Stanley L. Greigg - The Watergate Break-in

The Watergate Break-in

Greigg served as the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1970 to July 1972. It was in that position that Greigg found himself at the genesis of the Watergate scandal in the early morning hours of June 17, 1972. In the office of Greigg's personal secretary, in DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex, D.C. police officers first confronted burglars carrying eavesdropping devices. Awakened early that morning by a call from a D.C. policeman and informed that his offices had been burglarized, Greigg asked, "did you catch the kids?" The officer responded, "no, sir, these men we arrested were in business suits." Greigg called the DNC Director, Lawrence O'Brien, and told him that "all hell had broken loose." Later that morning Greigg signed the original criminal complaint. That complaint led to a series of investigations that culminated in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. Ironically, the Watergate scandal also ended the congressional career of the man who defeated Greigg in 1966, Wiley Mayne. While serving as a member of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 during its consideration of articles of impeachment of Richard Nixon, Mayne voted against the articles, changing his position only later, after the most damning evidence emerged. That year Mayne lost his bid for re-election, in an outcome attributed to his votes against impeachment.

In July 1972, Greigg moved from his party position to a similar role in the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern. He also served as director of the Lawrence F. O'Brien Center at Dag Hammarskjold College in 1972.

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