June 18-19, 1972: Top White House Aides Order Evidence Destroyed, Try to Get Burglary Planner Out of US

Shortly after the Watergate burglars were caught (see 2:30 a.m.June 17, 1972), Nixon campaign aide Gordon Strachan destroys evidence that could link the White House to the burglaries. According to testimony by White House counsel John Dean to the Senate Watergate Committee (see June 25-29, 1973), Strachan, on the orders of White House aide H. R. Haldeman, destroys files from Haldeman’s office, including what Dean calls “wiretap information from the DNC,” or Democratic National Committee. Dean later testifies that White House aide John Ehrlichman orders him to get E. Howard Hunt, the planner of the burglary, “out of the country,” but later tries to rescind the order. Dean’s testimony shows that Haldeman had prior knowledge of the illegal wiretapping and perhaps the burglaries as well. Dean’s testimony implicates both Haldeman and Ehrlichman as direct participants in the cover-up virtually from the outset. [Time, 7/9/1973]