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 househo ...

) 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 contin ...

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 ...

in finance from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

(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 Fraternities and sororities, fraternity with approximately 74 List of Phi Sigma Kappa chapters#List of Chapters, active chapters and provisional chapters in ...

fraternity. At

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

participants Dwight L. Chapin, Tim Elbourne, Gordon C. Strachan, Herbert Porter, 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 Dwight L. Chapin 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 '' Manchester Union Leader'', published February 24, 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary of the 1972 United States presidential election. It implied that Senator Edmund Muski ...

" typifies the tactics Segretti and others working with him used; in this case they forged a letter ascribed to Senator Edmund Muskie 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 Canadians, 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 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 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.

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's

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 fu ...

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 Washingto ...

'', 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