14. Ellsberg was arrested and charged with treason in 1971
Shortly after he delivered copies of the Pentagon Papers to the Washington Post, Daniel Ellsberg began living in motels, moving about frequently to avoid the FBI, which wanted him for questioning. On June 23 Ellsberg agreed to an interview with CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite; on June 28 he surrendered to the FBI in Boston, near his home. On the same day, E. Howard Hunt, who would later gain fame for his role in Watergate, suggested to the President’s top aide, Charles “Chuck” Colson, that Ellsberg be “neutralized”. In order to gather derogatory information on Ellsberg, Hunt suggested raiding the office of the former’s psychiatrist.
By the end of December Ellsberg (and his assistant Anthony Russo) were under indictments containing multiple counts. In July 1972 the trial was halted by Supreme Court stay when it was learned that the government had used illegal wiretaps to record conversations between the defendants and their legal teams. In December, 1972, a mistrial was declared in the case against Ellsberg and a new trial was scheduled for the spring of the following year. By that time, furor over the content of the Pentagon Papers had largely died down, as the Nixon Administration prepared for its second term and the continuing drawdown of American troops in Vietnam.