David Young

David Young was a White House aide whose place in the Plumbers’ organization made him a consequential link between leak investigations, senior staff, and the routing of surveillance material. The evidence describes him as a deputy to Egil Krogh on the Plumbers’ project and identifies him as the aide who regularly forwarded wiretap transcripts to Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy.

Identity and Background

Young had served as appointments secretary to Henry Kissinger before joining the Plumbers’ project. He was loaned from Kissinger’s office to John Ehrlichman’s staff, where he worked as Krogh’s deputy. The arrangement placed him within a small investigative unit while preserving a formal connection to Kissinger’s office.

Role in the Plumbers

The Plumbers investigated leaks to the news media and reported to Ehrlichman. Their office was in the basement of the Executive Office Building, across from the White House. Kathleen Chenow, the project’s secretary, was technically Young’s secretary; she described Young as regularly reporting the progress of the investigations to Ehrlichman. These details place Young in both the project’s working chain and its reporting line to a senior White House aide.

Routing Wiretap Transcripts

Two sources—a former and a current White House staff member—gave reporters the same account of Young’s role: during 1971 and 1972, he regularly routed transcripts of wiretapped conversations to Hunt and Gordon Liddy. Both sources believed that reporters, as well as people suspected of leaking information to them, might have been tapped. Their account identifies the movement of surveillance material through Young, but does not establish that he selected the targets or originated the wiretaps.

Significance and Limits of the Evidence

Young’s importance lies in the connection his described duties create: he was Krogh’s deputy in a leak-investigation project reporting to Ehrlichman, and he forwarded surveillance transcripts to Hunt and Liddy. The reporting therefore presents him as an operational intermediary within the Plumbers’ structure, not as the project’s head. The evidence specifies his administrative position and a recurring task, while leaving his knowledge of the surveillance’s targets and his authority over its use unresolved.