United States v. Ehrlichman

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg released to the public the Pentagon Papers, a classified report about the Vietnam War. In response, President Nixon formed a special-investigations unit in the White House to investigate the theft and to prevent other leaks of classified information. John Ehrlichman (defendant), assistant to the president for domestic affairs, supervised the unit. The unit sought information about Ellsberg to determine his motives for releasing the information and tasked the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with preparing a psychological profile. Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding, declined to speak with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) due to doctor-patient confidentiality, so E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA officer and member of the special-investigations unit, suggested examining Dr. Fielding’s files, specifically suggesting a black-bag job to surreptitiously obtain them. David Young, another unit member, also recommended a covert operation, and Ehrlichman approved provided it was not traceable back to the White House. A jury convicted Ehrlichman of conspiracy to violate the Fourth Amendment right of Dr. Fielding under 18 U.S.C. § 241, a law prohibiting conspiracy against federally protected rights. Ehrlichman appealed to challenge his conviction on two grounds: (1) the search did not violate the Fourth Amendment because it was pursuant to the president’s foreign-intelligence exception; and (2) even if the search were unconstitutional, the prosecution failed to prove the necessary specific intent required under § 241 because he had a good-faith belief the search was lawful.