CREEP Dirty Tricks Campaign Exposed: Segretti Orchestrates Political Sabotage Including Canuck Letter

Donald Henry Segretti, hired by his friend Dwight L. Chapin (Nixon’s appointments secretary), ran an extensive campaign of political sabotage against Democratic candidates throughout 1972, with his work paid for by Nixon’s lawyer Herbert Kalmbach from presidential campaign funds. Segretti referred to these activities as “ratfucking”—dirty tricks that went far beyond normal political opposition research. The most damaging operation was the fabrication of the “Canuck letter,” a forged letter to the editor published in the Manchester Union Leader on February 24, 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, falsely implying that Senator Edmund Muskie held prejudice against Americans of French-Canadian descent.

The sabotage succeeded beyond CREEP’s expectations. On February 26, Muskie delivered an emotional speech in front of the Union Leader offices defending his wife against the paper’s attacks and calling publisher William Loeb a “gutless coward.” Newspapers reported that Muskie appeared to cry during the speech, severely damaging his campaign. Segretti later told the Senate Watergate Committee that the main objective was to discredit Muskie because he was the candidate Nixon feared most. Other fabricated “Muskie letters” on stolen letterhead falsely accused Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson of fathering an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old and alleged that Senator Hubert Humphrey had engaged in sexual misconduct—demonstrating the campaign’s willingness to use any smear, no matter how false or vicious.

On October 10, 1972, FBI investigators revealed that the Canuck letter was part of a broader dirty tricks campaign orchestrated by CREEP, with Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward connecting Segretti to a network of political operatives dating back to their time at USC. Segretti’s actions became important early indicators that the Watergate scandal involved far more than just a burglary. He eventually served four and a half months in prison after investigations revealed his leading role in extensive political sabotage. The dirty tricks campaign established a template for systematic disinformation and electoral manipulation that would resurface in future decades, normalizing the weaponization of lies in American political campaigns.