Watergate Hearings Day 41: Donald Segretti (1973-10-03)

The dark side of history: https://thememoryhole.substack.com/

Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941, in San Marino, California) is an attorney best known for working as a political operative with then-U.S. President Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President during the early 1970s. Segretti served four and a half months in prison after investigations related to the Watergate scandal revealed his leading role in extensive political sabotage efforts ("ratfucking") against the Democrats.[1]
Early life

He holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Southern California (1963) and a Juris Doctor from UC Berkeley School of Law (1966). While at USC, he was a member of the Trojan Knights and initiated into Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He also was a member of Trojans for Representative Government with future Watergate scandal participants Dwight L. Chapin, Tim Elbourne, Gordon C. Strachan, Herbert Porter, and Ron Ziegler.
Watergate
External videos
video icon 1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-10-03; Part 1 of 5, 1:04:56, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC[2]

Segretti was hired by his friend Dwight L. Chapin to run a campaign of dirty tricks – which Segretti referred to as "ratfucking"[3] – against the Democrats, with his work being paid for by Herb Kalmbach, Nixon's lawyer, from presidential campaign re-election funds gathered before an April 7, 1972 law required that contributors be identified. Segretti's actions were part of the larger Watergate scandal and were important indicators for the few members of the press investigating the Watergate burglary in the early stages that what became known as the Watergate scandal involved far more than just a burglary.[4]
Overview of "dirty tricks" against Democrats

Segretti's involvement in the "Canuck letter"[5] typifies the tactics Segretti and others working with him used; in this case, they forged a letter ascribed to Senator Edmund Muskie that maligned the people, language, and culture of French Canada and French Canadians, forcing that soon-to-be Democratic presidential candidate considerable headaches by having to deny writing the letter and to continue dealing with that recurring issue. Many historians have indicated, over the years, that Muskie's withdrawal from the presidential primaries was at least partly the result of Segretti and some of the other "ratfuckers" having created so much confusion and so many false accusations that Muskie simply could not respond in any meaningful way.

Another notable example of Segretti's wrongdoing was a letter he faked, on Edmund Muskie's letterhead, falsely alleging that U.S. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a fellow Democrat, had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old. The "Muskie letters" also accused Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of sexual misconduct.[6]

After testimony regarding the Muskie letters emerged, Democrats in Florida noted the similarity between those sabotage incidents and others that involved stationery stolen from Humphrey's offices after Muskie dropped out of the race. For example, a false news release on Humphrey's letterhead accused Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) of being "mentally unbalanced", and a mailing with an unidentified source mischaracterized Humphrey as supporting a controversial environmental measure that he actually opposed.[6]

Segretti appeared as a witness before the Senate Watergate Committee in October 1973.
Imprisoned following Watergate conviction

In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal campaign literature (including the forgeries described above) and was sentenced to six months in prison. Segretti served four months.[7]
Later activities

Segretti was a lawyer who served as a prosecutor for the U.S. Army and later as a civilian. However, his license was suspended on February 27, 1976.[8] Segretti is currently shown as an active member in good standing of the State Bar of California.
Unsuccessful bid for Orange County judgeship

In 1995, Segretti ran for a local judgeship in Orange County, California. He quickly withdrew from the race when his campaign sparked lingering anger over memories of his involvement in the Watergate scandal.[9]
Orange County co-chair of McCain 2000 primary campaign

In 2000, Segretti served as co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign in Orange County, California.[citation needed]
In popular culture

In the 1976 film All the President's Men, Segretti was portrayed by Robert Walden. The character downplayed the dirty tricks he had undertaken as "Nickel-and-dime stuff. Stuff. Stuff with a little 'wit' attached to it."
References

"Watergate Scandal and Deep Throat Update, Donald Segretti". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-01-15.
"1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-10-03; Part 1 of 5". Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. October 3, 1973. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
"News of the Weak in Review". The Nation. October 2, 2000.
Bernstein, Carl; Woodward, Bob (10 October 1972). "FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
Swint, Kerwin C. (2006). Mudslingers: the top 25 negative political campaigns of all time: countdown from no. 25 to no. 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 135. ISBN 9780275985103.
The New York Times Press Service (May 13, 1973). "Watergate jogs memory: Democrats recall strange election incidents". The Dallas Morning News. p. 14A.
"washingtonpost.com - watergate scandal and deep throat update, donald…". The Washington Post. 2013-04-28. Archived from the original on 2013-04-28.
"Donald Henry Segretti #39856 - Attorney Search". members.calbar.ca.gov.

FILKINS, DEXTER (12 December 1995). "Ex-Nixon Trickster Segretti Won't Seek O.C. Judgeship : Politics: The convicted Watergate figure quits campaign, citing negative publicity about his candidacy" – via LA Times.

External links

""Watergate file, pg. 102" (PDF). (4.84 MiB)" (pg. 116 in PDF format)
Donald Segretti at Spartacus Educational

Ratfucking is an American slang term for behind the scenes ( covert ) political sabotage or dirty tricks, particularly pertaining to elections. It was brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the book which chronicled their investigative reporting of the Watergate scandal, All the President's Men (1974).
Origins

Woodward and Bernstein's account in All the President's Men reports that many Republican staffers—H. R. Haldeman (pre-1948),[citation needed] Donald Segretti (early 1960s), White House aide Tim Elbourne, Ronald Louis Ziegler, and Dwight Chapin—had attended the University of Southern California and participated in the highly competitive student elections there. Additionally, there were strategists such as Roger Stone whose work continued on for decades. At USC, future Watergate scandal participants Chapin, Ziegler, Elbourne, Segretti, Gordon Strachan and Herbert Porter were members of Trojans for Representative Government. United Press International reporter Karlyn Barker sent Woodward and Bernstein a memo, "Notes On the USC Crowd", that outlined the connection. Fraternities, sororities, and underground fraternal coordinating organizations—such as Theta Nu Epsilon and their splintered rival "Trojans for Representative Government"—engaged in creative tricks and underhanded tactics to win student elections.[1][2] Officially, control over minor funding and decision-making on campus life was at stake, but the positions also gave bragging rights and prestige. The tactics were either promoted by or garnered the interest of major political figures on the USC board of trustees, such as Dean Rusk and John A. McCone.[3][4] The young operators called these practices ratfucking.
Usage

The term received media attention in Australia after it was reported that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used the term in a speech at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.[5][6]

During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, candidate Ted Cruz said "Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him", a euphemized reference to the term.[7][8]

In August 2017, journalist Marcy Wheeler received the disapproval of the FCC when she used the term in a radio broadcast. Wheeler maintained that the word has become a term of art in political science and is thus not an obscenity; FCC officials disagreed.[9]

A benign use of the term "ratfucking" was commonplace in Southern California (and possibly other) college slang from the late 1950s to at least the early 1960s, meaning a prank. Around that time, Tony Auth was the cartoonist for the Daily Bruin. One of his cartoons showed a large, inebriated rat suggesting to another rat, "Let's go PF-ing tonight!", a play on ratfucking or "RF-ing". The lead story in the January 6, 1961, California Tech, Caltech's student newspaper, was headlined, "Tech Scores First Televised RF". The article chronicled the Great Rose Bowl Hoax, which had just taken place. A political context was irrelevant to such usage. At the end of the article, an Editor's Note both explained and bowdlerized: "RF (for Royal Flush) is a contemporary college colloquialism for a clever prank."[10]

The term ratfucking (rat in this case is shorthand for ration) is a slang term used by U.S. military personnel to describe the targeted pillaging of Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) field rations, which the military officially calls "field stripping". It refers to the process of opening a case of MREs (which are packed 12 in a box), opening up individual MRE packages, removing the desired items, and leaving the unenticing remainder.[11]

On May 23, 2019, scholar Svetlana Lokhova filed a claim in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Stefan Halper, claiming that "Stefan Halper is a ratfucker and a spy" with a footnote that "ratfucking" is a well-known political term.[12]

After the results of the 2020 presidential election were called for Joe Biden and Donald Trump refused to concede, John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, said on one of his shows following the set up of the Trump voter fraud hotline that "a political term for election shenanigans is rat[s fucking]. So if you, say, happen to have any access to images of Pennsylvania-based rats fucking, it's frankly your patriotic duty to send them to the Trump campaign straight away." While saying this, Oliver displayed an image of rats engaged in sexual intercourse and the online link to the voter fraud hotline's website.[13]
References

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/25/roger-stone-and-rating-a-short-history-224218/

"Excerpts from American Twilight". GreenInstitute.net. July 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-07-07. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
Taibbi, Matt (March 24, 2006). "Meet Mr. Republican: Jack Abramoff". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 22, 2006.
"University of Southern California Trustees (1979)". Namebase.org. Archived from the original on 2012-09-03. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
"From CIA to USC: Biography of a Trustee". Namebase.org. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
Marr, David (June 7, 2010), Power Trip: The political journey of Kevin Rudd (extract), Quarterly Essay, retrieved 2018-07-22
"Rats from a sinking summit - Fully (sic)". Fully (sic). 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
Rhodan, Maya; Elliot, Phillip (March 25, 2016). "Ted Cruz Blames Donald Trump for 'Garbage' National Enquirer Story". TIME. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
Amy Davidson Sorkin (March 29, 2016), "Donald and Melania and Heidi and Ted", The New Yorker, retrieved 2018-07-22
Wheeler, Marcy [@emptywheel] (August 2, 2017). "I honestly thought "ratfuck" was considered a technical political term, not a modification of "fuck."" (Tweet). Retrieved October 20, 2019 – via Twitter.
"Tech Scores First Televised RF". California Tech. 1961-01-06. Retrieved 2022-09-08.
Wright, Evan (2005). Generation Kill. Penguin. p. 61. ISBN 9781101207611. Retrieved 2016-08-03. "The process of tearing through an MRE and picking out the goodies is called "ratfucking". Colbert's team maintains a ratfuck bag in their Humvee for all the discarded MRE entrées, saving them for a rainy day."
Josh Gerstein (May 24, 2019). "Intelligence scholar sues Cambridge academic, U.S. news outlets over reports on Flynn links". Politico.com. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
Election Results 2020: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), retrieved 2021-12-19