Richard Nixon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Richard Nixon - Essay Example CRP began a massive fund-raising campaign aimed at collecting as much money as possible before the reporting contributions became mandatory under a new law, and the money could be used for any purpose. Besides this official objective, under Nixon's orders, members of the CRP began conducting electronic surveillance of government officials and members of the press, in an attempt to control the flow of information regarding Nixon's activities. In the period between 1969 and 1971, wiretaps were installed on telephones around Washington DC in the name of "national security," and the Oval Office was equipped with voice-activated tape recorders, a decision that would later come back to haunt Nixon. In 1971, the CRP began to ramp up its political intelligence-gathering activities in preparation for the upcoming presidential election. The group planned to infiltrate the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters, located on the sixth floor of the Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington DC. Leading the conspiracy were US Attorney General John Mitchell, deputy director of the CRP Jeb Magruder, and CRP counsel G. Gordon Liddy. Their goal was to photograph campaign materials and place bugging devices in the office of Democratic National Chairman Lawrence F. ... The Watergate break-in eventually exposed a whole array of campaign practices designed to disrupt or embarrass the political opposition, all of which commentators later summarized as 'dirty tricks.' Investigation and Prosecution When making an attempt to break into the Watergate building in order to fix up previously installed wiretapping equipment, all the burglars were caught red-handed by the police on information of the building guard. The number of these burglars was five including Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzlez, Eugenio Martnez, James W. McCord, Jr., and Frank Sturgis. After investigation the police found telephone number of E. Howard Hunt in McCord's notebook who was Chief of Security at the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP). This was a strong proof that strengthens the idea that there was surely a connection between the burglars and someone close to the President. Investigation started to find a link between McCord and the CIA and finally it was discovered that the CRP bribed McCord. The White House denied any knowledge of the break in. Six days later, John Haldeman, the White House Chief of Staff, met with Nixon to tell him that the FBI had traced the money found in the burglars' possession to CREEP. In a tape-recorded conversation, Nixon asked Haldeman to get in touch with the CIA to have the FBI's investigation stopped. In spring 1973, three of the five indicted men in the Watergate break-in pled guilty, while the remaining two were found guilty after a trial. The Cuban men were each sentenced to forty years in prison, and Hunt was sentenced to thirty-five. McCord sent word to Judge Sirica that he was willing to cooperate in exchange for a reduced sentence. White House counsel John Dean also approached the Judge and offered his