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The spying apparatus sprang readily into action in September 1971 when Nixon ordered his own White House investigation into Ellsberg's entire background. Ehrlichman admits that he assigned the Hunt-Liddy team to the task. In testimony before the Washington grand jury, released last week by U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. at the Ellsberg trial, Hunt told an intriguing story of being aided by the CIA in the burglarizing of the Beverly Hills office of Psychiatrist Lewis Fielding.
Hunt testified that he worked out of what he called "Room 16" in the Executive Office Building next to the White House. He first asked Liddy why the Secret Service could not handle the burglary to get Ellsberg's records. Liddy told him, as Hunt reconstructed it, that "the White House did not have sufficient confidence in the Secret Service in order to entrust them with a task of this sort." But the White House clearly did have faith in Liddy and Hunt. At Krogh's direction, the pair flew to Los Angeles on Aug. 25, 1971, registered in a hotel under false names (George Leonard and Ed Warren), to make what Hunt grandly called "a preliminary vulnerability and feasibility study"—meaning that they cased and photographed Fielding's office building and located his house. They used an experimental miniature camera supplied by a CIA operative and hidden in a tobacco pouch. (The agency last week denied any advance knowledge of this burglary, but federal prosecutors demanded a full explanation.)
Returning to Washington, the spooks wrote a memo suggesting that the burglary could be done, and submitted their photographs—all, Hunt said, going to Ehrlichman's deputy, Krogh. Hunt said that he reported regularly to Krogh and took orders from Krogh. The CIA, added Hunt, also supplied him with a "sterile" phone number, meaning that it was unlisted and there were no billing records. In addition, the CIA gave Hunt and Liddy disguises when they needed them, and a "safe house" in which to meet undetected in Washington.
Fizzle. After getting approval from Krogh, Hunt flew to Miami to enlist help in the Ellsberg bag job. He hired Bernard Barker, a former CIA agent (later part of the Watergate wiretapping operation), and two Cuban refugees. They all met in Los Angeles on Labor Day weekend.
Two of the Cubans, dressed in deliverymen's uniforms, entered Fielding's office building on the night of Sept. 4, while Hunt watched the doctor's home and Liddy maintained walkie-talkie contact with the Cubans from a cruising car. The Cubans carried a suitcase with air-express invoices addressed to Dr. Fielding, and thus persuaded a cleaning lady to admit them to Fielding's office. They left the suitcase, containing a CIA camera, then punched the "unlock" button on the office door before leaving. When they returned later, they found the door relocked and had to break in. The operation fizzled, however, when they could not find any file with Ellsberg's name on it.
Back in Washington, Hunt told Krogh that "it was a clean operation—there were no fingerprints left behind —but it had failed to produce." They later