Committee for the Re-Election of the President
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The Committee for the Re-election of the President (also known as the Committee to Re-elect the President), abbreviated CRP, but often mocked by the acronym CREEP, was, officially, a fundraising organization of United States President Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign.
Notable members edit
- John N. Mitchell - chairman
- Jeb Magruder - deputy chairman
- Charles Colson
- G. Gordon Liddy
- Fred LaRue
- Roger Stone
- E. Howard Hunt
- Herbert Kalmbach
- James W. McCord Jr.
- Donald Segretti
- Maurice Stans
History edit
Planning began in late 1970 and an office opened in the spring of 1971. Besides its re-election activities, CRP employed money laundering and slush funds, and was involved in the Watergate scandal.
The CRP used $500,000 in funds raised to re-elect President Nixon to pay legal expenses for the five Watergate burglars. This act helped turn the burglary into an explosive political scandal. The burglars, as well as G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, John N. Mitchell, and other Nixon administration figures were indicted over the break-in and their efforts to cover it up.
The CRP was also found to have had ties to the White House Plumbers. Organized on July 24, 1971, the Plumbers was a covert team officially called the White House Special Investigations Unit assigned to prevent leaks of information harmful to President Nixon, such as the Pentagon Papers, to the press.
Besides bringing shame on the office of the President of the United States, the illegal acts of the CRP helped turn a burglary into a political scandal that would bring down an incumbent president and fuel a general mistrust of the federal government that had already begun festering as protests against continued U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War took place.
The acronym CREEP was derisively applied to the CRP as a nickname by Nixon's opponents; the pejorative became popular due to the Watergate scandal.