Jeb Stuart Magruder

Jeb Stuart Magruder
Born	(1934-11-05) 5 November 1934 Staten Island, New York, U.S.
Died	11 May 2014(2014-05-11) (aged 79)
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, political strategist, Presbyterian minister
Known for	Involvement in Watergate scandal

Jeb Stuart Magruder (November 5, 1934 – May 11, 2014) was an American entrepreneur and senior Republican political strategist who served a prison sentence due to his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

During President Richard Nixon's administration, he occupied several positions, including special assistant for domestic policy and deputy director of the 1972 re-election effort known as the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP). In August 1973, Magruder admitted guilt to charges of conspiracy involving wiretapping, obstruction of justice, and defrauding the United States, resulting in a seven-month incarceration in federal prison.

Following his release, he pursued studies at Princeton Theological Seminary and became ordained as a Presbyterian minister. In later years, Magruder publicly addressed ethical issues and reflected on his Watergate participation, revising narratives about key figures and asserting that Nixon had authorized the break-ins.

Early life

Magruder was born in Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth area as the son of Donald Dilworth Magruder, who owned a middle-class printing business, and Edith Woolverton Magruder. His paternal lineage traced back to southern Maryland with Confederate affiliations; notably, his great-grandfather smuggled footwear for the Confederacy during the Civil War. His father, an enthusiast of Civil War history, named him after Confederate cavalry leader J.E.B. Stuart. Magruder acknowledged his father’s conservative Southern political leanings.

His grandfather, Robert Magruder, moved from Baltimore to Staten Island in 1899 and became president of Johnson Shipyard Corporation. However, in 1921 he was convicted for bank fraud connected to World War I cargo shipbuilding activities; he served six months in prison, which significantly impacted the family’s finances.

Donald Magruder served with the 27th Infantry Division during World War I before transitioning into shipbuilding and printing industries. He married Edith Woolverton in 1923. Jeb was their second son, born in November 1934 following their first child Don, born in June 1930.

Educated through Staten Island’s public school system, Magruder distinguished himself both academically and athletically at Curtis High School. He enrolled at Williams College, where he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity and participated on the swimming team before pausing his studies to serve in the U.S. Army. He was discharged from Officer Candidate School shortly before graduation after being caught going AWOL to take out a colonel’s daughter in a new automobile. Subsequently, he was stationed in South Korea. Returning to Williams College in the fall of 1956, he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science by 1958.

After college, Magruder briefly entered IBM but left its training program within days. He then accepted a sales role with Crown Zellerbach Corporation based in San Francisco and began dating Gail Barnes Nicholas, daughter of a well-known Los Angeles lawyer. They married on October 17, 1959. Crown Zellerbach soon relocated him to Kansas City where he managed sales of paper products across Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Marriage and family

On October 17, 1959, in Los Angeles, Magruder wed Gail Barnes Nicholas. The marriage produced four children before ending in divorce in 1984.

He later married Patricia Newton on February 28, 1987, in Columbus, Ohio. This union concluded with a divorce in May 2003.

Business career and politics

Magruder's entry into politics began as a Republican campaign manager in Kansas City during the 1960 election cycle, where he also served as chairman of an urban ward.

In 1961, he relocated to Chicago to pursue an MBA through the University of Chicago’s evening program while simultaneously overseeing the local branch of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. He maintained his involvement in Republican politics by acting as ward chairman for Donald Rumsfeld's victorious 1962 congressional primary campaign.

By 1962, Magruder had joined the regional grocery chain Jewel, advancing to merchandise manager over nearly four years. Toward the end of 1963, he participated in Barry Goldwater's Illinois presidential campaign but eventually became disenchanted with Goldwater's positions. In 1966, he briefly managed Richard Ogilvie's campaign for president of the Cook County Board of Supervisors. The combined pressures from his political commitments and professional responsibilities prompted his departure from Jewel.

Midway through 1966, Magruder returned to California to take a position at Broadway Stores. The following year, he coordinated Southern California efforts for the Richard Nixon presidential campaign but exited early in 1968 due to internal conflicts.

At the start of 1969, Magruder partnered with two businessmen to establish two new ventures, assuming the roles of president and CEO for both companies.

White House staff

In 1969, Magruder joined the White House staff as a special assistant to the president and moved his family to Washington, D.C. Recruited by Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, his responsibility was to develop a more efficient public relations strategy for the White House. By 1970, he had been promoted to deputy director of the Office of Communications under Herbert G. Klein.

During this tenure, Magruder authored a memorandum dated October 17, 1969, addressed to Haldeman titled "The Shotgun versus the Rifle." The document recommended a strategic approach targeting media organizations viewed as unfavorable rather than responding on a case-by-case basis. Proposed measures included monitoring media through the FCC, engaging the Justice Department’s antitrust division, conducting IRS inquiries into adversarial networks and newspapers, prioritizing friendly media outlets, and launching an extensive letter-writing initiative via the Republican National Committee. Magruder later characterized this memo as an effort to reduce ongoing White House pressure on the press.

Committee to Re-elect the President

Magruder departed from his White House role in spring 1971 to become director of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP). By early 1972, Attorney General John N. Mitchell took over leadership of CRP with Magruder serving as deputy. As Mitchell dealt with an ITT Corporation controversy and managed challenges related to his outspoken wife Martha Mitchell, Magruder increasingly assumed day-to-day management of CRP operations.

The 1972 re-election campaign culminated in a decisive victory, capturing 49 out of 50 states and amassing 520 electoral votes compared to Democrat George McGovern’s 17—marking then the second-largest margin in Electoral College history after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s triumph in 1936.

Oversaw 1973 Presidential Inauguration

Beginning in October 1972, Magruder took on the role of inaugural director for President Nixon's January 1973 inauguration and its associated events. By March 1973, he briefly assumed the position of director of policy planning at the United States Department of Commerce, but resigned shortly thereafter as the Watergate scandal escalated following revelations from former burglar James McCord regarding perjury during the initial Watergate trial.

Watergate Scandal

In his capacity with the CRP, Magruder played a significant part early in the Watergate affair, contributing to its planning, execution, and subsequent cover-up efforts.

Liddy's Proposal

On January 27 and February 4, 1972, Magruder met with White House Counsel John Dean and John Mitchell to examine preliminary intelligence-gathering schemes devised by G. Gordon Liddy (CRP Counsel) for the 1972 campaign. These discussions laid the groundwork for the Watergate break-ins. Since their initial meeting in December 1971, Magruder and Liddy—who was hired by Mitchell and Dean—had a contentious working relationship.

Collaboration with Prosecutors

Starting in April 1973, Magruder began cooperating with federal prosecutors. By August 1973, he pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy involving obstruction of justice, defrauding the United States, and illegal surveillance of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and Office Building. During this period, Magruder embarked on a college campus speaking tour, which led some critics to accuse him of capitalizing on both the scandal and his decision to testify against others. On May 21, 1974, Judge John Sirica sentenced him to a term ranging from ten months to four years for his involvement in the burglary and cover-up. Magruder served three months at a minimum security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, followed by four months at a "safe house prison" located at Fort Holabird Base in Baltimore Harbor alongside Chuck Colson, John Dean, and Herb Kalmbach due to threats from other inmates.

Initially, Magruder testified that he had no indication President Nixon had prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in.

In his book An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate (1974), he stated:

I have no information suggesting that Nixon was informed beforehand about the plan to infiltrate Democratic headquarters. While it is possible that Mitchell or Haldeman notified him in advance, it seems more probable they would only have mentioned it if the operation yielded results of interest.

This publication preceded both Magruder’s sentencing and Nixon’s resignation.

Magruder expressed that he believed his actions were aimed at creating a lawful intelligence-gathering initiative. He described a meeting between former Attorney General John Mitchell and Fred LaRue in late March 1972 at Key Biscayne, Florida, during which Mitchell authorized the plan to wiretap the Watergate complex shortly thereafter.

After Watergate

Following his incarceration, Magruder authored a Christian memoir titled From Power to Peace in 1976. He obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1981 and was subsequently ordained as a Presbyterian minister. His ministerial duties included serving as an associate pastor at congregations in Burlingame, California and Columbus, Ohio, where he also led the city's Commission on Ethics and Values. In May 1983, President Ronald Reagan declined Magruder's petition for a presidential pardon.

By 1990, Magruder had assumed the role of senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Five years later, Governor Brereton Jones reinstated Magruder’s voting privileges and restored his eligibility to run for public office within Kentucky.

Ongoing controversy

In 1990, Magruder collaborated with Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin on their book Silent Coup: The Removal of a President (1991). He conceded that he had provided false testimony to prosecutors, the Senate Watergate Committee, and in his 1974 autobiography An American Life, specifically regarding elements of the initial cover-up.

Magruder disclosed that he contacted John Dean shortly after the discovery of the second Watergate break-in, which led Dean to initiate efforts to conceal the incident. This account corresponded with G. Gordon Liddy's version presented in his 1980 memoir Will, offering a counter-narrative to previous stories that had implicated senior officials such as Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and Mitchell in a negative light.

He also admitted to directing Liddy concerning the second break-in—a fact he had formerly denied. At the time these revelations were made, Magruder was serving as a Presbyterian minister in Columbus.

In 2003, during interviews conducted for PBS and the Associated Press as part of the documentary Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, Magruder asserted that President Nixon was aware of the Watergate burglary from an early stage and had instructed Mitchell to proceed. He claimed attendance at a March 30, 1972 meeting where Nixon purportedly summoned Mitchell to authorize the operation. This assertion was contested by Fred LaRue, who was present at the meeting and refuted any such communication. Magruder remains unique among direct participants in maintaining that Nixon had prior knowledge and gave orders concerning the burglary—contradicting his earlier statements that suggested the cover-up did not extend beyond Mitchell.

Over time, Magruder’s narrative shifted: in 1974 he indicated that a White House call during that meeting originated from Gordon C. Strachan, aide to H.R. Haldeman; by 1990 he attributed it directly to Haldeman; and by 2003 he claimed President Nixon himself made the call to Mitchell at Key Biscayne.

Final years

Magruder retired initially to Colorado Springs before relocating to Columbus's Short North district. On July 23, 2007, he was hospitalized following a collision involving his vehicle, a motorcycle, and a truck on State Route 315 in Columbus. Reports suggested he experienced a stroke while driving. Authorities charged him with failing to maintain an assured clear distance and failing to stop after an accident. In January 2008, Magruder entered a guilty plea for reckless operation related to this incident; as a result, his driver’s license was suspended and he was fined $300.

Death

In 2012, Magruder moved closer to relatives in Danbury, Connecticut. He passed away on May 11, 2014, at the age of 79, as a result of complications following a stroke.

Sources

• Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, Silent Coup: The Removal of a President, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991
• Jeb Stuart Magruder, An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate, New York 1974, Atheneum
  • published prior to Magruder's sentencing on May 21 and before Nixon's resignation.