Watergate scandal

=== Initial cover-up ===
[[File:Address Book of Watergate Burglar Bernard Barker, Discovered in a Room at the Watergate Hotel, June 18, 1972 - NARA - 304966.tif|thumb|Address book of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker, discovered in a room at the Watergate Hotel, June 18, 1972]]

Within hours of the burglars' arrests, the FBI discovered [[E. Howard Hunt]]'s name in Barker and Martínez's address books. Nixon administration officials were concerned because Hunt and Liddy were also involved in a separate secret activity known as the "[[White House Plumbers]]", which was established to stop security "[[News leak|leaks]]" and investigate other sensitive security matters. Dean later testified that top Nixon aide [[John Ehrlichman]] ordered him to "[[wikt:deep six|deep six]]" the contents of Howard Hunt's White House safe. Ehrlichman subsequently denied this. In the end, Dean and [[L. Patrick Gray]], the FBI's acting director, (in separate operations) destroyed the evidence from Hunt's safe.

Nixon's own reaction to the break-in, at least initially, was one of skepticism. Watergate prosecutor James Neal was sure that Nixon had not known in advance of the break-in. As evidence, he cited a conversation taped on June 23 between the President and his chief of staff, [[H. R. Haldeman]], in which Nixon asked, "Who was the asshole that did that?"<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/forresearchers/find/tapes/watergate/trial/exhibit_01.pdf |title=Transcript of a Recording of a Meeting Between The President And H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office On June 23, 1972 From 10:04 To 11:39 a.m. |website=Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum |access-date=September 10, 2018 |archive-date=August 28, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828075741/https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/forresearchers/find/tapes/watergate/trial/exhibit_01.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Nixon subsequently ordered Haldeman to have the CIA block the FBI's investigation into the source of the funding for the burglary.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/06/archives/nixon-ordered-that-the-fbi-be-told-dont-go-any-further-into-this.html|work=The New York Times|date=August 6, 1974|title=Nixon Ordered That the F.B.I. Be Told: 'Don't Go Any Further Into This Case'|author=John M. Crewdson|access-date=September 24, 2023|archive-date=August 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819170548/https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/06/archives/nixon-ordered-that-the-fbi-be-told-dont-go-any-further-into-this.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

A few days later, Nixon's press secretary, [[Ron Ziegler]], described the event as "a third-rate burglary attempt". On August 29, at a news conference, Nixon stated that Dean had conducted a thorough investigation of the incident, when Dean had actually not conducted any investigations at all. Nixon furthermore said, "I can say categorically that&nbsp;... no one in the White House staff, no one in this Administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident." On September 15, Nixon congratulated Dean, saying, "The way you've handled it, it seems to me, has been very skillful, because you—putting your fingers in the dikes every time that leaks have sprung here and sprung there."<ref Name=TimeRetrospective/>