John Ehrlichman, the president's chief domestic adviser, tells Nixon that he hopes to receive information on the assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. Ehrlichman hopes to release information provided by CIA director Richard Helms that shows that John F. Kennedy knew about Diem's murder and was at least party responsible for it. He and Nixon hope that this will discredit Edward Kennedy and former John F. Kennedy administration advisers who were working for Edmund Muskie in the Democratic primaries.

The Senate Select Committee on Campaign Activities later investigated charges that the Nixon administration sought to embarrass and hurt Democratic campaigns by leaking detrimental information to the press and public.