Nixon would stop at nothing to win this war of hearts and minds, even if it meant breaking the law.
In 1971, a White House group known as the "Plumbers" was established to eliminate administration leaks to the press. Their first target was Daniel Ellsberg who had worked on the Pentagon Papers, a highly critical study of America's Vietnam War policy. Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers — a top secret study of government decision-making in regards to the Vietnam War intended to be used internally by the government — to the New York Times. The Plumbers vandalized the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, hoping to find discrediting information on Ellsberg to release to the public.
Later that year, Attorney General John Mitchell resigned from his position in order to head CRP. Under his direction, the campaign raised millions of dollars in illegal contributions and laundered several hundred thousand for "plumbing" activities. A White House adviser named G. Gordon Liddy suggested that the Democratic headquarters be bugged and that other funds should be used to bribe, threaten, or smear Nixon's opponents.

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