How Did The Watergate Scandal

This testimony led to the fight for the tape recordings from the House Judiciary Committee, the House believed that these could help uncover his role in the Watergate Scandal. The public was having an increase in suspicion of Nixon because of his vigorous effort to defend the tapes. After the Supreme Court’s rejection of Nixon's executive privilege, there were over 700 white house files, 19 presidential conversations, and over 42 additional tapes taken, but the biggest suspicion was the eighteen and a half minute silent gap in a conversation with Mr.Haldeman in 1972. Nixon later in court lies about the $25,000 check given to Bernard Barker, saying that he is probably a “bum” and definitely did not receive the money from CREEP, even though the check was directly traceable to the committee. On May 10, 1989 the House of Representatives adopted 3 Articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors, with the first two articles charging Nixon with giving false testimony before the grand jury and the third article with bringing disrepute on the Federal judiciary. These charges placed on the highest position in American society is disastrous and leads to a distrust in government within the American people.The fact that Nixon was granted a full pardon and was acquitted of all of the charges makes Americans lose hope in the American Judicial System and makes people question the “role of the

As time progressed and the investigation began to uncover the truth about what transpired at the Watergate apartment complex several things became evident: most of the burglars were ex-CIA and ex-FBI personnel, the burglars were paid with money directly from the re-election campaign and President Nixon not only knew about and sanctioned the break-in but deliberately attempted to cover it up. When called before Congress to testify about his knowledge, White House staffer John Dean testified that Nixon and his aides attempted to “stonewall” the investigation. As Congress continued its inquiry, it became clear

1972 – 1974: Watergate Scandal: In June, 1972, Police arrested five men who broke into the the Democratic National Committee Office in the Watergate District of Washington, D.C. When further investigated, two more men were arrested. Following a background check, it was revealed that the men belonged to a committee to re-elect the president. It was also revealed that men were paid by the committee and the committee was controlled by the people who work in the White House. This information was gathered by the Washington Post, which had an FBI informant, nicknamed “Deep Throat.” The investigation revealed that some of Nixon’s closest advisors may be involved in the scandal. Nixon was also thought to be involved as the investigation proceeded. During Senate hearings, Nixon denied an affiliation with the scandal, but it was revealed that Nixon recorded every conversation in this office. After refusing to hand-over the tapes, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to do so. He did turnover the tapes, however there were minutes missing from the recordings. Congress drew up the Articles of Impeachment to impeach Nixon, but he decided to resign before he was

The Watergate Scandal was the downfall of Richard Nixon. It made Americans put less trust in the government and built trust in the media. It all takes place at the Watergate Hotel. He led an extremely corrupt administration to get him re elected. He also was the first President to resign. The unethical organization that was formed was called the CRP (later creep). They helped Nixon get re elected in 1972. They used illegal tactics to get him re elected. They paid lawyers for the burglars who broke into the Watergate Hotel. These people were known as the Plumbers. That was directed by John Ehrlichman. They were the White House investigation unit. They prevented information leak and burglarize any of Nixon reveals. Watergate seven was Richard Nixon closest comrades. They were in charge of the Creep and the plumbers that carried out many illegal activities. Christ the Transformer of Business culture is a good trait to obtain. “These people are intimately involved with those in the business, but their distinctive Christian standards are not lost” (Ruddell, 2004, p. 40). The people that were involved in the Watergate scandal should have had this trait.

When the events of Watergate started to become revealed, Nixon still defended his innocence. On a televised question and answer session in 1973, Nixon defended his innocence in the Watergate case. In the interview, he stated, “In all my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I got.” When

In their conversation, which is written in Dennis Lythgoe’s article “Tapes Show Nixon Weighed Pros and Cons of Hush Money”, Dean said “it would take one million dollars” to pay off the five men, “an amount that would be hard to raise.” Nixon replied, “you could get a million dollars. You could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten. It is not easy, but it could be done.” The president’s own words proved that he was involved with the break-in and that he used “hush money” to keep witnesses silent. Another tape recording, called the “smoking gun”, uncovered Nixon’s exploitation of the CSI. In the tape, Nixon plans to have Richard Helms, the Director of the CIA, and Vernon A. Walters, the Deputy Director of the CIA, call the Director of the CIA, Patrick Gray, and demand that he stop the Watergate investigation. This crime was more severe than the “hush money” crime, and it was the prime reason Nixon was charged with obstruction of justice.

Amid increasing disclosures of White House involved in the Watergate break-in and its aftermath, Nixon announced the resignations of John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldman, two of his closest advisers, in the dismissal of his counsel John W. Dean III. Growing suspicion of presidential involvement in the scandel resulted in an intensification of the investigation. Leaders in this inquiry included Judge Sirica, reporters for the Washington Post, the Ervin committee, and Archibald Cox, who was sworn in as special prosecutor in May 1973. Dean told the Ervin committee in June that Nixon had cover-up. A month later, former White House staff Alexander Butterfield revealed that Nixon had secretly tape-recorded conversations in his offices. Both Cox and the Ervin committee began efforts to obtain selected tapes. Nixon, citing EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE, refused to relinquish them and

Nixon was charged as well as a co-conspirator and was eventually ordered to hand over all of the tapes. The House of Representatives also held a vote to see wether the impeachment of Nixon would happen or not. Nixon, on August 5 of that year released all of the tapes and ,with his impeachment being almost certain, he resigned on August 8, leaving the day after his annoouncment of this. Gerald Ford, his vice president, was sworn into office and pardoned Nixon for all of his crimes. The conspirators, however, were not as lucky and most of them ended up being sent to federal prison for their crimes. Nixon never admitted to conspiring with the five men during the scandal and denied any wrongdoings while he was in office. He simply based his wrongdoing on the inference that his judgement was rather “poor”. The overall outcome of this scandal left American society and a crossroad between wether to truth the government and what they were doing, or wether they should place distrust within them due to ordeals such as

The Watergate Scandal was truly the biggest political scandal in United States History. Over forty people where charged with crimes relating to the scandal. Bernstein and Woodward were given a fantastic oppourtunity to uncover something truly significant in history. The twenty-one months of investigative reporting done by these two men would ruin Nixon’s name and make these two common everyday reporters lives change forever. Woodward first got his life changing call on June 17th 1972 with his editor telling him about a small invasion of the Democratic Party Headquarters. With being related to the scandal, two members of President Nixon’s cabinet, H.R. Hadlemen and John Ehrlichman, quickly resigned. When first thought of the president even having something to do with the Watergate Scandal, he made every effort to possibly hide this career ruining event. The break in was first found by a security guard by the name of, Frank Wills. Wills saw a piece of tape covering a broken lock. Wills was

Richard M. Nixon was a former vice president who barely won the election in 1968 against Hubert Humphrey for the Republican party. Once in his presidency, President Nixon pleased and displeased citizens in the United States. He was not necessarily the most liked president, but he was not the most disliked either. By 1972, it was time for the

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward became famously known as the reporters that broke the Watergate Scandal and changed American politics forever. When five people were arrested in 1972 for breaking into the office of the Democratic National Committee, Bernstein and Woodward investigated. They compiled facts and relied on sources. These findings eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon when the scandal was discovered to be an operation to give Nixon an advantage in the presidential campaign. Although regulations have changed since the 1970’s, Bernstein and Woodward followed the SPJ Code of Ethics. The code declares four principles; seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable and transparent.

Leon Jaworski would take Archibald Cox’s place as the new special prosecutor on March 1. Later on, Jaworski “indicted seven of Nixon’s former aides on various charges related to the Watergate affair” (Watergate Scandal). Out of the seven, five were charged with burglary, theft and wiretapping. George Gordon Liddy and Everette Howard Hunt, the other two men who organized the Watergate break-in, were charged with burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping. On July 24 the Supreme Court demanded Nixon that he must hand over his recorded White House tapes (Watergate Fast Facts). Soon on July 27 the Judiciary Committee passed the first out of three articles to impeach Nixon (Timeline). The threat of impeachment made Nixon cooperate and he released the rest of the tapes on July 31 (Watergate Fast

President Nixon not only abused his powers as president of the United States, but he also completely disregarded the Constitution and the oath of office of the President of the United States. President Nixon is most famous for his involvement in the infamous Watergate scandal, which took place on June 17th, 1972 (Timeline). Nixon hired six burglars to break into the Democratic National Committee’s offices, which were located inside the Watergate office, complex in Washington. The burglars’ mission was to plant audio transmitters, but they were arrested after being discovered by an on duty watchman (Bodenner). President Nixon vehemently denied any involvement by White House staff or Nixon administration members. Nixon also implemented

Richard Nixon's presidency is one of the most examined, analyzed and discussed, yet least understood, of all the American administrations in history. While many factors still remain to be discovered, and many mysteries are left to be resolved, we need to do the best that we can to make sense of this secretive president of our past and his era. He is the one American figure about whom very few people don't have strong feelings for. Nixon is loved and hated, honored and mocked . The term 'Watergate', labeled by Congress in 1974, stands for not only the burglary, but also for the numerous instances of officially sanctioned criminal activity and abuses of power as well as the obstruction of justice that preceded the actual break-in.

President Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal is one of the most controversial court cases to this date. He was the first president to ever resign from office and caused the American trust in the government to suffer. Did Richard Nixon really have something to hide? Did the Supreme court make the right decision? Was the case handled in the most sufficient way? Whether one agrees with the outcome of Nixon vs. United States or not, this case left a mark on American history and shouldn't lessen trust in the American Government. The case was treated just as equally as any other case and went through the long Judicial practice as stated in the Constitution.