The Watergate Scandal in United States History (5 page)

Nixon and Haldeman decided to use the CIA to halt the FBI Watergate probe. The two government agencies had a long-standing agreement. If one was working on a project, the other stayed out of the way. Haldeman asked CIA Assistant Director Vernon Walters to tell Gray that Watergate was part of a CIA project. Walters told Gray, and the FBI leader promised to withdraw from the investigation.

Gray, unknowingly, had already become part of the cover-up. Three days earlier, Ehrlichman and Dean had discussed what to do with the contents of Hunt’s safe. It contained some very sensitive materials: the phony Diem cables, material damaging to Senator Edward Kennedy, and a file of papers dealing with Daniel Ellsberg. Ehrlichman suggested that Dean “deep six” the materials—throw them off a bridge into the Potomac River. Dean, instead, decided to give them to acting FBI Director Gray. He told Gray they were potentially dangerous materials that “should never see the light of day,” but did not deal with the Watergate break-in.
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Gray took the folder of papers home and ignored it.

The gullible Gray went along with requests to stay away from Watergate. Yet even he was having suspicions. On July 6 he warned the president that people on his staff “are trying to mortally wound you.” He expected a shocked reaction from Nixon. Instead, the president all but told him to go away. “Pat, you just continue your thorough and aggressive investigation,” Nixon said.
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White House Counsel Dean took responsibility for the cover-up. The five men caught at the Democratic headquarters would obviously be found guilty. Hunt and Liddy (who had been linked to the burglars through Martinez’s address book) would also fall. But higher-up White House staff—Mitchell, Magruder, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman—so far remained untouched.

Nixon claimed at an August 29 press conference that no one on the White House staff was involved in the break-in. “What really hurts in matters of this sort is not the fact that they occur because overzealous people in campaigns do things that are wrong,” he said. “What really hurts is if you try to cover it up.”
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In criminal cases, defendants and other witnesses testify before a twenty-three-member grand jury. Then the grand jury decides if there is enough evidence to bring a case to trial. It hands down indictments against people who might be guilty. On September 15 the five burglars, Hunt, and Liddy were indicted. Magruder escaped indictment because he perjured himself (lied to the jury). The trial would not take place until January—well after election day in November.

Nixon congratulated Dean on minimizing damage to the White House. Dean warned that the case might not stay hidden forever.

Hush Money

Already, the cover of Watergate was starting to unravel. John Mitchell resigned as CRP director on July 1. Even though he claimed he never authorized a break-in, it was too dangerous to have him around. Alfred Baldwin, the lookout, quietly turned himself in to the FBI. He would not be prosecuted if he agreed to testify in upcoming court cases.

The burglars had huge lawyer bills and other expenses, which they expected the government to pay. It was their price for remaining silent about the break-in and other crimes.

The price kept rising. E. Howard Hunt’s wife, Dorothy, handled the payments for the accused men. At first she demanded $130,000 for legal fees and $59,000 in living expenses for the men. By mid-September the demand grew to $400,000 in expenses. This money came from CRP funds, but even that supply was limited. After the election, it would come from a special fund Haldeman had saved from previous elections.

On December 8, an airplane from Washington crashed near Chicago’s Midway Airport. A congressman and a well-respected Chicago reporter were among those killed. Attention, however, fell upon Dorothy Hunt. Her body was found with ten thousand dollars in one-hundred-dollar bills. Why was she carrying so much cash? Even though reporters and investigators had no proof, many suspected that this was “hush money” intended for the burglars.

“Maximum John”

None of the arrested Watergate burglars had a criminal record. Perhaps Nixon thought that a judge would notice their clean pasts and give them light sentences. If so, he was mistaken.

Judge John J. Sirica had been given the nickname Maximum John. He was a no-nonsense judge known for giving stiff sentences to offenders. Sirica believed there was more to this burglary than a handful of people breaking into a building. He intended to find out the truth behind Watergate. Who hired the burglars? Why were they there?

The defendants were not talking. Liddy behaved like a captured soldier, giving only the most basic information. Hunt changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, hoping for a lighter sentence. The four Miamians followed Hunt’s lead.

McCord had no intention of spending a single night in jail. He refused to plead guilty. Dean, through former New York policeman Jack Caulfield, made McCord an offer “from the highest levels of the White House.”
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McCord would get clemency (leniency) and a good job if he pleaded guilty and promised to remain silent. It was no deal. McCord and Liddy were found guilty on January 30, 1973. They were to be sentenced on March 23.

Sirica’s Birthday Present

Richard M. Nixon was sworn in to his second term of office in January 1973. Two months later, his presidency was already collapsing. Watergate, which he had dismissed as a prank, was coming back as a nightmare.

Hunt’s money demands kept rising. Now he wanted an extra $122,000. Dean met with the president on March 21. “There is a cancer growing on the presidency,” he said, talking about the growing hush money totals.
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If this cancer were not destroyed, it could ruin the presidency. Dean told Nixon it could cost a million dollars to keep the burglars quiet over the next two years. The president said the money could be raised.

James McCord walked into Judge Sirica’s chamber on March 19. He handed the judge a sealed envelope. March 20 was Sirica’s sixty-ninth birthday. He could not have received a better present.

Three days later, Sirica read McCord’s letter in court. McCord claimed there was political pressure on the Watergate defendants to remain silent. Other individuals were identified. McCord claimed there had been massive perjury during the trial—many people had lied before the court. He also said that the break-in was not a CIA operation, although the Miamians might have been told so.

Judge Sirica handed out the sentences. They were stiffer than anyone had imagined. Liddy got six years and eight months to twenty years in prison, as well as a $40,000 fine. The Miamians each received forty years. Hunt got thirty years. The judge said he might change the sentences if the defendants cooperated with the upcoming Senate Watergate Committee.

Sirica blamed the prosecutors for handling the case poorly. Seven men were convicted. Yet the prosecutors never found out why they had committed the burglary. Sirica ordered a new grand jury to probe the causes of Watergate and related crimes.

There was no way that Watergate could be hidden now. No one realized that more than John Wesley Dean III.

“Two of the Finest . . .”

Someone would have to take the blame for the Watergate disaster. Dean felt he was being set up to take the fall. Nixon asked him to write a full report on Watergate. If he did, he would have to mention his own role. He stalled, knowing that such a report might be used against him.
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Dean contacted a lawyer. During the day, he pretended to work on the report. At night, he spilled his secrets to government prosecutors. Dean was bargaining for immunity from prosecution, which meant he could not be punished for statements admitting his illegal deeds. He was not alone. Jeb Magruder was also talking to authorities and cutting a deal. Both described their roles, plus those of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell.

Prosecutors took the stories to Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen, and Petersen went to Attorney General Kleindienst. Both went to Nixon on April 15. Haldeman and Ehrlichman must be fired, they told him. Nixon said he would think about it.

Later that day Nixon met with Dean. The counsel recalled it as a strange meeting. Nixon, he said, kept asking him pointed questions. It seemed as if he were tape-recording the conversation. At one point, Nixon moved over to a corner. In a low voice, he said he was only kidding about offering hush money to the burglars.

The next day Nixon gave Dean two letters. One was for the counsel’s resignation, and the other was for a leave of absence. Both letters had Dean accepting the blame for the Watergate break-in. Dean refused to sign either letter. He would not resign unless Haldeman and Ehrlichman did likewise.

Ehrlichman, meanwhile, convinced the president that Mitchell’s case was hopeless. Too many people claimed he approved plans for the break-in. Mitchell refused to accept any blame. “I considered John Mitchell to be one of my few close friends,” Nixon wrote.
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Yet he was willing to sell Mitchell down the river.

In early April, Nixon was indecisive. He had to get rid of renegade Dean. He did not want to lose Haldeman and Ehrlichman, but he knew crimes could be traced to them.

On April 18 Petersen and Kleindienst got more disturbing news. Grand jury testimony by Fred LaRue linked Hunt and Liddy to the break-in at psychiatrist Lewis Fielding’s office for the Daniel Ellsberg files. Petersen thought it was shocking. He found it strange that Nixon did not appear surprised by the news.
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Petersen and Kleindienst told Nixon they would inform Matthew Byrne, judge of the Ellsberg trial.

During this time, L. Patrick Gray was floundering in the United States Senate. He had kept demanding to be named permanent FBI director. Finally, Nixon nominated him for the post. The Senate had to confirm the nomination.

The Senate Judiciary Committee interviewed Gray. It turned out to be a disaster. Gray admitted to letting Dean sit in on FBI interviews with suspects of Watergate-related crimes. When someone asked him what happened to the documents Dean had given him, he said he had burned them during the Christmas holiday. A candidate for law enforcement director destroying evidence? His confirmation was doomed.

He received no help from the White House. The humiliated Gray withdrew his request to be permanent director, then resigned from the temporary position in late April.

The president spoke to the nation on April 30, 1973. “There is no whitewash in the White House,” he proclaimed.
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Even though he did not know the facts about Watergate until March, he would have a thorough investigation. Nixon said he had accepted the resignations of H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, “two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know.”
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Nixon also said that Dean had resigned, although Dean had given no such notice.

Nixon’s speech left more questions than it answered. Why did Nixon, a man known for his intelligence, not know facts about the break-in until nine months after it occurred? If Haldeman and Ehrlichman were such great public servants, why were they leaving?

Chapter 5

AMERICA’S POLITICAL SOAP OPERA

Let others wallow in Watergate,” said Nixon in the summer of 1973.
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By that time, many Americans were wallowing. Millions watched in fascination as a parade of witnesses provided details about an unusual collection of crimes.

A Simple Country Lawyer

Shortly after the 1972 election, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield proposed a special committee to examine election irregularities. The United States Senate voted 70–0 on February 7 to establish the special committee. It was given the power to investigate irregularities in the 1972 presidential campaign. Officially its title was the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. Most people called it the Senate Watergate Committee.

Four Democrats and three Republicans made up the committee. None had been a presidential candidate, and none was nationally known. The lack of fame was intentional. Members wanted to draw attention to witnesses’ testimony, not themselves.

Samuel Ervin, an aging North Carolina Democrat, chaired the committee. Ervin was not, as he liked to claim, a simple country lawyer. He freely quoted Shakespeare and the Bible. Senators from both parties admired his knowledge of the Constitution.

Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee was the ranking Republican committee member. He tried to be impartial, yet also tried not to harm fellow Republican Nixon. Florida Republican Edward Gurney was openly pro- Nixon. Lowell Weicker, a Connecticut Republican, was less interested in protecting the president. Using members of his staff, he conducted his own separate investigation.

Georgia’s Herman Talmadge, Hawaii’s Daniel Inouye, and New Mexico’s Joseph Montoya were the other three Democrats. None of the three stated an opinion about Watergate beforehand. All would be shocked by what they heard.

Executive Privilege

From the beginning there were disagreements, and from the beginning Ervin took charge. Republicans wanted shortened hearings, starting with the major witnesses. Ervin wanted lesser-ranked witnesses to testify first. They could set the foundation for questions to higher-ranked persons.