Nixon plumber who went to prison tells story

"Ever since pleading guilty and serving a prison sentence, I have felt a growing need to convey my deep regret and apology to all Americans for my criminal actions as head of Nixon's White House plumbers."
-- from an unpublished manuscript by Egil "Bud" Krogh

How does a promising young Seattle lawyer go from skyrocketing success to scandal and defeat?

How does a well-meaning man trying to serve his country drag it down instead into crime and corruption?

Ask Egil Krogh.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Seattle attorney Egil "Bud" Krogh discusses the "plumbers" operation in the Nixon White House. He wants everyone to know it was wrong.

It's been 30 years since he was indicted for his role in burglarizing psychiatrist Lewis Fielding's office in a failed attempt to discredit the man whose Pentagon Papers embarrassed the White House.

At the time, Krogh thought he was right. He was so loyal to President Nixon, so certain that the president's Vietnam peace strategy was at stake, that he blindly followed White House orders.

That was then.

Now, Krogh wants everyone to know he was wrong.

He'll tell you about his dizzying transformation from top University of Washington law graduate to White House aide to convicted felon to ethics teacher.

It was not Krogh's idea to break into Fielding's office to obtain the confidential medical records of Daniel Ellsberg, who wrote the government's self-critique of its Vietnam War operations and released it without permission.

But Krogh didn't hesitate to set up the 1971 burglary -- or to cover it up.

In 1972, he lied to a Watergate investigator when asked about the activities of his fellow "plumbers," G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, who were later involved in breaking into Democratic Party offices at the Watergate hotel.

Once charged, Krogh argued that national security justified both the Fielding break-in and his false statements.

He hid what he did until November 1973.

Then, before anyone else admitted anything in the scandals that toppled a president and shattered public trust in government, Krogh began what he calls his "quest for redemption."

He was the first to plead guilty, and the first White House staff member to go to jail. He even insisted on being sentenced before he testified in the Watergate case, saying it would be wrong to reduce his own prison time just because he implicated others.

At the time, he told special Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski, "The more I've thought about it, the clearer I've seen that even though there may well have been some damaging impacts on the national security from (Daniel) Ellsberg's releasing the Pentagon Papers, those impacts simply can't justify the invasion of Fielding's rights ...

"It violates a fundamental principle in our country: the right of an individual to be protected from an unlawful action by his government."

Krogh's change of thinking came during a family trip to colonial Williamsburg, Va., where it struck him that he was enjoying the very rights and freedoms that the break-in had trampled.

Jaworski, the same man who sent Krogh to prison, was so convinced of his integrity that, years later, he helped Krogh get his law license back.

Krogh, disbarred in 1975 and reinstated in 1980, now practices law out of a small, cramped office overlooking Portage Bay.

"I haven't had a moment's doubt" about pleading guilty, says Krogh, who was not involved in the Watergate hotel break-in.

A young man, a dream job

As a boy, Krogh attended Lakeside School in Seattle before going to a Midwest prep school.

He first got to know John Ehrlichman, a family friend, when he was 12 years old.

Ehrlichman's Seattle law firm hired Krogh while he was still in law school. Krogh had just passed the bar exam when Ehrlichman offered him a job as deputy counsel to the president -- a dream come true.

"It took me about a second" to accept, Krogh recalls.

Krogh now realizes he wasn't mature enough for the job.

"You can be vulnerable to pressure, particularly in a job like that when the president of the United States is asking you to do things," he says.

"I would have done anything -- in fact I did anything -- he asked me to do."

He paid dearly for it, trading the glamour of the Capitol for a 42-square-foot cell with nothing but a bunk, two lockers and a metal chair.

Sharing hard-earned lessons

For a long time Krogh followed the advice of his friend, the late federal Judge William Dwyer, who told him not to seek profit from his crime by selling his story.

In 1994, Krogh published a book called "The Day Elvis Met Nixon."

It was an insider story, to be sure, relating how Elvis Presley showed up suddenly at the White House gate in 1970, gave the guard a letter saying he wanted Nixon to make him a secret "federal agent at large" so that he could influence young people to resist drugs, and tried to enter the Oval Office with a loaded Colt .45 that he said was a gift for Nixon.

But only now is Krogh finally writing his own inside story.

The incomplete manuscript explains: "Loyalty to the president was primary. Loyalty to spiritual and moral principles, to the U.S. Constitution, and to the law, became secondary. ... I was primed to do whatever was necessary to help the president solve what was perceived as a national security crisis."

Nixon made him feel personally responsible for stopping security leaks, "the highest and most important opportunity I had ever been given in my life," Krogh wrote.

Now, Krogh sees an even more vital opportunity -- to share his lessons with lawyers, students and others.

For five years after leaving prison, he taught graduate students at Golden Gate University how to recognize and avoid the kind of ethical pit that he was too young and ambitious to sidestep.

He still regularly gives lectures.

His message today is the same as at his 1974 sentencing hearing, when he said: "I hope that the young men and women who are fortunate enough to ... serve in government can benefit from this experience and learn that sincerity can often be as blinding as it is worthy.

"When contemplating a course of action, I hope they will never fail to ask, 'Is this right?' "

KEY DATES

June 1968: Egil "Bud" Krogh graduates from law school and goes to work for Seattle lawyer John Ehrlichman.

November 1968: Richard Nixon is elected president and selects Ehrlichman as his presidential counsel.

May 1969: At age 29, Krogh becomes deputy counsel to the president.

July 1971: In response to Daniel Ellsberg's unauthorized disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, Krogh agrees to co-direct the secret "White House Plumbers" unit to stop leaks that could undermine Vietnam peace negotiations.

August 1971: After Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding, refuses to give records to the FBI, Ehrlichman authorizes -- and Krogh coordinates -- a break-in at Fielding's office. G. Gordon Liddy goes to the office in Beverly Hills, Calif., and takes photos in preparation for the break-in.

September 1971: While Liddy maintains a lookout, three burglars ransack Fielding's office but fail to find Ellsberg's confidential medical records.

December 1971: Krogh is removed from the Plumbers unit when he refuses to wiretap a government worker suspected of leaks.

August 1972: Krogh, under orders from Ehrlichman to keep the Plumbers' work secret, lies to a Watergate investigator when asked about the travels of Liddy and co-conspirator Howard Hunt.

February 1973: Krogh is confirmed as Undersecretary of Transportation.

April 1973: The judge handling Ellsberg's prosecution for disclosing the Pentagon Papers asks for affidavits from anyone with knowledge of the Fielding break-in.

May 1973: Krogh submits an affidavit explaining his role and the involvement of Liddy and Hunt. He resigns as Undersecretary of Transportation.

September 1973: Krogh is indicted on charges including burglary and conspiracy.

November 1973: U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell refuses to dismiss charges of making a false declaration, saying national security did not justify Krogh's lying. Krogh realizes he was wrong and pleads guilty to his most serious charge, conspiracy against the rights of citizens.

February 1974: Krogh, sentenced to six months, becomes the first former Nixon staffer to go to jail.

June 1975: The Washington Supreme Court disbars Krogh.

1975-1980: Krogh teaches ethics at Golden Gate University.

May 1980: At the urging of Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski, the state Supreme Court reinstates Krogh to the bar.

P-I reporter Kathy George can be reached at 206-448-8334 or kathygeorge@seattlepi.com

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