August 5, 1971

Emery:

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Both Krogh and Young say they went to Ehrlichman sometime in early August; Krogh states it was on August 5. Krogh remembers telling Ehrlichman that to gain access to the Ellsberg psychiatric records "something other than the regular agencies would have to be undertaken." Ehrlichman was told that "we did have individuals in the unit and individuals available who had had professional experience in this kind of investigation." Young remembers that "Ehrlichman simply listened and, in effect, said 'let's think about it.'"
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The quotations are from grand jury testimony from Plumbers Krogh and Young. So just to be clear...we have a guy who leaked info to the press, and has been indicted and will be tried in the courts. However, in order to influence public opinion (OK) and the jury (not okay), the White House has decided to basically do massive opposition research on the guy (legal as far as it goes, but would you want a massive WH operation looking into Julian Assange in order to smear him in the press?), including possibly breaking into his shrink's office to steal his file (not even remotely close to being legal). All this but the last bit is going on at the repeated insistence of the President of the United States, and the #2 guy in the White House has been briefed on all of it.

Now we wait for the CIA to actually produce their personality profile of Ellsberg, and for a specific plan to be proposed and approved.

Oh, and how about a bonus, from Haldeman's diary. It's from the next day, August 6:

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[President Nixon] went over to greet the Girls Nation group in the State Dining Room. He did a superb job with them, speaking on the role of women in government, and so forth, but then emphasizing that the real role of women is as wives and mothers, and he gave a very eloquent pitch for considering the importance of that role, too, as contrasted to women's lib.
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That's 1971 for you...I'm sure Nixon was just way eloquent. Aren't you?