These so called "dirty tricks" were led by White House staffers Charles Colson, Special Counsel to the President; Jeb Magruder, Deputy Campaign Director of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP); Dwight Chapin, Deputy Assistant to the President; and Donald Segretti, an attorney. These corrupt antics included following Democratic presidential candidates, assembling reports on their personal lives, forged letters on candidates" letterheads, altering schedules of campaign appearances, placing harassing phone calls, and manufacturing false information then leaking it to the press. The overall goal of these tricks was to help eliminate the strongest candidates from the Democratic primaries.

             In New Hampshire the campaign of front-runner, Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine was ruined because of false rumors circulated in newspapers. The day before elections Muskie lashed out at the press. This damaged Muskie"s even-tempered reputation and contributed to his demise in the 1972 Democratic presidential campaign.

             The Special Investigations Unit.

             The Special Investigations Unit, better known as the "plumbers unit," was created as a result of the Pentagon Papers being leaked to the New York Times in June of 1971. The Pentagon Papers were secret defense department documents on the American involvement in the Vietnam War. Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, who worked as a staff member under the National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, leaked the Papers to the New York Times. These Papers also revealed a pattern of government deception related to the Vietnam War. In response the Nixon administration responded by stopping the publication of the paper and charging Ellsberg with espionage.

             President Nixon ordered domestic policy advisor, John Erlichman, to streamline leak plugging by creating the "plumbers unit." The plumbers were to block news leaks and control public knowledge of Vietnam policy.