G. Gordon Liddy, the Richard Nixon 1972 reelection campaign operative who played a central role in the Watergate scandal that led to the former president’s resignation, died Tuesday at the age of 90. Liddy’s son, Thomas, confirmed his death. He did not provide a cause of death but noted that COVID-19 was not a factor.
A former FBI agent, Liddy ran an unsuccessful congressional bid in New York in 1968. He served as an aide in the Treasury Department during Nixon’s first term in office. After a stint in that role, he headed up a team of operatives known as "The Plumbers," who were tasked with gathering information on Nixon’s political rivals and combating leaks following the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
Later, Liddy served on Nixon’s Committee to Reelect the President. He was known as the mastermind of a plot to place wiretaps inside Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington in 1972. The plot was discovered and Liddy was arrested, alongside fellow Nixon operative Howard Hunt and five others.
Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping. He refused to testify before a Senate committee regarding his involvement in what became known as the "Watergate Scandal" and spent more than four years in prison.
The longtime operative was unrepentant regarding his role in the scandal.
"I’d do it again for my president," Liddy said years after the incident.
Nixon resigned in 1974 as Congress began the process of impeaching him.
Poster Comment:
A prostitution ring was being run out of the DNC headquarters in the Watergate Hotel - recovering evidence of that criminal enterprise was the motive for the burglary. G. Gordon Liddy was a Good White Man