Watergate + 37

FILE - In this in this Jan 8, 1973 file photo, E. Howard Hunt, left arrives with two unidentified men to the the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Watergate break-in planner Hunt sought a presidential pardon by saying he thought the infamous burglary had been authorized by Attorney General John Mitchell, according to FBI documents released two years after his death. (AP Photo, File)













Watergate break-in planner E. Howard Hunt sought a presidential pardon by saying he thought the infamous burglary had "executive authorization," according to FBI documents released two years after his death. He died without getting a pardon.

Hunt assumed? That would have been enough, it would seem he thought, to make it pardonable.

Despite working as a CIA agent for more than two decades and his role in Watergate, Hunt's file is remarkably thin. As a CIA agent Hunt was involved in a U.S.-backed coup in Guatemala in 1954 and the botched Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. He worked in China, Mexico, Japan and Spain, among other places.

Redacted?

American spy : my secret history in the CIA, Watergate, and beyond
Hunt, E. Howard (Everette Howard), 1918-2007.
Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, c2007.
xii, 340 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

Responding to the form's question No. 5, which asks for a description of the crime he had committed, Hunt wrote, "My involvement in the June 17, 1972 episode was this: Acting on what I believed to be executive authorization delegated to the then Attorney General, I helped organize an entry team of four men to enter the office of the Democratic National Committee and photograph its financial ledgers. Purpose: search for illegal foreign contributions."

Right.