John Ehrlichman was born on March 20, 1925, in Tacoma, Washington. After graduating from UCLA in 1948, he attended Stanford Law School and graduated in 1951. Ehrlichman earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and another medal for his service during World War II. He practiced law privately from 1952 to 1968, and then joined the White House staff as counsel to President Richard M. Nixon before becoming the president's assistant for domestic affairs in 1970. Despite his significant contributions to welfare reform and school desegregation, Ehrlichman's involvement in the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals was what brought him to the attention of the Senate, the judicial system, and the American public.

On June 13, 1971, The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, classified and highly sensitive documents detailing the United States' activities in Vietnam. The documents had been stolen and leaked to the media by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst and Robert Russo. Publication...