg, audiotape recording from the documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America, Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith, dirs., 2009.