(6 of 13)
Overt Acts
The indictment spares no harsh words in describing the cover-up conspiracy involving the seven indicted Nixon associates "and others known and unknown." The aim of the conspiracy, the indictment claims, was to conceal the identity of the persons responsible for the Watergate wiretapping, as well as "other illegal and improper activities." Toward that end, the seven tried to prevent officials of the CIA, FBI and Department of Justice from transacting "their official business honestly and impartially, free from corruption, fraud, improper and undue influence, dishonesty, unlawful impairment and obstruction."
No fewer than 45 conspiratorial acts were cited in concise paragraphs that undoubtedly will be buttressed by extensive evidence, and sharply assailed by defense lawyers, in future trials. Those curt recitations of specific acts for the first time detailed the chronology of an increasingly desperate effort to keep the lid on the scandal. Free of all the testimonial contradictions and denials that have so confused the complex affair, the indictment included these overt acts:
June 17, 1972. On the night of the ill-starred Watergate breakin, John Mitchell and a group of Nixon campaign officials were attending political meetings in Beverly Hills. After news of the burglars' capture reached him, Mitchell told Mardian to ask G. Gordon Liddy, the counsel to Nixon's re-election finance committee and one of the originators of the political-espionage plan, to seek the help of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst in Washington to get the arrested men out of jail. (Kleindienst has testified that Liddy accosted him at Washington's Burning Tree golf club and sought such help, but that he sharply rebuffed the plea.)
June 18. Haldeman's aide Gordon Strachan destroyed documents on Haldeman's orders. (Strachan has admitted doing so, claiming that the papers included reports he had prepared for Haldeman about Liddy's intelligence-gathering plan before the men were arrested. Federal investigators believe that transcripts of the illegally intercepted Democratic conversations were also destroyed.)
June 19. Ehrlichman met with Dean at the White House and directed him to relay word via Liddy that E. Howard Hunt should leave the country. (Hunt had been a member of the White House plumbers and was later convicted of the Watergate wiretapping. Dean testified that he carried out Ehrlichman's instructions, then convinced Ehrlichman that it was a mistake and asked Liddy to rescind the order to Hunt.)
June 19. Charles Colson and Ehrlichman met with Dean at the White House, and Ehrlichman directed Dean to open Hunt's safe in the Executive Office Building and take the contents (which included various secret documents and electronic equipment). Dean has testified that he did so.
June 19. Mardian and Mitchell met with Jeb Stuart Magruder, deputy to Mitchell on Nixon's re-election committee, in Mitchell's Washington apartment. Mitchell suggested that Magruder destroy his files on the Watergate wiretapping plan, code-named Gemstone. (Mitchell said, according to LaRue, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice, "that it might be a good idea if Mr. Magruder had a fire.")
June 20. Liddy met with LaRue and Mardian at LaRue's