James McCord

[Shane O'Sullivan]

When the Watergate burglars were arrested, they gave the arresting officers false names. But as they provided handwriting samples at police headquarters, an MPD intelligence officer recognized "Edward Martin" as ex-CIA security officer James McCord, the security chief for the Nixon campaign.

When he interviewed McCord in his courthouse cell that afternoon, McCord said he was sorry, he had taken a calculated risk and gotten caught - the other men were retired CIA men from Miami. Apart from one FBI interview, the MPD officer has never told his story until now: https://nixondirtytricks.com/garey-bittenbender

A few months ago, I also posted a blog on how the Secret Service reacted to news of the Watergate break-in. Jake Esterline, CIA station chief in Miami, told a local Secret Service agent "the Agency was concerned with [James] McCord's emotional stability prior to his retirement.” The agent laughed, "knowing that this was his attempt to cover the Agency's backside." You can read the full story here: https://nixondirtytricks.com/the-secret-service

Finally, on this date a year ago, I wrote a piece for the Washington Post on James McCord and the revealing PowerPoint presentation he shared with his family two years before he died: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/05/09/watergate-burglars-account-his-crimes-and-what-it-tells-us-about-mueller-indictments