Donald Segretti

Donald H. Segretti (born September 17, 1941) was a political operative for the Nixon White House during the 1970s. Segretti ran a campaign of dirty tricks against the Democrats. His actions were part of the larger Watergate Scandal.

He went to prison in 1974 after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal campaign literature. A major part of this was a faked letter on Edmund Muskie's letterhead falsely alleging that senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson had had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old.

Segretti was a lawyer - formerly a prosecutor for the military and later as a civilian. However, his license was suspended for two years following his conviction. In 1995, he briefly ran for a local judgeship of Orange County, California. He withdrew shortly thereafter following publicity his campign recived, and the lingering anger it generated over his involvement in the scandal.