Prior to working for President Richard Nixon as part of the White House plumbers unitorganized to track down the source of leaks of documents that the White House did not want to become knownWatergate operative E Howard Hunt worked for the CIA He conducted breakins at the Watergate complex at Nixons orders in the name of national security supposedly they were looking for evidence that Cuban leader Fidel Castro was secretly contributing funds to the Democratic party After the scandal broke and the investigations of the incident were complete Hunt was imprisoned for his illegal activities in the operation