White House Plumbers episode 5 recap: Were Howard and Liddy sentenced to prison? 

HBO's controversial 2023 miniseries, White House Plumbers, concluded on a high note, with both lead characters getting befitting endings. The show is based on the infamous Watergate scandal that involved the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974. It even led to Nixon handing in his resignation.

This episode, titled True Believers, saw E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy getting sentenced to 35 and 25 years in prison, respectively. It was directed by David Mandel and written by Alex Gregory & Peter Huyck. It aired on HBO on May 29, 2023.

The official synopsis of the episode read:

"Liddy shares his concerns about Hunt's stability with John Dean; Hunt's daughter leverages a secret notebook to convince her father to come clean in his Senate testimony; when the President resigns, lives are ruined."

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White House Plumbers episode 5 recap: Did Howard testify in the end?

Even after the passing of his wife, Dorothy, Watergate break-in mastermind, Howard Hunt, did not testify. This just worsened the situation for him since his old employers began revealing facts. Howard didn't even divulge that his dead wife wanted to divorce him. He had lost custody of his son David and hoped that his daughter Kevan would destroy her mother's ledger.

But Keven turned on her own father. She threatened him, asking him to either testify or warning that she would make the ledger public.

Judge John Sirica's treatment of Howard and Liddy was harsh. James McCord received a lesser sentence because he agreed to testify, but Howard and Liddy were handed 35 and 25 years in prison, respectively, owing to their refusal to do so.

Since John Dean testified before Congress in McCord’s testimony, President Nixon was forced to hand in his resignation. Howard remained silent during this entire ordeal out of respect.

When Howard was in jail, his daughter visited him and begged him to testify. When he heard John Dean’s testimony, he suffered a stroke. After waking up, Kevan reapproached him to testify. Finally, after pressure from multiple avenues, Howard caved.

He suspected that Nixon's administration was the reason for his wife's death. Moreover, he was worried about Kevan's security. He even wanted to publish a book about the case, but since Liddy rejected this idea, doing that was impossible.

Unfortunately, Howard's testimony wasn't too effective. People were more interested in the story of John Dean. Howard was moved to a minimum security prison and released just after 2.5 years. He lived a low-key life after marrying a teacher named Laura. Before his death, he wrote a memoir called Undercover: Memoirs of an American Secret Agent.

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White House Plumbers synopsis

Created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, White House Plumbers is based on the book Integrity by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh, which was published in 2007.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the official synopsis of White House Plumbers reads:

""White House Plumbers" goes behind-the-scenes of the Watergate scandal as Nixon's political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, accidentally topple the presidency they were zealously trying to protect."

It further states:

"Chronicling actions on the ground, this satirical drama begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, formerly of the CIA and FBI, respectively, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak. After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the committee to reelect the president, plotting several unbelievable covert ops, including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex."

The show is led by Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux, who play E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, respectively.