Source: Garrett M. Graff. Watergate - A New History (2022)
By 20 June 1972 (Tuesday), Nixon was back in the White House, with the cover-up on the Watergate break-in already started. Disbelief and distrust existed among those in Nixon’s orbit, with Mitchell being as confused as anyone else. However, the more he learned about Hunt, Liddy, and Gemstone, the more he felt it was the right thing to do not to inform Nixon, seeing his re-election as far more important. Nixon’s inner circle, and some just outside of it, started to destroy any documents that might show ties to the White House from the Watergate break-in. Colson advised Nixon to minimize Watergate, even to ignore it, unlike the White House’s response to the ITT controversy, which had rapidly escalated.
The official Nixon playbook in the beginning in terms of the media was to deny everything and to stonewall the media behind the scenes. At the same time, the White House would quickly offer a lot of money to the burglars to insure their loyalty and silence. Liddy sensed Hunt, who was in CA, was getting nervous due to the media coverage, and that there was no direct or indirect word from the White House. Liddy decided to take matters in his own hands, and five days after the break-in he flew to Los Angeles with $10k in his socks, with his cover story he was heading to CA on CREEP business. Liddy gave Hunt $1000 to get a lawyer, and he promised Hunt and the five burglars that they would be protected.
The official Nixon playbook in the beginning in terms of the media was to deny everything and to stonewall the media behind the scenes. At the same time, the White House would quickly offer a lot of money to the burglars to insure their loyalty and silence. Liddy sensed Hunt, who was in CA, was getting nervous due to the media coverage, and that there was no direct or indirect word from the White House. Liddy decided to take matters in his own hands, and five days after the break-in he flew to Los Angeles with $10k in his socks, with his cover story he was heading to CA on CREEP business. Liddy gave Hunt $1000 to get a lawyer, and he promised Hunt and the five burglars that they would be protected.
On 22 June 1972, Nixon gave his first public statement on Watergate, denying any involvement from the White House for this “particular incident”. Nixon’s statement piqued the interest of the media, since now they wondered if the White House had been part of other “incidents”. There was a growing collective belief in the media that there was fire behind the smoke around the Watergate break-in.
Woodward and Bernstein were hardly the only Post reporters on Watergate. Among the other prominent figures in the press/media was Herb Lock, known as “Herblock", who was a famous political cartoonist that had been going after Nixon for years. Herblock’s caricatures of Nixon were perhaps the main reason why millions assumed that Nixon had a dark side, which of course he did. Herblock turned his attention in his political cartoons to Watergate, one of which showed a guard throwing a burglar out of the DNC headquarters as Nixon, Kleindienst, and Mitchell looked on; the caption said “Who Would Think Of Doing such a Thing?”.
The FBI’s investigation was progressing at a rapid pace, getting their first big break on 21 June 1972, having successfully traced the sequentially-numbered $100 bills in the possession of the burglars to Barker and bank transactions in Miami. Subsequent efforts discovered that the money had come from Nixon campaign donors. Before the end of June, the FBI had already interviewed Ken Dahlberg, a finance leader for Nixon’s campaign in 1968 and again in 1972. As Special Agent Lano and his team investigated, they correctly surmised that they weren’t getting the full story or cooperation from the White House, but no one could yet figure out what was being hidden from them. For example, it was determined that Dean had opened Colson’s safe three days before Colson and Dean were interviewed, but Lano had no idea what was removed.
Woodward and Bernstein were hardly the only Post reporters on Watergate. Among the other prominent figures in the press/media was Herb Lock, known as “Herblock", who was a famous political cartoonist that had been going after Nixon for years. Herblock’s caricatures of Nixon were perhaps the main reason why millions assumed that Nixon had a dark side, which of course he did. Herblock turned his attention in his political cartoons to Watergate, one of which showed a guard throwing a burglar out of the DNC headquarters as Nixon, Kleindienst, and Mitchell looked on; the caption said “Who Would Think Of Doing such a Thing?”.
The FBI’s investigation was progressing at a rapid pace, getting their first big break on 21 June 1972, having successfully traced the sequentially-numbered $100 bills in the possession of the burglars to Barker and bank transactions in Miami. Subsequent efforts discovered that the money had come from Nixon campaign donors. Before the end of June, the FBI had already interviewed Ken Dahlberg, a finance leader for Nixon’s campaign in 1968 and again in 1972. As Special Agent Lano and his team investigated, they correctly surmised that they weren’t getting the full story or cooperation from the White House, but no one could yet figure out what was being hidden from them. For example, it was determined that Dean had opened Colson’s safe three days before Colson and Dean were interviewed, but Lano had no idea what was removed.
What the FBI didn’t know was that Erhlichman had called Gray earlier, telling the Acting FBI Director that Dean would be handling inquiries about Watergate for the White House, and that the FBI was only to deal with Dean. Inside of three hours after the phone call with Ehrlichman, Dean was in Gray’s office informing the Acting FBI Director that he was going to sit in on all FBI interviews with White House personnel. Gray thought it was a reasonable request, since the only White House staffer the FBI was interested in at that time was Colson. During multiple meetings during 21 and 22 June 1972, Dean and Gray discussed how to handle the Watergate investigation.
Privately, Dean had settled on a two-pronged strategy, with the first part being to have Hunt and Liddy be the fall guys at CREEP, stating that the two had gone rogue. Secondly, CREEP would stop the FBI from tracing the funds paid to the burglars from campaign donations, which was a thread, if unraveled, would lead to other illegal activities that the White House was desperate to keep hidden. To Dean, the first part of his plan seemed simple enough. Dean felt that he had made a good start on the second part of his plan when Gray told him how the FBI had traced the $100 bills in Barker’s wallet. Dean warned Gray that by going too far tracing the money, the FBI might upset the CIA. Gray told Dean that unless there was a clear link to the CIA, the FBI would aggressively investigate all leads, but sensitively so. Gray suggested that Dean communicate with Felt, who would know all the aspects of the investigation. As a result of the Dean-Gray conversations, the Nixon inner circle decided that the cloak of “National Security” could bury the FBI’s investigation.
Privately, Dean had settled on a two-pronged strategy, with the first part being to have Hunt and Liddy be the fall guys at CREEP, stating that the two had gone rogue. Secondly, CREEP would stop the FBI from tracing the funds paid to the burglars from campaign donations, which was a thread, if unraveled, would lead to other illegal activities that the White House was desperate to keep hidden. To Dean, the first part of his plan seemed simple enough. Dean felt that he had made a good start on the second part of his plan when Gray told him how the FBI had traced the $100 bills in Barker’s wallet. Dean warned Gray that by going too far tracing the money, the FBI might upset the CIA. Gray told Dean that unless there was a clear link to the CIA, the FBI would aggressively investigate all leads, but sensitively so. Gray suggested that Dean communicate with Felt, who would know all the aspects of the investigation. As a result of the Dean-Gray conversations, the Nixon inner circle decided that the cloak of “National Security” could bury the FBI’s investigation.
On 23 June 1972, the White House strategy came together during a morning conversation between Nixon and Haldeman in the Oval Office. The two men decided that if they could get the CIA to wave off Gray and the FBI from the investigation, then that could be an impenetrable stone wall. Haldeman added that Gray would cooperate, and that Gray would get Felt to shut down the investigation, since it was obvious that Felt was ambitious and therefore would play ball. That conversation captured on the secret taping system in the Oval Office showed that Nixon intended to use parts of the federal government to cover up their own rogue operations, to mislead investigators, and to use “National Security” as a shield. To Nixon, it was not only a clever move, but a power move, a combination Nixon always loved. On that morning, a new Rubicon had been crossed, and now in the background a self-inflicted fatal wound existed, and would fester and grow, for Nixon and his administration.
Soon after that conversation, Ehrlichman summoned CIA Director Richard Helms and the Deputy CIA Director Vernon Walters to the White House. Walters had worked with VP Nixon as a translator, in addition to other duties, but he was brand new to the CIA, having only held his current position for six weeks. Haldeman, who ran the meeting in Ehrlichman’s office, made it clear that Nixon wanted Helms to call Gray to convince him to stop the investigation of the Watergate burglars. Helms responded that he’d already called Gray to assure the FBI that the CIA was not involved, but that wasn’t even close to what Nixon wanted, and the room became uncomfortable with the resulting tension. Haldeman was insistent, telling Walters that he wanted him to pay a personal visit to Gray, and Walters finally agreed to do that. Walters was new to this kind of DC power structure and power play, and it didn’t even occur to him that shenanigans were afoot.
That same afternoon, Walters met with Gray and encouraged the Acting FBI Director to drop the investigation, and a hesitant Gray agreed to do so. Once back at Langley, Walters asked questions of colleagues, and it soon became clear to him that the White House was trying to use the CIA for political purposes. After that epiphany, Walters started to document his conversations with any person(s) from the Nixon administration as well as documenting its abuse of power. Walters created a lethal paper trail of his own, and memo after memo, documented conversation after documented conversation, all of Walter’s lethal paper trail went into his personal safe.
Soon after that conversation, Ehrlichman summoned CIA Director Richard Helms and the Deputy CIA Director Vernon Walters to the White House. Walters had worked with VP Nixon as a translator, in addition to other duties, but he was brand new to the CIA, having only held his current position for six weeks. Haldeman, who ran the meeting in Ehrlichman’s office, made it clear that Nixon wanted Helms to call Gray to convince him to stop the investigation of the Watergate burglars. Helms responded that he’d already called Gray to assure the FBI that the CIA was not involved, but that wasn’t even close to what Nixon wanted, and the room became uncomfortable with the resulting tension. Haldeman was insistent, telling Walters that he wanted him to pay a personal visit to Gray, and Walters finally agreed to do that. Walters was new to this kind of DC power structure and power play, and it didn’t even occur to him that shenanigans were afoot.
That same afternoon, Walters met with Gray and encouraged the Acting FBI Director to drop the investigation, and a hesitant Gray agreed to do so. Once back at Langley, Walters asked questions of colleagues, and it soon became clear to him that the White House was trying to use the CIA for political purposes. After that epiphany, Walters started to document his conversations with any person(s) from the Nixon administration as well as documenting its abuse of power. Walters created a lethal paper trail of his own, and memo after memo, documented conversation after documented conversation, all of Walter’s lethal paper trail went into his personal safe.
Dean had his plans for Gray, meeting him near Gray’s home. Dean demanded that Gray provide him with the “302s” concerning Watergate, which were the FBI’s raw interview reports. Gray did not want to do so, since something like that had never been done with 302s, giving them to someone outside of the FBI. But Gray caved in all the same after getting Dean’s assurance that it was the wish of the President. Son after the meeting, Gray personally delivered to Dean eighty-three 302s, which represented about half of all the FBI’s investigative items in the Watergate investigation to the point. Dean also used Gray to hide some of the existing conspiracy items, especially what had been discovered among Hunt’s documents that had been removed from Colson’s safe.
Dean and Fred Fielding had many moments of shock and incredulity as they sorted through Hunt’s documents. The two men sorted the documents into three piles, with Dean keeping the most damaging and incriminating documents for himself, secured in his own safe. Dean especially made sure that Hunt’s two “operational” notebooks he kept during the days of the Plumbers as well as Gemstone meetings were in his safe.
Dean handed to the FBI and Lano all the harmless Hunt documents, deciding to pass the most explosive files directly to Gray. Ehrlichman and Dean calculated that if they were questioned under oath, they each could truthfully testify that they had turned everything over to the FBI. Dean made it clear to Gray that those particular files could not be given to investigating agents. Gray took those incriminating and explosive Hunt files, given to him by Dean, and hid them under a pile of shirts in his closet at home.
Dean and Fred Fielding had many moments of shock and incredulity as they sorted through Hunt’s documents. The two men sorted the documents into three piles, with Dean keeping the most damaging and incriminating documents for himself, secured in his own safe. Dean especially made sure that Hunt’s two “operational” notebooks he kept during the days of the Plumbers as well as Gemstone meetings were in his safe.
Dean handed to the FBI and Lano all the harmless Hunt documents, deciding to pass the most explosive files directly to Gray. Ehrlichman and Dean calculated that if they were questioned under oath, they each could truthfully testify that they had turned everything over to the FBI. Dean made it clear to Gray that those particular files could not be given to investigating agents. Gray took those incriminating and explosive Hunt files, given to him by Dean, and hid them under a pile of shirts in his closet at home.