Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941, in

San Marino, California San Marino is a residential city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2010 census the population was 13,147. The city is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of househol ...

) is an attorney best known for working as a political operative with then-U.S. President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

Committee to Re-elect the President A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

during the early 1970s. Segretti served four and a half months in prison after investigations related to the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...

revealed his leading role in extensive political sabotage efforts ("

ratfucking Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks, particularly pertaining to elections. It was brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the book which chronicled their investigative reporting of ...

") against the Democrats.

Early life

He holds a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(1963) and a J.D. from

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

(1966). While at USC he was a member of the

Trojan Knights The Trojan Knights are an American service and spirit organization associated specifically with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. The organization is officially dedicated to "Brotherhood, Service, & Spirit" and its ...

and initiated into

Phi Sigma Kappa Phi Sigma Kappa (), colloquially known as Phi Sig or PSK, is a men's social and academic fraternity with approximately 74 active chapters and provisional chapters in North America. Most of its first two dozen chapters were granted to schools in ...

fraternity. At

, he was a member of Trojans for Representative Government with future

participants

Dwight L. Chapin Dwight Lee Chapin (born December 2, 1940) is an American political organizer, businessman, and retired public servant. He was Deputy Assistant to President Richard Nixon, during the Watergate scandal. Chapin was convicted of lying to a grand jury ...

, Tim Elbourne, Gordon C. Strachan,

Herbert Porter Herbert L. "Bart" Porter was a campaign aide to U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. Early life At University of Southern California, he was a member of Trojans for Representative Government with future Watergate scandal participants Dwight L. Ch ...

, and

Ron Ziegler Ronald Louis Ziegler (May 12, 1939 – February 10, 2003) was the 13th White House Press Secretary and Assistant to the President, serving during United States President Richard Nixon's administration. Early life Ziegler was born to Louis Daniel ...

Watergate

Segretti was hired by his friend

to run a campaign of dirty tricks – which Segretti referred to as "

" – against the Democrats, with his work being paid for by

Herb Kalmbach Herbert Warren Kalmbach (October 19, 1921 – September 15, 2017) was an American attorney and banker. He served as the personal attorney to United States President Richard Nixon (1968–1973). He became embroiled in the Watergate scandal ...

, Nixon's lawyer, from presidential campaign re-election funds gathered before an April 7, 1972 law required that contributors be identified. Segretti's actions were part of the larger

and were important indicators for the few members of the press investigating the Watergate burglary in the earliest stages that what became known as the Watergate scandal involved far more than just a burglary.

Overview of "dirty tricks" against Democrats

Segretti's involvement in the "

Canuck letter The Canuck letter was a forged letter to the editor of the ''New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester Union Leader'', published February 24, 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary of the 1972 United States presidential election. It implie ...

" typifies the tactics Segretti and others working with him used; in this case they forged a letter ascribed to

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Edmund Muskie Edmund Sixtus Muskie (March 28, 1914March 26, 1996) was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, a United States Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 6 ...

which maligned the people, language, and culture of

French Canada French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

and

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

s, forcing that soon-to-be Democratic presidential candidate considerable headaches by having to deny writing the letter and to continue dealing with that recurrent issue. Many historians have indicated, over the years, that Muskie's withdrawal from the Presidential primaries was at least partly the result of Segretti and some of the other "ratfuckers" having created so much confusion and so many false accusations that Muskie simply could not respond in any meaningful way. Another notable example of Segretti's wrongdoing was a letter he faked, on Edmund Muskie's letterhead, falsely alleging that U.S. Senator

Henry "Scoop" Jackson Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson (May 31, 1912 – September 1, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. representative (1941–1953) and U.S. senator (1953–1983) from the state of Washington. A Cold War liberal and an ...

, a fellow Democrat, had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old. The "Muskie letters" also accused Senator

Hubert H. Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

of sexual misconduct. After testimony regarding the Muskie letters emerged, Democrats in Florida noted the similarity between those sabotage incidents and others that involved stationery stolen from Humphrey's offices after Muskie dropped out of the race. For example, a false news release on Humphrey's letterhead accused Rep.

Shirley Chisholm Shirley Anita Chisholm ( ; ; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional distr ...

(D-N.Y.) of being "mentally unbalanced", and a mailing with an unidentified source mischaracterized Humphrey as supporting a controversial environmental measure that he actually opposed. Segretti appeared as a witness before the

Senate Watergate Committee The Senate Watergate Committee, known officially as the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, was a special committee established by the United States Senate, , in 1973, to investigate the Watergate scandal, with the power to inv ...

in October 1973.

Imprisoned following Watergate conviction

In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...

counts of distributing illegal campaign literature (including the forgeries described above) and was sentenced to six months in prison. Segretti served four months.

Later activities

Segretti was a lawyer who served as a

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

for the U.S. Army and later as a civilian. However, his license was suspended on February 27, 1976. Segretti is currently shown as an active member in good standing of the

State Bar of California The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

Unsuccessful Orange County judgeship bid

In 1995, Segretti ran for a local judgeship in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

. He quickly withdrew from the race when his campaign sparked lingering anger over memories of his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Orange County co-chair of McCain 2000 primary campaign

In 2000, Segretti served as co-chair of

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

in Orange County, California.

In popular culture

In the 1976 film about Watergate, ''

All the President's Men ''All the President's Men'' is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal for ''The Washington ...

'', Segretti was portrayed by

Robert Walden Robert Walden (born Robert Wolkowitz; September 25, 1943) is an American television and motion picture actor. He is best known for his role as Joe Rossi on ''Lou Grant'', which earned him three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting ...

. The character downplayed the dirty tricks he had undertaken as "Nickel-and-dime stuff. ''Stuff.'' Stuff with a little ''wit'' attached to it."

References

External links

* " " (pg. 116 in PDF format)
Donald Segretti
at Spartacus Educational {{DEFAULTSORT:Segretti, Donald 1941 births Living people American prosecutors Marshall School of Business alumni American people of Italian descent People from San Marino, California California lawyers Members of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President UC Berkeley School of Law alumni American people convicted of fraud California Republicans People convicted in the Watergate scandal