[1] LaRue was present at an early meeting with his friend, United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, at which the Watergate burglary was planned.
[3][4] With his newfound wealth, LaRue invested in many failed business ventures including casinos in Havana, Cuba, prior to the communist revolution, and in Las Vegas, Nevada.
LaRue also recommended the use of a "special ballad-type song in the current 'country-and-western music style, by which nationally famous artists will sing the message via the radio and TV."
Eventually, LaRue managed to convince Roy Acuff and Tex Ritter, who were unsuccessful Republican candidates themselves for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, in the state of Tennessee, to perform versions of the song.
Mitchell, having announced his resignation as attorney general on February 15, assumed his new duties as head of the Committee to Re-elect the President, effective on March 1.
In 2003, Magruder stated, for the first time, that it was at this meeting that President Nixon, speaking to Mitchell by telephone, voiced specific approval for the Watergate burglary.
He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice on June 27, 1973 and served four and a half months in custody at the Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama.