Instead of receiving gratitude from a President that won re-election in a landslide, staffers in the secondary level of the administration were told to submit their resignations; even Kissinger saw that move as degrading. There was one person in the Nixon administration that was safe: Henry Petersen in the Justice Department. As Dean told Haldeman, Petersen was the one secondary level person that had to be left alone, since he’d been watching out for the administration’s interests in the Justice Department. Dean personally called him to give him the news that his job was safe, which caused an immediate flood of relief in Petersen.
Nixon retreated to Camp David with his (untouchable) inner circle to sit in judgment on who stayed and who was removed in key jobs in the administration; for example, Nixon wanted to control the Cabinet departments instead of dealing with the bureaucracy of each. Those directly involved in the Watergate cover-up were of course kept at their posts, with only secondary or lower-level aides being replaced or reshuffled. While the hush money was being paid out to the burglars, Dean focused on how to wrap up any loose ends concerning Watergate that investigators might find.
After all those chess pieces had been moved, Dean was aware of how vulnerable he had become, since he knew he was guilty of obstruction of justice, and he had far fewer around him that had a vested interest in protecting him. Dean now needed Henry Petersen, the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, more than ever, in that he didn’t want to be called as a witness in Hunt’s upcoming trial. It became increasingly clear to Howard and Dorothy Hunt that they had been cut loose after the election, that the White House had washed their hands of them, with Dorothy telling McCord that all seven of them were on their own.
Bradlee allowed Woodward and Bernstein to try and interview Watergate grand jurors, but to play nice, being advised that asking questions of individual jurors would not violate their oath of secrecy. First off, the two reporters had to identify and find the grand jurors, whose identities had been kept secret. Woodward asked a clerk at the DC Courthouse for a list of jurors who had been called in during the last few months, which was information available to the public. The clerk allowed Woodward to peruse the orange juror cards, but to not write down anything. Woodward knew the grand jury foreman had an Eastern European last name, so once he found that orange card, he could find the identity of the other 22 grand jurors. Woodward memorized four cards at a time, and then excused himself to go outside for some acceptable reason (e.g. a smoke) in order to jot down names, details, and addresses.
Ironically, Woodward and Bernstein did get a grand juror to talk to them (they gave her the code name “Z”), but it would take almost 40 years before it would be determined that the grand juror spilled her guts to Bernstein on the very day that Sirica threatened all media members about contacting those grand jurors. Bernstein’s conversation with “Z” occurred after the weekend of 2 & 3 December 1972, when Bernstein had gone back to more conventional sources, only belatedly discovering that she was a grand juror. Woodward stated that “Z” was a very important secret source, albeit not at the same level in terms of government hierarchy as “Deep Throat”. “Z” gave Bernstein her unlisted telephone number, telling him that she didn’t trust a soul. Like “Deep Throat”, “Z” would only confirm or point out where Bernstein might examine something more closely. Despite having more than two secret sources in play, it wasn’t long before Woodward and Bernstein were again frustrated at being stonewalled in their investigation; little did they know that the Watergate Scandal would break wide open when Nixon was at the peak of his Presidency.
Nixon started to make the Post pay for its “meddling”, with Nixon taking Colson’s suggestion to go after the Post’s profit line by challenging the Post’s television station licenses when they came due. Two Washington Post television stations, one in Miami and the other in Jacksonville, had their licenses challenged by “citizen groups” which were backed by Nixon supporters. The challenges were a serious move, in that the Post’s stock value dropped by half. Bradley and Graham were trying to repel a President who was at the peak of his power; the only solace Bradlee had was that Woodward and Bernstein must be on to something big.
By the end of 1972, James McCord was stewing, now realizing that he was being set up to be the main fall guy for the Watergate break-in. On 28 December 1972, McCord wrote a letter to Jack Caulfield, warning that the White House should stop throwing the CIA under the bus, given what he knew and had done. At about the same time, Gray fed Hunt’s files into his blazing fireplace at home. Also at about the same time, the NY Times decided to get back to the Watergate Scandal, after a Times photographer told his bosses and colleagues that Secret Service agents informed him that Nixon had a secret taping system in the Oval Office, that it was run by the Secret Service, and that all conversations in the Oval Office were recorded. Despite being given that bombshell, no one at the NY Times bothered to follow up on that information.