Nixon Scandal Case Study

Watergate is the popular name for the political scandal and constitutional crisis that began with the arrest of five burglars who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office in Washington D.C. on the night of June 17, 1972. It ended with the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon. The burglars and two co-potters-G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt were indicated on charges of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. Four monthes later, they were convicted and sentenced to prison terms by District Court Judge John J. Sirica, who was convicted that pertinent details had not been unveiled during the trial and proffered leniency in exchange for further information. As it

On June 17,1972, five thieves, who were correlated with the reelection campaign of Richard Nixon, were arrested at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. The five men were caught in the middle of trying to steal classified documents and wire tape phones in the office of the Democratic National Committee. Although, Richard Nixon denied any connection to the incident, it was later revealed that Nixon had been dishonest. Not only was hush-money prepared to be given to the the prowlers, Richard had delayed the FBI investigation of the crime. Nixon had also tried to fire a prosecutor who kept pestering the president for tapes of the conversations that had taken place in the Oval Office. Due to the fact that all of these were, “an abuse of presidential

On June 17, 1984, burglars broke into Watergate hotel where the Democratic National Committee is located. Four of the burglars were identified as Cuban Nationals and the fifth burglar was identified as James McCord. James McCord was a former FBI and CIA agent who was recently employed as a security aid by the republican committee and the committee to reelect President Richard Nixon. Some people were suspicious of James McCord’s connection to Nixon and the possibility that the burglary could have been planned by Nixon. The burglars insist that acted along and the incident had no connections to the white house. The White house denied involvement in Watergate and the public dismissed the break-in as a campaign antic. The secret white house tapes revealed President

During his time being a prosecutor, one of Nixon’s resigned aides, John Dean, testified from June 15 through the 29. Dean informed the jury that Nixon and many people at the White House knew about the Watergate break-in and cover-up before that burglary happened (Watergate Fast Facts). He advised the jury that when Nixon heard about the burglary and arrest at the DNC headquarters, he and his aides - one of those being John Dean - made a plan to try and cover it up. His plan was designed to stop the government from linking the break-in to the White House. Therefore, two days after the burglary, Nixon ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to terminate the FBI from investigating any further. However, the information had already been collected, leaked and tied back to President Nixon’s aides before the CIA could halt the FBI investigation (Watergate Scandal). Another former aide, Alexander Butterfield, who testified on July 16, notified the jury about Nixon’s secret tapes. Butterfield revealed that Nixon was secretly recording all his conversations at the White House since 1971(Watergate Fast Facts). The jury was shocked that this new evidence had just come up now. If the jury could posses these tapes, they could tell if Nixon was really involved in the Watergate

The FBI and the American public need to know just what had happened and that this may not have been just a typical break-in but a cover up to protect someone. And if so was it an abuse of presidential power and a deliberate obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, at the same time seven conspirators were indicted on charges related to the Watergate building break-in. At the instruction of the President’s aides, five pleaded guilty to the charges and avoided trial; while White House counsel John Dean, testified before a grand jury about the president’s crimes. The other two were convicted in January 1973 for the break-in. By this time, a number of people including Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and trial judge John J. Sirica and members of a Senate investigating committee had begun to think that something bigger was going to break soon.

Nixon’s impeachment (watergate Scandal) : Nixon made three major speeches on the Watergate scandal during 1973 and 1974. The first was on April 30, 1973, in which he announced the departure of Dean, Haldeman and Ehrlichman. A more defiant speech was delivered on August 15, 1973. Perhaps the politically most difficult speech was the one on April 29, 1974, in which Nixon released partial transcripts of the White House tapes. Also nixon’s last days in office came in late July and also early August 1974. The house judiciary committee voted to accept three of four proposed articles of Impeachment with some Republicans voting with democrats to recommend impeachment of the president.

The break-in was initially labelled as a “third-rate burglary” by the White House Press, and the 1972 election passed seamlessly, results uninfluenced by the event. In fact, Nixon was re-elected with the largest popular vote landslide in history. However, as the trial of the Watergate burglary progressed, it soon became evident that the event originated within the White House. One of the men, James McCord was a retired CIA agent, and another, E. Howard Hunt, was a former CIA operative and consultant to the Nixon White House. Another man identified as G. Gordon Liddy, the general counsel to Nixon’s “Committee to Re-elect the President.” Several months after the incident, Nixon was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to hand over the tapes which continuously recorded conversations inside the Oval Office. Knowing

in 1972, of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate apartment, and office building complex in Washington D.C. The term was applied to several related scandals. More than thirty administration officials, campaign officials, and financial contributors pleaded guilty or were found guilty of breaking the law. Nixon faced possible indictment after his resignation, received from his successor, Gerald Ford, a full pardon for

President Richard Nixon did several things while in office that eventually led to his resignation in 1974. The most significant is that he plotted to wiretap and steal from different offices and other spaces to gather information to help lead to re-election and he also tried to cover up and lie about the scandal when it all unfolded. 1) “Nixon created a special investigative unit known as the “plumbers” to gather information…” (Foner, GML, 1031). These “plumbers” were all former employees for the CIA, which later led the FBI to believe that the break-ins where operated by the CIA. When the scandal broke, the uncovered White House tapes also led to his resignation. 2) He was heard saying on the Smoking Gun tape, “Yeah, when I saw that news summary

The infamous Watergate Scandal was the first of its kind; occurring in June of the year 1972, several robbers were taken into police custody inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), established in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. This break in was out of the ordinary, however, because the burglars were tied to former U.S. President, Richard Nixon's reelection campaign, and they had been caught during their attempt to wiretap phone lines and steal classified documents (History.com Staff). Even though it is unknown whether or not Nixon was aware of the Watergate infiltration before it occurred, many people believe he was involved due to steps he took to cover it up afterward. Nixon raised "hush money" for the robbers, in an effort to end the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from investigating the crime that had occurred (History.com Staff.). Nixon is also accused of destroying evidence and firing staff members that he thought to be uncooperative. In August 1974, after his role in Watergate Scandal had been brought to the public's attention, President Nixon resigned from office. His successor, former U.S. President Gerald Ford, immediately pardoned Nixon for the crimes he "committed or may have committed" while he was still in office (History.com Staff.). "Although Nixon was never

This scandal was another event that showed again that Americans were being lied to by their president. It is not clear whether Nixon himself knew about or planned the actual break-in at the Watergate Hotel. What is clear is that Nixon tried his hardest to rid himself of any connection to the scandal and its cover up. Nixon pretended he did not know about the involvement of those who were part of the scandal, lying to the nation about his level of knowledge, and attempted to cover up concrete proof that he did know by refusing to hand over recordings of conversations in the Oval Office to investigators and erasing eighteen crucial minutes of a tape, which obstructed justice. The president of the United States was involved in criminal activity and lied so much about everything relating to it that when found out he had to resign his presidency to avoid impeachment.

The topic of Nixon’s tapes resurfaced in a hearing on April 11, 1974. The House of Representatives subpoenaed the tapes and Nixon publically said that he would give them up, but he never did. They also opened an impeachment hearing and later found Nixon guilty of obstructing justice along with other charges.

A main reason that Nixon was found guilty is evidence uncovered by Frank Willis, at midnight on June 17, 1972. He was a security guard at the Watergate Complex and discovered adhesive tape over the latches of doors. He initially just took off the tape, and didn’t really think much of it. However, he came back, and noticed that someone again had put tape over the doors. He grew suspicious and decided he would call the police. After the police arrived at the complex in D.C., there was an arrest made of five men. They were charged with attempted burglary and also other things dealing with the interception of telephone and other communications. They ended up being convicted, and were put in jail, although they were just working for the president and his administration.

When Woodward heard mention that one of the burglary suspects previously worked for the CIA he began his investigation. Historical accounts suggest that at the time Woodward was beginning his investigation Nixon was unaware that this work, the bugging and burglaries were occurring. However, becoming aware that the investigation would lead to ties to the White House, Nixon ordered a cover-up. Further, Nixon tried to get the CIA to help him cover-up the break-ins. CIA director Richard Helms would refuse to assist in the cover-up, a decision that would later cost him his job. In 1972, the administration managed to cover up the investigation until after the presidential election (Charles River Editors 12-15).

Five men were arrested with electronic surveillance equipment trying to break into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at the Watergate hotel. They had been wiretapping into the conversations of Larry O’Brien, the head of the DNC. All of the burglars had been found to be contacting E. Howard Hunt, a CIA officer working for Nixon. With this link directly tied to the president, Woodward and Bernstein were assigned to cover the story. Together, they wrote countless articles exposing corrupt government officials involved with the scandal (with the help from a secret government informant who they called “Deep Throat”). In 1973, it was discovered that Nixon had taped private conversations incriminating himself. When a prosecutor demanded to hear the tapes, Nixon refused. However, when the Supreme Court intervened, Nixon released clips of the tapes that had significant gaps. Eventually, Nixon (who was under extreme pressure from the media) released transcripts of the missing tapes, revealing that he had ordered the entire operation and used money to keep everyone quiet. On August 9th, 1974, in fear of impeachment, Richard Nixon became the first president in the history of the United States of America to