Indictments in the Ellsberg psychiatrist’s office burglary case

The indictments in the Ellsberg psychiatrist’s office burglary case charged a conspiracy to break into the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Handed down by a second Washington grand jury about a week after the March 1, 1974 Watergate cover-up indictments, they brought former White House and campaign figures into a separate criminal case and exposed a striking overlap with the original Watergate break-in defendants.

Background and Sequence

By late February 1974, several figures connected to the Nixon campaign and the Watergate investigation had pleaded guilty to charges; others faced indictments or trial. On March 1, a Washington grand jury charged seven former White House and campaign aides with conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate cover-up. A second grand jury returned the Ellsberg-office indictments about a week later. The sequence placed the burglary case alongside, but distinct from, the prosecution of the Watergate cover-up.

Charges and Participants

The second grand jury charged John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, Gordon Liddy, and three Cuban Americans with conspiracy to burglarize the psychiatrist’s office. Bernard Barker and Eugenio Martinez were among the three Cuban Americans named. Both were also among the defendants in the original Watergate break-in case. The shared defendants linked the two cases through personnel, even as the indictments concerned different alleged burglaries and conspiracies.

Wider Consequences

The indictments arrived as the House Judiciary Committee had begun an investigation into possible presidential impeachment, the first such inquiry in more than a century. In the parallel Watergate cover-up case, the grand jury had also sent Judge John Sirica a report and supporting evidence concerning the President; prosecutors had argued that the Constitution barred indicting an incumbent President, and the jurors recommended that the materials go to the House committee. The Ellsberg-office charges thus formed part of a broader legal crisis, while remaining a separate indictment focused on the conspiracy to burglarize the psychiatrist’s office.