Watergate scandal

== Wiretapping of the Democratic Party's headquarters ==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2021}}
[[File:Government Exhibit 133, Chapstick Tubes with Hidden Microphones - NARA - 304967.jpg|thumb|During the break-in, [[E. Howard Hunt]] and [[G. Gordon Liddy]] remained in contact with each other and with the burglars by radio; these [[Chapstick]] tubes outfitted with tiny microphones were later discovered in Hunt's [[White House]] office safe.]]
[[File:Transistor radio used in the Watergate break-in.jpg|thumb|A [[transistor radio]] used in the Watergate break-in]]
[[File:Walkie-talkie used in Watergate break-in, circa 1970's.jpg|thumb|A [[walkie-talkie]] used in Watergate break-in]]
[[File:Watergate filing cabinets at DNC HQ.jpg|thumb|The [[Democratic National Committee|DNC]] filing cabinet in the Watergate office building damaged by the burglars]]
On January 27, 1972, [[G. Gordon Liddy]], Finance Counsel for the [[Committee for the Re-Election of the President]] (CRP) and former aide to [[John Ehrlichman]], presented a campaign intelligence plan to CRP's acting chairman [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]], Attorney General [[John N. Mitchell|John Mitchell]], and Presidential Counsel [[John Dean]] that involved extensive illegal activities against the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. According to Dean, this marked "the opening scene of the worst political scandal of the twentieth century and the beginning of the end of the Nixon presidency".<ref name="Dean 2014">{{Cite book |last=Dean |first=John W. |url=https://archive.org/details/nixondefensewhat0000dean |title=The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It |date=2014 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-02536-7}}</ref>{{rp|p. xvii}}

Mitchell viewed the plan as unrealistic. Two months later, Mitchell approved a [[Operation Gemstone|reduced version]] of the plan, including burglarizing the [[Democratic National Committee]]'s (DNC) headquarters at the [[Watergate Complex]] in Washington, D.C. to photograph campaign documents and install listening devices in telephones. Liddy was nominally in charge of the operation,{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}} but has since insisted that he was duped by both Dean and at least two of his subordinates, which included former CIA officers [[E. Howard Hunt]] and [[James W. McCord Jr.|James McCord]], the latter of whom was serving as then-CRP Security Coordinator after John Mitchell had by then resigned as attorney general to become the CRP chairman.<ref Name=TimeRetrospective/><ref name="nixonmitchell">{{Cite news |last=Meyer |first=Lawrence |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/mitchobit.htm |title=John N. Mitchell, Principal in Watergate, Dies at 75 |date=November 10, 1988 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 22, 2017 |archive-date=August 30, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080830004048/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/mitchobit.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In May, McCord assigned former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Alfred C. Baldwin III]] to carry out the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rugaber |first=Walter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/18/archives/watergate-trial-in-closed-session-judge-clears-court-to-hear.html |title=Watergate Trial in Closed Session |date=January 18, 1973 |work=The New York Times |access-date=April 21, 2018 |archive-date=April 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424141201/https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/18/archives/watergate-trial-in-closed-session-judge-clears-court-to-hear.html |url-status=live }}</ref> {{citation needed span|McCord testified that he selected Baldwin's name from a registry published by the [[Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI's Society of Former Special Agents]] to work for the Committee to Re-elect President Nixon. Baldwin first served as bodyguard to [[Martha Mitchell]]—John Mitchell's wife, who was living in Washington. Baldwin accompanied Martha Mitchell to Chicago. Eventually the committee replaced Baldwin with another security man.|date=December 2022}}

On May 11, McCord arranged for Baldwin, whom investigative reporter [[Jim Hougan]] described as "somehow special and perhaps well known to McCord", to stay at the Howard Johnson's motel across the street from the Watergate complex.<ref name="Alfred C. Baldwin">{{Cite web|title=Alfred C. Baldwin|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbaldwinA.htm|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Spartacus Educational|archive-date=July 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702074624/http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbaldwinA.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Room 419 was booked in the name of McCord's company.<ref name="Alfred C. Baldwin"/> At the behest of Liddy and Hunt, McCord and his team of burglars prepared for their first Watergate break-in, which began on May 28.<ref>G Gordon Liddy ( 1980). ''Will'', pp. 195, 226, 232, St. Martin's Press {{ISBN|978-0312880149}}</ref>

Two phones inside the DNC headquarters' offices were said to have been [[wiretapped]].<ref name=mccordreturns /> One was [[Robert Spencer Oliver]]'s phone. At the time, Oliver was working as the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen. The other phone belonged to DNC chairman [[Larry O'Brien]]. The FBI found no evidence that O'Brien's phone was bugged;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Liddy Testifies in Watergate Trial|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121955&page=1|access-date=May 22, 2021|website=ABC News|language=en|archive-date=May 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519211646/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121955&page=1|url-status=live}}</ref> however, it was determined that an effective listening device was installed in Oliver's phone. While successful with installing the listening devices, the committee agents soon determined that they needed repairs. They plotted a second "burglary" in order to take care of the situation.<ref name="mccordreturns">{{Cite news |last=Pear |first=Robert |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/15/us/watergate-then-now-2-decades-after-political-burglary-questions-still-linger.html |title=Watergate, Then and Now – 2 Decades After a Political Burglary, the Questions Still Linger |date=June 14, 1992 |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 18, 2015 |archive-date=April 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408103144/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/15/us/watergate-then-now-2-decades-after-political-burglary-questions-still-linger.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sometime after midnight on Saturday, June 17, 1972, Watergate Complex security guard [[Frank Wills (security guard)|Frank Wills]] noticed tape covering the [[Latch (hardware)|latches]] on some of the complex's doors leading from the underground parking garage to several offices, which allowed the doors to close but stay unlocked. He removed the tape, believing it was nothing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/22/the-post-and-the-forgotten-security-guard-who-discovered-the-watergate-break-in/ |title='The Post' and the forgotten security guard who discovered the Watergate break-in |last=Brown |first=DeNeen |year=2017 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=November 7, 2019 |archive-date=June 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624001736/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/22/the-post-and-the-forgotten-security-guard-who-discovered-the-watergate-break-in/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When he returned a short time later and discovered that someone had retaped the locks, he called the police.<ref name=":0" /> 

Police dispatched an unmarked police car with three plainclothes officers, Sgt. Paul W. Leeper, Officer John B. Barrett, and Officer Carl M. Shoffler, who were working the overnight shift; they were often referred to as the "bum squad" because they often dressed undercover as hippies and were on the lookout for drug deals and other street crimes.<ref name=":1" /> Alfred Baldwin, on "[[Lookout#Criminal definition|spotter]]" duty at the [[Howard Johnson's]] hotel across the street, was distracted watching the film ''[[Attack of the Puppet People]]'' on TV and did not observe the arrival of the police car in front of the Watergate building,<ref name=":1" /> nor did he see the plainclothes officers investigating the DNC's sixth floor suite of 29 offices. By the time Baldwin finally noticed unusual activity on the sixth floor and radioed the burglars, it was already too late.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Shirley|first=Craig|url=https://www.washingtonian.com/2012/06/20/the-bartenders-tale-how-the-watergate-burglars-got-caught/|title=The Bartender's Tale: How the Watergate Burglars Got Caught {{!}} Washingtonian|date=June 20, 2012|work=Washingtonian|access-date=March 31, 2020|language=en-US|archive-date=June 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220607201216/https://www.washingtonian.com/2012/06/20/the-bartenders-tale-how-the-watergate-burglars-got-caught/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The police apprehended five men, later identified as [[Virgilio Gonzalez]], [[Bernard Barker]], [[James W. McCord Jr.|James McCord]], [[Eugenio Martínez]], and [[Frank Sturgis]].<ref Name=TimeRetrospective/> They were criminally charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported the day after the burglary that, "police found lock-picks and door jimmies, almost $2,300 in cash, most of it in $100 bills with the serial numbers in sequence&nbsp;... a shortwave receiver that could pick up police calls, 40 rolls of unexposed film, two 35 millimeter cameras and three pen-sized tear gas guns".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Alfred E. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005111001227.html |title=5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats' Office Here |date=June 18, 1972 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 28, 2017 |archive-date=June 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622093133/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005111001227.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Post would later report that the actual amount of cash was $5,300.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/080172-1.htm|title= Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618011526/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/080172-1.htm|archive-date=June 18, 2022|date=June 18, 2022|quote=About 53 of these $100 bills were found on the five men after they were arrested at the Watergate.|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

The following morning, Sunday, June 18, G. Gordon Liddy called Jeb Magruder in [[Los Angeles]] and informed him that "the four men arrested with McCord were Cuban freedom fighters, whom Howard Hunt recruited". Initially, Nixon's organization and the [[White House]] quickly went to work to cover up the crime and any evidence that might have damaged the president and his reelection.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Genovese |first=Michael A. |url=https://archive.org/details/watergatecrisis00geno |title=The Watergate Crisis |date=1999 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0313298783 |location=Westport, CN}}</ref>

On September 15, 1972, a [[grand jury]] indicted the five office burglars, as well as Hunt and Liddy,<ref name="congressional quarterly vol 1.">{{Cite book |last1=Dickinson |first1=William B. |url=https://archive.org/details/watergatechronol0000unse/page/4 |title=Watergate: Chronology of a Crisis |last2=Mercer Cross |last3=Barry Polsky |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Inc. |year=1973 |isbn=0-87187-059-2 |volume=1 |location=Washington D. C. |page=[https://archive.org/details/watergatechronol0000unse/page/4 4] |oclc=20974031}}</ref> for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The burglars were tried by a jury, with Judge [[John Sirica]] officiating, and pled guilty or were convicted on January 30, 1973.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sirica, John J. |url=https://archive.org/details/tosetrecordstrai00siri/page/44 |title=To Set the Record Straight: The Break-in, the Tapes, the Conspirators, the Pardon |publisher=Norton |year=1979 |isbn=0-393-01234-4 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/tosetrecordstrai00siri/page/44 44]}}</ref>