As 1972 drew to a close, William F. Buckley Jr. became privy to details about a much-undercovered incident that occurred during the campaign, which would erupt into a major scandal that would cut short Nixon’s presidency. In the preface to his 1975 collection of writings, Execution Eve and Other Contemporary Ballads, he explained that he had not written much about the Watergate scandal between December 1972 and April 1973 because he felt “greatly encumbered.” He wrote that he could not reveal details a friend had confided to him about his participation in several misdeeds on Nixon’s behalf. During those four months, Buckley also absented himself from editorial meetings at National Review whenever Watergate was discussed. Buckley’s friend and informant was none other than E. Howard Hunt, his onetime superior at the CIA. Hunt had overseen the Watergate burglary and had been involved in other illegal undertakings.
On December 8, 1972, Hunt’s wife died in a plane crash. She had been carrying with her $10,000 in cash. Speculation immediately arose that the money had been given to her husband by Nixon operatives in exchange for his silence about the break-in. Ten days after her death, Hunt telephoned Buckley to relate that Mrs. Hunt had earlier named Buckley alternate executor of her estate in the event that her husband could not fulfill his duties as such should he be found guilty of conspiring to burglarize the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate (an eventuality that came to pass a month later). Buckley was godfather to Hunt’s three oldest children. The previous June, after learning that Hunt had been arrested, Buckley had telephoned the Hunt residence to express his concerns and offer to help defray some of Hunt’s legal expenses.
According to Buckley’s son, Christopher, Hunt informed Buckley that, were he to die, Buckley would be contacted by a person he did not know who had a key to a safe deposit box, which the two of them would open together. When Christopher asked his father what the box might have contained, Buckley replied, “I don’t know exactly, but it could theoretically involve information that could lead to the impeachment of the president of the United States.” He felt bound to keep confidential what he knew.
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He did not record whether he unburdened himself to a priest or to anyone else, or under what circumstances his conscience would have prompted him to share what he knew with authorities in order to prevent future crimes, possibly including a murder. “Only after it was all over did we learn that Hunt had burdened Buckley with the story as far as he knew it,” two of Buckley’s colleagues recalled. “His knowledge was only partial, but still difficult enough for a working journalist to live with.” Christopher remembered his father’s demeanor during his self-imposed silence about Watergate as “pure Gethsemane: “Let this cup pass from me.”
Months after Nixon resigned, a White House tape from January 8, 1973, surfaced in which Nixon is heard suggesting that Buckley be approached to write a column supporting clemency for Hunt. Nixon proposed that Buckley could cite Hunt’s dire financial situation, his grief over the death of his wife, and his having to raise six children on his own. Asked to comment on the tape, Buckley said, “I don’t need to be reminded to write a column urging clemency even for sons of bitches, as Mr. Nixon should know from personal experience.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/watergate-burglar-howard-hunt-was-william-buckleys-deep-throat
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