Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray refuses to allow FBI investigators to interview Kathleen Chenow, a former secretary to David Young. Young, a former aide to White House special counsel John Ehrlichman, is one of the lawyers tasked with coordinating the activities of the “Plumbers” (see Late June-July 1971). Gray says that he cannot allow the agents to interview Chenow because of “national security” concerns. Gray will later tell investigators that Chenow has returned to the US in a military helicopter, in the company of Fred Fielding, the assistant to White House counsel John Dean (see June 22, 1972). Fielding was ordered by Dean to find Chenow and bring her in to speak to the FBI. Gray then permits the FBI to interview Chenow, in Dean’s presence. Chenow is not forthcoming. The FBI will later note, “It appears likely the reason we had to wait to interview Chenow was because Dean wanted to brief her beforehand.” Similarly, Gray will delay FBI interviews with Young until Dean has a chance to confer with the former White House aide. Chenow was told to flee the country immediately after the break-in by E. Howard Hunt. Chenow went to London and stayed with Dorothy Hunt.
Kathleen Chenow was the twenty-three-year-old project secretary brought down from Capitol Hill, where she had worked for Republican senator Bob Dole. When Dole went to lead the RNC, Chenow was given a job at the White House. She came from Wisconsin originally. She was assigned to be David Young’s secretary – only her office was in Room 16. She recalled, “David Young’s mother-in-law or grandmother or somebody saw in The New York Times that Krogh and Young were working on leaks. She called the story to his attention, saying, ‘Your grandfather would be proud of you, working on leaks at the White House. He was a plumber.’ So David put up a sign on the door which said, ‘Mr. Young – Plumber.’”
Room 16 featured a phone line that was backstopped to Kathleen Chenow’s home in Alexandria, Virginia. The phone company billed Chenow’s private residence for the phone line which was installed at the White House. No phone rang at her home. All calls that E. Howard Hunt made to Barker in Miami and other illegal contacts were made from this line. Members of the team was given two business cards – one for incoming calls from people they trusted, and another card that had her number on it. Chenow gave her phone bills to David Young, one of John Ehrlichman’s aides.
June 28-July 3, 1972