Sabotaria the G.O.P.'s Rivals: Story of a $100,000 Operation By JOHN M. CiIEWDSON This article is the first of The extent to which the sa- The Republican party's effort two based on reporting by botage effort achieved its aim to sabotage Democratic Presi• Mr. Crewdson, John Kifner, of demoralizing and weaken- dential candidates in 1972 was Wayne King, Jon Nord- ing the President's Democratic a two-pronged operation ap- heimer, Steven V. Roberts, opponents is not fully known, proved by some of President Agis Salpukas and Martin and may never be, although it Nixon's most influential aides, Waldron. will become the subject of the directed in part by White Senate's Watergate hearings ' House officials, and financed vance by H.R. Haldeman, then later this year. with more than $100,000 in un- chief of the staff. However, a number of the reported contributions to the same individuals who allegedly Nixon campaign. A separate sabotage cam- paign was managed by Jeb planned or helped to cover up That is the picture painted the Watergate bugging were, by informed sources in an ex- Stuart Magruder, deputy di- rector of the Committee for to varying degrees, associated tensive inquiry .by The New with the sabotage operation, and York Times seeking to pull to- the Re-election of the Presi- dent, and received some direc- more has recently been learned gether the elements of the of the scope of its activity and sabotage program. The inquiry tion from Charles W. Colson, then special counsel to the of the precise authority on included a number of inter- which it was undertaken. views with sources familiar President, the sources said. Many who worked in the un- with the program, public and Scope of Activity dercover campaign, which was private testimony by principals Together with a separate sa- botage campaign, allegedly characterized by such spy-novel in the case, and information fillips as code names and secret gathered by Government in- headed by Charles W. Colson, vestigators. the secret operation at its height mail drops, would not talk The sources said that one embraced a widely scattered about their activities for fear, branch of the broad program of and sometimes disorganized of legal repercussion, and few; spying and sabotage—the one network of amateurs who en- of those who did speak would) involving Donald H. Segretti, gaged in political pranks as allow their names to be used.' a lawyer — was conceived in well as more serious, and even As a result, much of what took , early 1971; and approved in ad- violent, activities. Continued on Page 22, Column 1!

omen's ana otter sources or Continued From Page 1, Col. 3 information provided the ac- a second sabotage effort super- counts of the various opera- place remains unknown, and vised by Jeb Stuart Magruder, deputy director of the Commit- tions mat follow. accounts of other events are tee for the Re-election of the The first White House offi- necessarily one-sided. President. This operation, on cials to broach the need for a But an extensive inquiry by Republican sabotage operation one occasion, hired a group of were Mr. Chapin, 32 years old, The Times, together thugs, including three of the a former junior advertising ex- with recent testimony by prin- Watergate burglars, to attack ecutive who served until Feb- cipals in the case and informa- Dr. Daniel Ellsberg at an anti- war rally. Mr. Colson emphati- ruary as the President's ap- tion gathered by Government pointments secretary, and Mr. investigators, has provided an cally denied that he was in- Strachan, 29, a classmate of extraordinary account of an at- volved in the incident: Mr. Chapin's at the University tempt by the political party in cBetween June of 1971 and of Southern California and a August of last year, when the former assistant to Mr. Halde- power to confuse and subvert re-election committee's opera- its opposition through covert man. tion was abandoned as "too According to a memorandum attacks. costly," the two distinct but Among the major elements written last fall by Richard A. that have emerged are the fol- sometimes overlapping sabotage Moore, a special counsel to lowing: efforts employed more than a President Nixon, the objective tliMr. Haldeman, while chief of score of operatives working in Mr. Chapin and Mr. Strachan the White House staff, approved at least seven major primary had in mind was "to create a plan for "covert activities states: New Hampshire, Florida, such confusion among the pri- Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Indi- mary candidates that it would and intelligence" conceived by ana; Illinois and California. two other Presidential aides, be difficult for the Democratic Dwight L. Chapin and Gordon 1When Mr. Segretti's cover party to come back together C. Strachan, and headed by a was blown by news reports of after the convention." young California lawyer named his activities last October, the During the secret session of Donald H. Segretti. White House, fearing repercus- the Watergate grand jury on sions in the Presidential elec- April 11, according to published (IMr. Chapin, who has re- tion less than a month away, cently been denying knowledge excerpts of the testimony, both began a cover-up of the sabo- men took full responsibility for of Mr. Segretti's specific activi- tage operation that, by the ac- hiring Mr. Segretti, a mutual ties, in fact told the Federal count of one participant, in- friend since college days, and Bureau of Investigation last cluded possible perjury and year that he was aware that Mr. Chapin said that he himself obstruction of justice by high had authorized Herbert W. Mr. Segretti had published Nixon Administration officials. "false scheduling information" Kalmbach; then the President's One key participant, who personal lawyer, to pay Mr. relating to the campaign of said that the planning of the Senator Edmund S. Muskie, a Segretti. sabotage effort dated from Feb- Timing of Approval potential violation of Federal ruary of 1971, speculated that law. it was conceived by White According to the Strachan cMr. Colson allegedly pro- House aides in response to the testimony, Mr. Haldeman's ap- vided some direction for the Republican party's discouraging proval of the Segretti operation seco d sabotage effort, the one performance in November, 1970, was sought and obtained only supe sed by Mr. Magruder. when, despite intensive cam- after he and Mr: Chapin had This o ration, on one occasion, paigning by President Nixon, it already set it in motion. hired a -oup of men, including lost 11 seats in the House of ,Both men also maintained two of th Watergate burglars, Representatives and failed- to that they had not given Mr. to conduct a demonstration substantialy reduce the Demo- Segretti, who has been indicted against Dr. iel Ellsberg at cratic majority in the Senate. for some of his activities, and an antiwar rail t one point specific instructions. "We the men physica attacked Fear of 'Next Time' wanted to set him up and get Dr. Ellsberg. Mr. • son em- "I think they just decided, him started and not have to phatically denied tha 4e had `Next time it's the President— worry about him later," Mr. been involved in the incl. -nt. and our jobs," the participant Strachan testified. 'cMr. Colson, while a special said. However, the White House counsel to the President, al- Such participants, other memorandum, provided to the legedly provided direction for knowledgeable persons, docu- Watergate committee by the . former Presidential counsel,

to one re-election committee: official, came mainly from Mr. I Colson, and they annoyed Mr. Magruder, who preferred to concentrate on the intelligence- gathering aspects of the oper- ation. Mr. Magruder, the official re called, "would always say, 'That goddamn Colson, he just sits over there and dreams up this crap.' " The projects dreamed up by Mr. Colson, the official said, ranged from banality to vio- lence. On one occasion, for ex- ample, Mr. Porter paid $8,000 to Richard Howard, a Colson aide, to buy 1,000 copies of "The News Twisters," a book endorsing the Administration's The New York Times United Press Intern*lona! assertion of bias in television Dwight L. Chapin Donald H. Segretti news reporting, in hopes of One of the first to bring Head of one of the boosting it onto the best-seller up idea of sabotage. sabotage operations. lists. Mr. Colson confirmed that he John W. Dean 3d, asserts that had authorized the purchase, an individual referred to as but a spokesman for him said "W," whom Senate sources that it had been done "at Mr. have identified as Mr. Halde- Haldeman's insistence." man, gave both men permis- on Sept. 25 in Portland, Ore., Payment to Liddy sion in advance to "go ahead where Mr. Chapin had accom- and implement" their proposal. panied the President on the The same official alleged that way. to a meeting in Alaska Mr. Colson also authorized the, Mr. Dean went further in his payment of some $3,300 in re- testimony before the commit- He asked one friend, Capt. with Emperor Hirohito of Ja- pan. election committee funds to G. tee, saying that Mr. Haldeman, Thomas Wallace, a military Gordon Liddy, one of the seven contrary to Mr. Chapin's as- judge from Mississippi, if he According to the White House summary prepared by Mr. convicted Watergate conspira- sertion, had also approved the was interested in "infiltrating" tors, that was used to hire a financing for the operation. the campaign of Gov. George Moore, hostile demonstrations group of toughs in Miami in Mr. Kalmbach has told the C. Wallace of Alabama. He was against the President were ex- May, 1972, and fly them to F.B.I. that he provided Mr. Se- not, nor were any of the other pected during his stopover in Portland, and Mr. Chapin had Washington, where they phys- gretti with between $30,000 to half-dozen lawyers Mr. Segretti ically attacked Dr. Ellsberg $40,000 in funds collected approached, even though he as invited his protégé, who ob- while he was addressing an from anonymous Republican sured them that the reason he tained a room at the Benson Hotel where the Presidential antiwar rally on the Capitol campaign contributors. preferred lawyers for such steps. Besides being the earliest, the work was that he did not wantl party was quartered, to see Segretti operation was the more to do anything illegal. first-hand how logistical and Dr. Ellsberg, who was then ambitious, and at times the less crowd-control problems were under indictment in connection professional, of the two Muskie Staff Knew handled. with the release of the Penta- sabotage efforts. It was through one of these gon papers, was not seriously contacts that members of Sen 'Legitimate' Surveillance hurt. `Wheels Within Wheels' ator Muskie's campaign staff At other meetings in Cali- The nine men were recruited, Its origins can be traced to first learned of the Segretti fornia and Washington, D.C., and led by Bernard L. Barker June of 1971, when Capt. D. H. operation in the summer of Mr. Chapin urged his friend to and included Eugenio R. Mar- Segretti, then an Army lawyer 1971, more than a year before begin by studying the Demo- tinez. Both pleaded guilty in still two months from discharge the details were made public. cratic candidates through the Watercase bugging case. and described by one friend Alex B. Shipley, one of the "legitimate" surveillance, and Another member of the group as "enamored of power, bro- Army lawyers Mr. Segretti ap- suggested to him examples of later told friends in Miami that, kers, the wheels within wheels proached, mentioned casually harassment that could be em- although the men were arrested that turn events," first asked to a friend in Mr. Muskie's Sen- ployed against them. on the spot by Capitol police, Mr. Strachan about the pos- ate office that one of his Army By November of 1971, when they were freed moments later sibility of a job in the Presi- buddies appeared to be setting Mr. Segretti, his recruiting drive when the officers were given dent's re-election campaign. up some sort of undercover ap- well under way, was traveling a signal by a mysterious, Both Mr. Strachan, then the paratus directed against the to New Hampshire in anticipa- stranger in a trench coat stand-' Haldeman liaison to the re- Democratic candidates. tion of the upcoming primary ing nearby. The Capitol police election committee, and Mr. James Hall, the Muskie aide, election there, a second sabo- have been unable to find any Chapin, who considered Mr. Se- asked Mr. Shipley to "lead Se- tage operation was being fash- record of the arrests. gretti an "imaginative person" gretti on and find out what he ioned at the Pennsylvania Ave- 'Smear Reports' capable of dreaming up ideas was up to." Mr. Shipley did. nue headquarters of the Com- of his own, thought him per- this, he said, until taking a job mittee for the Re-election of Mr. Colson categorically de- the President. nied that he had been involved fect to head the "black ad- as an assistant state attorney' in the incident in any way, and vance" program of spying and general in Tennessee after his The second operation was under the nominal authority of added that he was "sick and; sabotage they had conceived. But Mr. Hall said that, when tired of smear reports fromi Mr. Chapin's association with things later began to go wrong Mr. Magruder, the deputy di- during Mr. Muskie's campaign, rector of the Nixon campaign, unidentified sources." Mr. Segretti already reached "The source of the report back more than 10 years to the "it just never occurred to us" who has described it as an at- tempt to gather "as much in- and The New York Times, had early nineteen-sixties, when he that Mr. Segretti might be re- better be prepared to match up' had headed an insurgent po- sponsible. formation [as possible] through sources in the opposition's the allegations against the litical group at the University A `Negative Campaign' sworn affidavit denials that I of Southern California that had The former law school class- committee." intend to deliver to Mr. Cox put Mr. Segretti forward as a mates and other friends, in- Mr. Magruder assigned to Mr. [, the special candidate for the student sen- cluding some old girl friends, Porter, the Nixon' campaign's Watergate prosecutor] and to ate. whom Mr. Segretti asked to scheduling director who also the Senate select committee," Meeting in Capitol work in the sabotage opera- knew Mr. Segretti at the uni- he said. versity, the responsibility , for Mr. Chapin invited his old tion also turned him down, It The re-election committee of- was not until, perhaps in des- recruiting intelligence opera- ficial maintained, however, friend to a meeting in Wash- tives and for doling out cash ington with the two men later peration, he began to seek out that "Colson inspired that [the young conservatives from local i for projects suggested from the Ellsberg] operation. that month at which he was I White House across the street. offered the job of spymaster. Republican groups around the country, explaining to them the I The F.B.I. is investigating the The Dirty-Trick Expert' Two weeks later he accepted possibility that a Federal law it, and set out almost immedi- "fun" that could be had in a "Colson was a great one for "negative campaign," that he prohibiting the distribution of counter-demonstrations — you ately to recruit his group of unsigned or falsely attributed amateur political saboteurs. finally began to weave togeth- know, 'have four million [peo- I er the threads that would form campaign literature in the pie] somewhere in 30 minutes," I Mr. Segretti turned first to his network of agents. course of their activities. other lawyers who had served, he said. "One of Colson's re- 3 During the time he was The suggestions, according sponsibilities [at the White with him in the Judge Advocate criss-crossing the country in General's Corps in Vietnam, search of spies, Mr. Segretti: and at Fort Ord, Calif., where was also meeting with Mr.( he had earned the reputation Chapin to discuss the strategy! of a mildly antiwar liberal, and tactics of his operation. with a "Free Huey" poster on his wall and peace symbols on One such meeting took place his checks. House] was that he was the gretti, using the name "Don iirty-trick expert, the caunter- Simmons," walked into the of- demonstration guy." fice of Allan Walker, a Nixon The same man recalled an- campaign official in New Hamp- other incident, this time direct- shire, and offered his help in ed at a Republican candidate, running a "negative campaign." in which he said Mr. Colson Upon checking with the re- and the Nixon campaign com- election committee in Washing- mittee had also been involved, ton, Mr. Walker was told that but which Mr. Colson denies no one there had ever heard of having played any part in. Don Simmons. Nothing hap- Shortly before the New pened for another month,. when Hampshire primary in March, Mr. Magruder received a second 1972, this source said Mr. Col- call, this time from a Nixon son ordered the re-election com- worker in Wisconsin who had mittee to send someone to that been approached by Mr. Sim- state to contribute $200 to the mons with the same offer. campaign of Represenative Disturbed, Mr. Magruder Paul N. McCloskey Jr., Repub- called Liddy, at that time coun- lican of California, a liberal sel to the Nixon finance com- Nixon opponent. mittee, and asked who Don According to the official, the Simmons was. Liddy, who had contribution was to be made never heard of him either, in the name of the Gay Libera- called Mr. Strachan at the tion Front, a militant homosex- White House, and was promptly ual organization, and a receipt The New York Times The New York Times provided with Mr. Segretti's for the money was to be for- Charles W. Colson Jeb Stuart Magruder name and telephone number. warded to William Loeb, the Allegedly provided direc- Supervised "Sedan Chair" publisher of the pro-Nixon tions for C.R.P. effort. and other operations. Told to Expect Call Manchester, N. H., Union- Mr. Strachan then telephoned Leader. campaign's internal correspond- be unpopular with the students hiS friend and, according to his Aide Balked ence, taken by a taxi driver there. grand jury testimony, "told him Mr. Porter dispatched Roger employed as a courier between to expect a call from Gordon the candidate's Senate office In response to a question pos- Liddy" and to "answer his ques-' Stone, a young aide, to New sibly provoked by the leaflet, Hampshire with the money, the and his campaign headquarters. titans." official said, but when the The driver was paid with $3,000 Senator Muskie conceded to his Mr. Segretti did receive a call, young man walked into the that Mr. Porter gave to Mr. young audience that day that he not from Liddy but from a McCloskey headquarters he Rietz. was "not for abortion as a stranger who gave his name as balked at identifying himself On one occasion, Mr. Rietz birth-control device." Ed Warren, and who said he as a homosexual, and said in- delivered a copy of a memoran- After working for a short was aware of the young man's stead that he was from the dum by Anna Navarro., Mr. time in New Hampshire and interest in politics. Young Socialist Alliance, a Muskie's polling expert, recom- Florida, Mr. Greaves decided The two men met or talked Marxist organization. mending that the Senator, as that the work was "very boring by telephone several times dur- The official said that Mr. chairman of the Intergovern- and tedious," and, after having ing the next five months, with Stone made the contribution mental Relations Subcommittee, earned some $3,800, he quit. Mr. Warren sometimes provid- and obtained a receipt, which hold property-tax hearings in "Sedan Chair" lapsed for a ing suggestions for political ac7, was forwarded to Mr. Loeb, as Los Angeles as a publicity de- few weeks until Mr. Magruder tivities he might undertake, or Mr. Colson had directed. But vice before officially declaring ordered it revived in March, discussing the arrangement of the Nixon campaign official said his candidacy. 1972 and Mr. Stone was sent pro-Nixon demonstrations at he could not recall whether. Mr. That way, the document sug- to find a new operative. Using the Republican National Con- Loeb had ever published an ar- gested, Mr. Muskie could "take the code name "Jason," Mr. vention. ticle about it. advantage of free TV time be- Stone found in Louisville, Ky., When Mr. Segretti inquired In all, Mr. Porter told the fore it is too late." Mr. Ma- Michael McMinoway who re- of the pipe-smoking stranger Senate Watergate committee he gruder quickly ordered the portedly had done similar work who he was and for whom he had disbursed nearly $70,000 memorandum retyped and in the 1967 campaign of Ken- worked, he was told not to ask in cash at Mr. Magruder's re- mailed off to Rowland Evans tucky Gov. Louis B. Nunn and such questions. Mr. Warren, be quest, including an additional and Robert Novak, the syndi- was eager to use his skills in a later admitted, had "scared" $31,000 to Liddy for unspeci- cated columnists, who reprinted Presidential campaign. him a bit. fied "dirty tricks" and $4,400 what one Muskie aide conceded As "Sedan Chair II," Mr. Mc- It was not until a week or so for another Colson project— was a "very damaging docu- Minoway, whom Mr. Magruder after the June 17 break-in at the the purchase of a full-page ad- ment." has inaccurately described as a Watergate that Mr. Segretti, vertisement in The New York The 'Sedan Chair' "disgruntled" Humphrey work- leafing through a news maga- Times that purported grass- er, infiltrated the campaign or- At Mr. Magruder's urging, zine, was stopped short by a roots support for the mining of ganizations of Senators Muskie picture of "Ed Warren." The Mr. Porter also recruited un- and Hubert H. Humphrey during Haiphong Harbor. dercover agents for the re-elec- caption identified the man as In fact, the advertisement, the Wisconsin, Pennsylvania E. Howard Hunt Jr., the former tion committee's operation, and California primaries, and part of which Mr. Colson ad- which was dubbed "Sedan White House consultant whose mits he wrote, was placed not worked his way into a security name had been found in an ad- Chair," a name Mr. Porter re- job at the Miami Beach head- by the group Of citizens who membered from a Marine Corps dress book belonging to one of signed it but by the November quarters of Senator George Mc- the men arrested inside the exercise in which he had once Govern during the Democratic Group, the Nixon campaign's taken part. Democratic National headquar- advertising agency. National Convention. ters. He found "Sedan Chair I," a Mr. Porter made other pay- Was Paid $6,000 'If I'd Known' ments as well—$350 for the young man from Los Angeles printing of an anti-Muskie named Roger Greaves, through According to both Mr. Porter "If I'd known what was going pamphlet that one Republican a mutual friend on the. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman, until on," he later told a friend M a official said had been prepared campaign staff. Mr. Greaves recently Mr. Nixon's top domes- reference to Hunt's role in the by Mr. Colson's "shop." Mr. worked first in California, tic affairs adviser, the reports Watergate bugging, "I wouldn't Colson denies any knowledge where one of his responsibilities Mr. McMinoway filed found have touched that stuff with 'a of it. was to recruit hostile pickets their way to Mr. Strachan in 20-foot pole." to confront Democratic candi- his role as a White House liai- But Watergate was nearly. 'a Use of Viewer dates at speeches and rallies, son with the campaign commit- year off when Mr. Segretti, Mr. Porter also paid $300 and he once arranged• for a tee. Mr. Porter said in testi- armed with his instructions for pickets to harass Mr. Mus- dozen or so to greet Senator mony before the Senate Water- from Mr. Chapin and Mr. Stra- kie at campaign stops ("strictly Muskie at a November, 1971, gate Committee that he had chan to throw the Democratic a media thing," the source speech at California's Whittier paid Mr. McMinoway $6,000 for party into utter confusion, set said) and $50 or $60" for a College. three months' work. off in September; 1971, to en- small viewing machine. Unknown to Mr. Greaves, In retrospect, one bizarre as- list soldiers in his campaign of Mr. Porter said in his testi- however, Mr. Segretti had pect of the Republican sabotage "black advance." mony that the viewer had been chosen to attend the same ral- campaign was that officials at ised to display the 35-milli- ly, and he may have brushed the re-election committee were Tomorrow: a detailed look meter slides that were regular- by the "Sedan Chair" pickets unaware until Febrgary of 1972 at how the Republican sabo- y delivered to him by Kenneth as he passed through the crowd, that there existed a second sab- tage operation worked, and at Iietz, the Nixon campaign's handing out leaflets describing otage effort aimed at achieving the White House attempt tb south director. They contained Mr. Muskie's position on abor- essentially the same results. cover it up once it was dis- thotographs of the Muskie tion, which he believed would A few weeks earlier Mr. Se- covered.