watergate scandal and deep throat update, g. gordon liddy

G. Gordon Liddy

The former FBI agent who helped plan the Watergate break-in capitalized on his Watergate legend and took his political views to the airwaves. Gordon Liddy's conservative radio talk show, "The G. Gordon Liddy Show," was broadcast on 232 stations nationwide. He has written the novels "The Monkey Handlers" and "Out of Control" and an autobiography, "Will," which became a best-seller. He is also an actor in motion pictures and television. Liddy has been known to support a conspiracy theory that the Watergate break-in was a means of covering up a call-girl ring run out of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The theory got him involved in a defamation lawsuit filed by Ida "Maxie" Wells, a former DNC headquarters secretary who sued Liddy for saying that the her desk was targeted in a search for pictures of prositutes by Watergate burglars. The case was dismissed by the U.S. District Court in Baltimore after jurors could not reach a verdict. Wells appealed that decision. Liddy was convicted for his role in the Watergate break-in, for conspiracy in the Daniel Ellsberg case and for contempt of court, spending about four and a half years in prison. In 1986, a federal appeals court found Liddy liable for $20,499 in back taxes on Watergate slush-fund money, rejecting his claim that his benefits did not exceed $45,000. As one of the White House "plumbers," Liddy spent about $300,000 engineering political dirty tricks and the Watergate break-in. Liddy lives in Fort Washington, Md.

Second Trial Opens in Case Against Liddy (June 25, 2002)