Chapter+4

Chapter 4 - MAY 18, 1973 / JUNE 3, 1973 / JUNE 13, 1973

By Alex Murphy, Olivia Martiniello, Nicole D'Andrea, and Matt Dente __May 18, 1973__

On May 18, 1973, Archibald Cox was chosen as the Justice Department’s special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal. Archibald is set to make 38,000 dollars a year after accepting the position over the phone from Elliot L. Richardson around 1:45 pm. Former Solicitor General Archibald Cox was a democrat and worked for the late John F. Kennedy’s campaign writing speeches in 1960 against Richard Nixon. For his work, he was named Solicitor general. He decided to start teaching at Harvard Law School in 1965 after his position as solicitor general ended. He continued to teach at Harvard until he was chosen as Special Prosecutor in 1973 to investigate the president’s involvement in the attempted Watergate Scandal. Shortly after, Solicitor General Robert Bork fired him as requested by Nixon himself. Nixon got away with it all because he resigned before the impeachment process could be completed.
 * Former Solicitor General Archibald Cox[[image:Cox_Archibald.jpg align="left"]]**


 * __June 3, 1973__**

According to former presidential counsel, John W. Dean, President Nixon was fully aware of the attempted cover- up of the Watergate scandal and it was talked about on at least 35 occasions where he was present. Dean decided to testify in the Senate’s Watergate hearings and state that Nixon was fully involved in the scandal as well as the cover- up. Not only did Dean tell investigators about Nixons involvement but also former principal deputies, H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman and their presence at meetings where the cover-up was discussed.

The White House put Dean as the main figure in the Watergate cover-up because according to the Justice Department, there was more then enough evidence to indict him. Dean had no solid or documented evidence to sustain charges to the President besides his memory and recollection of prior conversations. One strong charge Dean had against President Nixon was the meeting they had before sentencing the defendants on March 32. The meeting discussed how much money would be paid to the defendants to keep them quiet in addition to the $460,000 that had already been paid. Dean claimed that the additional one million dollars was agreed on to secure the silence of the attempted cover-up. Later, Nixon asked Dean to sign a resignation letter but he quickly refused. Nixon told Dean "in the strongest terms" to keep silent that the Nixon administration was involved in the plans for Watergate. Not only did Dean have conversations with President Nixon over the phone and through letter but was also asked on frequent occasion to come to the presidential office to discuss status and progress for the cover-up. Dean told investigators that, the chief counsel of the Senate's Watergate investigating committee, Samuel Dash met secretly and was also involved with the cover-up.

Although the exact number of meetings held at the Presidents’ office are debatable, it is said that Haldeman and Ehrlichman were present at all of the meetings while the President listened with full knowledge of what was being discussed. When was presidential counsel, John W. Dean was fired on April 30 he tried to collect some of his “chronicles” at the Executive Office Building which summarized activities during the cover- up discussions. In the collected evidence, it was seen that debates between Dean, Haldeman and Ehrlichman were recorded but not specifically about the President's alleged role.

Over a two month period, President Nixon made statements announcing “major developments” in the case, resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and denying his own involvement with a 4,000 word defense of his own actions. Justice Department and Senate sources eventually reported that "everything we have gotten from Dean that we were able to check out has turned out to be accurate”. When Dean refused to testify without full immunity, prosecutors and Senate investigators became skeptical of his versions of events and thought his statements might have been motivated in attempt to just immunity.

Shortly after, Dean was arranged to make two more allegations on the President and his involvement which included Watergate defendant E. Howard Hunt Jr. Becoming more involved with the situation, Dean was interrogated by FBI and CIA officials. John Caulfield then testified for the Senate and said that Dean ordered transmitions to convict one of the burglars in return for his silence. Associates said that Dean began to realize that the "house of cards on which the Watergate cover-up was erected" was about to come down. After Dean met with the President on March 22, it was said that Dean had "probably" lied to the FBI. On April 19 an article was published that said former deputy campaign manager Jeb Stuart Magruder had involved Dean in the planning of the Watergate scandal and the large payments to the others for their silence.

__**June 13,1973**__ by Matt Dente

According to government sources, on Wednesday, June 13, 1973, Watergate prosecutors obtained a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman, the former White House domestic affairs advisor. The memo detailed plans to burglarize the office of Lewis Fielding, the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg. President Richard Nixon had authorized the "plumbers" to break into his office to halt any media leaks. Nixon targeted Daniel Ellsberg because he had leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971.

The "plumbers", a White House special investigation unit directed by David Young and Egil Krogh, were to burglarize the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to obtain information that the White House could use to smear Ellsberg's character and undermine his credibility. Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, members of the "plumbers", supervised the burglary.

This memo was sent by White House aides Young and Krogh to Ehrlichman and was dated before the burglary of Fielding's office. Young handed over the memo to prosecutors on the grounds that he would not be prosecuted. The government sources stated that Young will testify that Ehrlichman read the memo and approved the burglary of Fielding's office. One of Ehrlichman's attorneys, Frank Strickler, stated that Ehrlichman had no prior knowledge of the break-in. Ehrlichman made a statement to the FBI on April 29, and a summary of that interview was made public on May 2. Ehrlichman stated that he was not aware that Hunt and Liddy had broken into Fielding's office until after the event had occurred.

Initially Krogh prepared his affidavit by looking back at an incomplete copy of the memo he sent to Ehrlichman about the burglary. He stated that he gave just a general authorization to obtain any information on Ellsberg. But the prosecutors had the entire memo and when Krogh was reminded of what was in the rest of the memo; he was expected to change his statement which would include specifics about the authorized burglary to Fielding's office.

Shortly after, Krogh resigned his position of Undersecretary of Transportation after confirming that he approved the burglary operation on Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Young also resigned as member of the National Security Council in April. Enrichment resigned on April 30 as well.

__Sources used__ http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=lewis_fielding_1 [] [] [] [] [] http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/cfs/images/Cox_Archibald.jpg http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005112200792.html