Is 'White House Plumbers' inspired by true events? Inside the White House' most explosive investigation unit
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Making a project on real-life stories or events is never easy, and when they are based on politics, it gets even tougher. One of the biggest moments in US politics took place in the 1970s that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Yes, we are talking about the Watergate Scandal that took the entire world by storm. To give a bold and unique look at the scandal, HBO is set to come forward with a five-part series titled ‘White House Plumbers’.
Watergate Scandal was a pivotal moment in the history of US politics, but ‘White House Plumbers’ is also something that turned out to be really important. The HBO series chronicles the journey of Watergate masterminds and President Nixon’s political operatives E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, a part of the ‘White House Plumbers’ charged with plugging press leaks by any means necessary. However, things go downhill as soon as they start their operation and they accidentally overturn the Presidency they were trying to protect.
READ MORE
‘White House Plumbers’ on HBO: Meet the cast of political drama about the Watergate scandal
What is ‘White House Plumbers’ about? The plot of HBO’s political drama explained
We all know that Watergate is a real-life scandal, but what about “White House Plumbers”? Let’s dive a little deeper and take a look at if the HBO series is based on a real story or not.
‘White House Plumbers’ was a real-life investigation unit
In June 1971, a week after the publication of the explosive ‘Pentagon Papers,’ President Richard Nixon established a Special Investigations Unit named ‘The White House Plumber’ in order to stop or respond to the leaking of classified information to the media. The Special Investigations Unit opened offices in Room 16 in the basement of the Executive Office Building next door to the White House. The President gave John Ehrlichman the responsibility to supervise the project. Meanwhile, in July, Ehrlichman appointed Egil Krogh Jr. to head the unit.
As time progressed, the team started getting bigger and new members joined in. The first task given to the Plumbers was the burglary of the office of Daniel Elisberg’s Los Angeles psychiatrist, Lewis J. Fielding, in an effort to discredit Elisberg, who actually leaked the Pentagon Papers.
The unit chose a team to do the dirty work and it included people like James W. McCord, Eugenio Martinez, Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard L. Barker, and Frank A. Sturgis.
They couldn’t accomplish the burglary and the next day, newspapers published the report of the burglary and labeled it as an incident that was a stranger-than-fiction local interest story.
The entire plan was stitched to save Richard Nixon’s presidency, but it actually led to the end of his reign.
HBO series also takes inspiration from Egil Krogh’s book ‘Integrity’
Krogh was an American lawyer who lost all his credibility after his name was mentioned in the Watergate affair. He had to go to prison for the same because he was the one who approved the September 1971 burglary of the office of Lewis Fielding. He pleaded guilty to federal charges and cooperated with the prosecutors. He was sentenced to six years in prison, though he served only four-and-a-half months.
After coming out of prison, he wrote the book ‘Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House with his son Matthew. The book is Krogh’s memoir of his experiences of what really went behind closed doors, of how a good man like him can also lose his moral compass. In the book, Krogh also wrote about how too much power can destroy a lot of lives.
The HBO series takes a lot of inspiration from the aforementioned book and talks about how the unit was formed and how they made their plans.
Who stars in the HBO series?
Woody Harrelson plays the role of E. Howard Hunt while Justin Theroux portrays the character of G. Gordon Liddy on the show. Other actors to feature in the series include Domhall Gleeson (John Dean), Lena Headey (Dorothy Hunt), Rich Sommer (Egil Krogh), Kim Coates (Frank Ssturgis), Liam James (Saint John Hunt), Nelson Ascencio (Virgilio Gonzalez), Toby Huss (James W. McCord), and Tony Plana (Eugenio Martinez).
‘White House Plumbers’ is set to premiere on HBO on Monday, May 1.