Watergate figure and FBI agent, who was at the centre of the break-in that started it all, dies at 90
WASHINGTON: G Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent who helped orchestrate the 1972 Watergate break-in, a crime that began the unravelling of Richard Nixon’s presidency, died on Tuesday at the age of 90.
Liddy, who parlayed his Watergate infamy into a 20-year career as a conservative talk-radio host, died surrounded by family at the home of his daughter in Mount Vernon, Virginia, his son, Thomas P Liddy, told Reuters by telephone.
“He had a full life, and it just had run its course,” the younger Liddy said of his father, adding that Covid-19 was not a factor. “He did all the good lord asked of him and then a little more.”
Liddy had been diagnosed a few years ago as suffering from Parkinson’s disease, his son said. News of Liddy’s death was first reported by The Washington Post.
Liddy, born George Gordon Battle Liddy, was one of the White House “plumbers” whose job it was to plug leaks to the media in the Nixon administration. His portfolio at Nixon’s committee to re-elect the president was “dirty tricks”.
He and colleague E Howard Hunt, a former CIA agent, were tasked to come up with illegal schemes. But not all their plans were rejected. In 1971, a few months before the Watergate burglary, Liddy was part of a break-in at the offices of a psychiatrist who was seeing Daniel Ellsberg, a former US military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Then came the break-in that would undo Nixon. Liddy and Hunt came up with the plan to get into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington as Nixon was seeking re-election in 1972.
After his team was caught, Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. He was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and served nearly five before being released - thanks to a commutation in 1977 from Democratic president Jimmy Carter.
Liddy had refused to cooperate with prosecutors, which had led a judge to add 18 months to the prison term because he would not answer a grand jury’s questions.
Liddy’s time in prison was the longest of any Watergate figure but he remained unapologetic about his crime and told The New York Times he would do it again if asked.
After prison, Liddy started a security and investigation firm, wrote best-selling books, had a few acting roles on TV and in movies and in 1992 became host of a Washingtonbased radio talk show that was eventually syndicated to more than 225 stations. He retired in 2012.