On June 17, 1972, there was a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters. Located at the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C., the headquarters is on the sixth floor of the Watergate Hotel and office building. This break-in, known as the Watergate Scandal, was a political scandal involving the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. This group is the official organization of Nixon's campaign. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation became involved in the scandal, they discovered that cash found on the burglars was directly connected to a slush fund controlled by Nixon's administration. This scandal led to the resignation of Richard Nixon on August 9th, 1974.
Along with the resignation of Richard Nixon, was the incarceration of 43 people, 7 of whom were directly caught in the act of the burglary. These advisors are John N. Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson. John Ehrlichman, more specifically, was a counsel and assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Nixon. He was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury. For his crimes, Ehrlichman served a year and a half in prison.
Prior to the Watergate Scandal, Ehrlichman was the leader of a secret White House unit known as "the plumbers". This group was created to find and plug the "leaks" of top secret government information. A former National Security Council aide, Dr. Daniel J. Ellsberg, was identified for giving secrets to the press about America's involvement in the Vietnam War. To further investigate Ellsberg's behavior, The Plumbers illegally broke into his psychiatrist's office with the intent to discover information on Ellsberg's mental state that would aid the administration to discredit his story.
Watergate Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
Sources
Stout, David. "John D. Ehrlichman, Nixon Aide Jailed for Watergate, Dies at 73
New York Times 16 Feb. 1999: n. pag. Print.
McLaughlin, Martin. "John Ehrlichman, Key Conspirator in the Nixon White House,
Dead at 73." World Socialist Web Site 17 Feb. 1999: n. pag. Print.
