Biography

His fictional biography of Howard Hughes was indirectly the cause of the famous Watergate scandal. While writing the book, he received information about Hughes giving a loan to Richard Nixon's brother Donald to help him obtain contracts with The Pentagon. Nixon had been plagued by scandalous rumors about this incident, and the book threatened to show proof of impropriety. Even though the book was never published, and was publicly dismissed as a fraud, Nixon remained paranoid about the information becoming public, and feared that the Democrats were receiving information from Hughes. One of the motivations behind the Watergate break-in was to find out if the Democratic National Committee had any connections to Hughes.

In 1972, Clifford Irving was imprisoned and ordered to pay back $765,000 to his publishers when it was determined that his "authorized" biography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes was a fake. The previous year, Irving had claimed he possessed tapes, letters, and manuscripts from Hughes. Hughes, who had not been heard from publicly in over a decade, held a telephone conference to denounce Irving. Irving, his wife Edith, and collaborator Richard Suskind were all convicted for their part in the hoax, and Irving spent 14 months in federal prison. After his release from prison, Irving settled in Mexico and continued to write both fiction and non-fiction.

Is portrayed by Richard Gere in The Hoax (2006).

A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.