Overview

Herbert Warren Kalmbach (1921-2017) was President Richard Nixon's personal attorney and one of his most trusted political fundraisers. Kalmbach played a dual role in the Watergate scandal: he was the primary fundraiser who channeled secret Nixon campaign cash to Donald Segretti's dirty tricks operation, and he was the initial conduit for hush money payments to the Watergate burglars. As Nixon's personal lawyer, Kalmbach controlled a secret cash fund derived from campaign contributions. After the Watergate arrests on June 17, 1972, John Dean asked Kalmbach to raise money to pay the burglars for their silence. Kalmbach raised approximately $210,000 to $220,000 from GOP fundraisers and campaign sources and channeled it to the burglars' attorney through intermediaries. When Kalmbach grew uncomfortable with the arrangement and sought reassurance from John Ehrlichman that the payments were proper, Ehrlichman told him they were, a claim Kalmbach later cited in his own defense. Kalmbach had also arranged payments of approximately $45,000 to Donald Segretti for the dirty tricks campaign against Democratic candidates, working with White House aide Dwight Chapin to recruit Segretti. In February 1974, Kalmbach pleaded guilty to two charges: promising a federal job as a reward for political fundraising (an ambassadorship in exchange for campaign contributions) and operating an illegal political committee. He was sentenced to six to eighteen months in prison and fined $10,000. He served six months. Kalmbach cooperated with prosecutors and testified before the Senate Watergate Committee and at the trials of other Watergate defendants. He died in 2017.

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Related Investigations (1)

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Sources & Documentation

3 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports