MASTER PLAN, Ep 2: Watergate’s Magic Window Of Corporate Cash

After President Richard Nixon’s milk scandal blows up and he fails to stop a resulting anti-corruption law, his henchmen set about circumventing the reforms in order to cover up how they’d used corporate bagmen, suitcases of illegal cash, and secret donor lists to finance the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building.

As we detail in Master Plan Episode 2, Nixon’s aides outline a wild legal theory in a secret memo: They insist there is now a magic lawless window of time when they can wipe away all traces of their biggest donors and how their cash funded the break-in. But Nixon’s aides come up against a team of feisty campaign finance reformers, led by a man Nixon reportedly considered for vice president, who become obsessed with tracking down a coveted secret list… code-named “Rosemary’s Baby.”

The clash blows open the first campaign-finance scandal of the modern era — one involving not only the White House, but brand-name Fortune 500 companies. 

The now-forgotten revelations prompt Nixon’s resignation, prosecutions of corporations and their top executives, and new anti-corruption legislation that politicians are shamed into delivering. But though he is ousted from the White House, Tricky Dick has left a ticking time bomb in Washington.

The Evidence

Scroll down to read a full transcript of this episode. Key documents referenced in this episode include: