Watergate: The Letter that Changes Everything

March 1, 2025

There were many explosive and pivotal checks-and-balances moments in the Watergate investigation---and March 1973 brought one of the biggest. Thanks to a stubborn, gruff, and stalwart federal judge.

In January, Chief Federal District Court Judge John Sirica had presided over a 16-day trial of the five Watergate burglars. They and their handlers, a former CIA operative Howard Hunt and one-time FBI agent Gordon Liddy—two men The Washington Post had revealed to have connections with the White House—were convicted of burglary, wiretapping, and conspiracy. To most Americans, that conviction closed the books on “the Watergate caper.”

Not to Judge Sirica’s mind, however, despite the pressure of overwhelming public opinion that the scandal was nothing more than politics as usual, Nixon's landslide re-election, and unwavering White House denials of any involvement in the “third-rate burglary.” Sirica simply didn’t believe the attempted bugging of the DNC national headquarters was solely the burglars’ idea. He even chastised the federal prosecutors for not pushing harder to learn more about the higher-ups he suspects ordered and financed the operation.

His reasoning: at the time of their arrest, the burglars were carrying expensive bugging equipment, cameras, pen-sized tear-gas guns, and $2,300 cash in $100 bills (today’s equivalency: $16,350). Hardly “third-rate” accoutrements. While three of the five burglars identified themselves at their arraignment as “anti-communists” and Cuban exiles, one, James McCord, admitted to being ex-CIA. The next day, the Post reported that McCord was not only ex-CIA, but the “salaried security coordinator” for Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President, or CR(EE)P, as Nixon’s detractors call it.

Sirica postponed sentencing for eight weeks until late March, giving the defendants time to stew and consider his offer that they could lessen what he implies will be very long jail times—IF they become more forthcoming and name others Sirica was convinced were involved.

It’s McCord, (the 5^th mug shot on the right above), who cracks. Under the threat of a decade in jail, he sends a letter of confession to Judge Sirica.

It is a bombshell.

McCord reveals a larger conspiracy of calculated cover up and obstruction of justice, saying he and the other burglars had been coerced to remain silent, plead guilty, and perjure themselves to protect others.

Sirica read the letter aloud in court, shattering the White House and Nixon-loyalists’ continuing contention that the break-in and other election “dirty tricks” reported earlier by the Post were simply the acts of overzealous campaign workers.

For those who can’t recite scenes from All the President’s Men like I can now (lol), those “dirty tricks” were led by 31-year-old lawyer Donald Segretti, who'd been hired to work for Nixon's campaign by his college friend, Dwight Chapin, Nixon's appointment secretary. The idea was to undermine potential Democratic opponents with smears and innuendos.

The stunts ranged from sophomoric pranks to more insidious disinformation, from setting off stink bombs at Democratic rallies to stealing candidates’ stationary to fake damning letters. Like using stolen Senator Edmund Muskie letterhead to forge and leak these lies: that one of Muskie’s fellow senators and a primary rival for the Democratic nomination was employing call girls, another had fathered an illegitimate baby with a 17-year-old, and that Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm had been confined in a psychiatric hospital. The point was to hobble stronger candidates with made-up scandals to cause the Democrats to ultimately nominate a weak candidate Nixon could handily beat. Which they did—George McGovern, a smart, dedicated but pacifist Senator whose anti-Vietnam war stance would lead to his only winning D.C. and Massachusetts against Nixon.

McCord will become the first of many stunning, jaw-dropping witnesses appearing before the Senate Select Committee, which, by the way, was created to investigate Watergate election interference by Nixon’s people by a unanimous, bipartisan 77 to 0 vote.

After McCord’s letter, Watergate had Americans’ attention. Starting in May, they’d be riveted to TV and radio coverage of the hearings. People camped out and stood in line for hours, enduring a record-breaking heat wave, to gain entrance to watch the testimony in person. Game companies created Watergate-inspired Monopoly and card games playing off political cartoons. 

And the hearings hadn’t even gaveled in yet...