Jeb Stuart Magruder (born Nov. 5, 1934) is an American businessman, author, Presbyterian minister, and former civil servant. A Deputy Director of Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President, he pled guilty to conspiracy and served time in a federal prison as a result of his participation in the Watergate affair. His accounts of Richard Nixon's involvement in that affair have changed and contradicted themselves several times over the years. He is also a published writer. A Republican, Magruder was the second official in the administration of President Richard Nixon to plead guilty to charges of involvement with events resulting in the first Watergate burglary and the subsequent Watergate scandal (the first being Fred LaRue).

Involved with Watergate scandal 

Magruder, in his role with CRP, became involved with the Watergate matters from an early stage, in many aspects of the planning, execution, and cover-up.

The Liddy plan 

Magruder met with White House Counsel John Dean and John N. Mitchell (Attorney General of the United States and Director of CREEP) on January 27 and February 4, 1972, to review preliminary plans by G. Gordon Liddy (Counsel to CREEP) for intelligence gathering ideas for the 1972 campaign. The Watergate burglaries would evolve from those meetings. From the day they met in December, 1971, Magruder and Liddy (who had been hired by Mitchell and Dean) had a conflicted personal relationship.^[17]

Cooperates with prosecutors 

During April 1973, Magruder began cooperating with federal prosecutors. In exchange, Magruder was allowed to plead guilty in August 1973 to a one-count indictment of conspiracy to obstruct justice, to defraud the United States, and to illegally eavesdrop on the Democratic Party's national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. On May 21, 1974, Magruder was sentenced by Judge John Siricato ten months to four years for his role in the failed burglary of Watergate and the following cover-up. In the end, he served just seven months of his sentence (in a Federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania). After his sentencing, Magruder said, "I am confident that this country will survive its Watergates and its Jeb Magruders."

Magruder was the only direct participant of the scandal to claim that President Nixon had specific prior knowledge of the Watergate burglary, and that Nixon actually directed Mitchell to proceed with the burglary, which was organized by G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt. Magruder originally testified that he knew nothing to indicate that President Nixon had any prior knowledge of the Watergate burglary. He also wrote in his book "An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate" (1974), "I know nothing to indicate that Nixon was aware in advance of the plan to break into the Democratic headquarters. It is possible that Mitchell or Haldeman told him in advance, but I think it's likelier that they would not have mentioned it unless the operation had produced some results of interest to him." This book was published before Magruder's sentencing on May 21, and also before Nixon resigned as the President.

Magruder's story concerning the notorious meeting in Key Biscayne, Florida, with former Attorney General John Mitchell and Fred LaRue in late March 1972 has also changed several times. The plan to eavesdrop on the Watergate complex was approved by Mitchell soon following this meeting. In addition, Magruder testified that he thought that he was helping establish what he thought was a legal intelligence-gathering operation. In May 1983, President Ronald Reagan turned down a request from Magruder for a presidential pardon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeb_Magruder