In January 1973, Daniel Ellsberg was indicted for theft and conspiracy under the Espionage Act of 1917. President Nixon, who feared Ellsberg possessed classified documents that would show that he himself had lied about the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos, instructed Attorney General John Mitchell to discredit Ellsberg by leaking information to the press. Nixon also created a White House clandestine investigative unit, known as "The Plumbers," which was ordered to burglarize the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to find material with which to blackmail him into silence.

NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Pentagon Papers: National Security versus the People’s Right to Know.