Video: 'WATERGATE AFFAIR BBC DOKUMENTATION 1994'
(Tuesday, January 30, 1973; during the Watergate scandal) — Two former officials of President Richard Nixon’s political organization were convicted today in the Watergate trial of plotting to spy on the Democrats during last year’s campaign.
The guilty verdicts were returned against G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. after less than 90 minutes of deliberation by a jury of eight women and four men in the United States District Court in Washington.
The men were sent immediately to the District of Columbia jail for the night by Chief Judge John J. Sirica, who postponed until at least tomorrow a decision on bonds for the two pending sentencing.
Liddy and McCord stood without expression while the verdicts were read. But Liddy, who has been outwardly cavalier throughout the trial, gave snappy hand salutes to friends and spectators as he was led from the courtroom.
The jury found Liddy, who was counsel to the Committee for the Re-election of the President and its finance arm, guilty of all six counts of the indictment against him. He could receive a maximum of 35 years in prison.
The 43-year-old lawyer, a resident of suburban Oxon Hill, Md., was convicted of conspiracy, two counts of second-degree burglary, attempted wiretapping, attempted bugging, and wiretapping.
McCord, who was security coordinator for the re-election committee, was found guilty on all eight counts filed against him. These were all those against Liddy, plus charges of possessing wiretapping and bugging equipment.
McCord, 48, a former official of the Central Intelligence Agency who lives in Rockville, Md., had also worked as a se curity official of the Republican National Committee. He could receive a 45-year sentence.
McCord was one of five men who broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee, on the sixth floor of the Watergate office building, early on the morning of June 17, 1972.
When surprised by the police, the men were wearing rubber surgical gloves and were carrying cameras capable of copying documents, an assortment of electronic eavesdropping devices, and a number of $100 bills.
The four men — Bernard L. Barker, Eugenio R. Martinez, Frank A. Sturgis, and Virgilio R. Gonzalez, all of Miami — pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial and are in jail pending sentencing.
A seventh defendant, E. Howard Hunt Jr., also pleaded guilty as the trial opened. He is a former agent of the C.I.A., a one-time consultant to the White House, and the author of 46 novels. He is free on a $100,000 surety bond.
It was the June 17 arrests and the subsequent disclosure of the White House connections of Liddy, Hunt, and McCord that opened one of the more mysterious and bizarre chapters in American political history.
The affair blossomed with allegations that the Watergate wiretapping was only part of a widespread and well-financed effort to spy on the Democrats on behalf of the Republicans.
The criminal proceeding that ended today covered only the eavesdropping at Democratic headquarters and an espionage operation within the offices of two Democratic Presidential contenders, Senators George McGovern of South Dakota and Edmund S. Muskie of Maine.
The trial, which lasted 16 days and heard 62 Government and defense witnesses, consequently left unanswered at least as many questions as it took up. The case is far from over, however.
A congressional committee under Senator Sam J. Ervin Jr., Democrat of North Carolina, is scheduled to begin hearings on the overall espionage question later this year.
In addition, a civil lawsuit filed by the Democrats against a number of President Nixon’s associates is pending in the United States District Court here. The Democrats charge invasion of privacy and civil rights violations.
