The Watergate Scandal Essay

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

There was no other evidence, however, until on July 16, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, a former White House staff member, testified that there were secret recordings of presidential conversations. The Committee and the special Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox, subpoenaed the tapes, but Nixon refused to turn them over. In response, Nixon ordered his Attorney General Eliot Richardson to fire Cox; Richardson refused and resigned as did his deputy, William Ruckelshaus. Cox was eventually fired by the Solicitor General, Robert Bork. This was known as the "Saturday Night Massacre" and provoked a huge outcry at Nixon's abuse of power. On December 8, 1973, Nixon released seven of the nine tapes, and one of the seven had

Watergate scandal clearly defines new law graduates and junior lawyers what not to do. The subject is of such fundamental importance that John Dean, who was the White House Counsel in 1973 and was disbarred after pleading guilty of forfeiting confidentiality, has been involved in delivering lectures on Ethical values for lawyers and the course is made mandatory by the Illinois Supreme Court for the lawyers practicing in the same state. Ad per Dean, if these ethical obligations would have been known to the lawyers back then and if we would have complied with it, such event would not have occurred in the first place.

Among them would be Bob Bernstein, and Carl Woodward, reporters for The Washington Post. They used a background source “Deep Throat” to uncover the relationship between the scandal and the White House. “Deep Throat” later announced was W.Mark Felt. The Senate makes a special committee that nominated Archibald Cox to head the special investigations. James D St. Clair was appointed to be Nixon’s defense counsel. Startling information shocked the nation. There was a check of $25000 in one of the burglar’s bank account. Archibald then learns that Nixon taped all his conversations in the white house. Archibald demanded tapes but Nixon denied. Archibald was getting close to uncovering the case so Nixon demanded him to be fired. He demanded Attorney General Richardson but he protested and resigned. Next in line was Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus who also protested and resigned. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out orders. John Sirica, a judge and he also realized not all the pieces of the puzzle were put together.

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

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

Richard Nixon's first term as president will always be connected with the Watergate scandal, the biggest political scandal in United States history. Various illegal activities were conducted including burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage, and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents to help Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. There were about 40 people charged with crimes related to the scandal. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty. Watergate involved more high-level government officials than any previous scandal. It has been etched in the minds of millions and is still being recalled today when faced with the present day scandal of

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

“I am not a crook” is one of the most famous quotes from President Richard M. Nixon.  Citizens of the United States of America would hope that their president would never have to defend himself as a crook, but that is just what happened in the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. President Nixon had to defend himself for not being a crook because of the events famously known as the ‘Watergate Scandal’. In 1972, members of Nixon’s re-election committee broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate offices and stole top-secret documents as well as trying to get into their phone system. They eventually were caught and so was President Nixon which led him to his resignation. Even though it was an unfortunate event, there have been positive outcomes because of it. The lasting implications of the Watergate Scandal have been generally positive on society because of the passing of Ethics in Government Act, amending the Freedom of Information Act and 42 states passing election reform laws.

Ehrlichman was ordered to destroy incriminating documents and tapes. Then L. Patrick Gray resigned as acting director of the FBI, later admitting he had destroyed documents given to him by Ehrlichman and Dean. On June 23, 1972, Nixon learned about Mitchell's possible link with the operation, and Nixon instructed the FBI to stop the inquiry into the source of money used by the men who tapped the building. He said that "the investigation would endanger the CIA operations." Dean and the others subsequently sought to induce CIA officials to cooperate with this plan. On July 1, Mitchell left the CRP, citing personal reasons. On August 29, Nixon declared that no one in the administration, then employed, was involved in the Watergate. Although money found in the possession of the wire tappers was traced to the CRP, such evidence was insufficient to implicate high officials. On September 15, only the five men first arrested, plus Liddy and E. Howard Hunt , one of the plumbers, were indicted (Carson 2).

Watergate was the name of the biggest political scandal in United States history. It included various illegal activities constructed to help President Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. Watergate included burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, and sabotage and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents. It also involved a cover-up of conduct. There were about 40 people charged with crimes in the scandal and related crimes. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty.

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.

analysis: Nixon’s past legislations and successful presidency were ultimately ruined by his involvement in the Watergate scandal. The illegal activities demonstrated by Nixon and his administration displays Nixon’s lack of integrity concerning the 1972 election. Nixon ordered a coverup of the criminal acts connected to him and his campaign.

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.

Once broken, the seal of Watergate could never be replaced. The five men brought arrested for breaking into the Watergate Complex had to be served fair justice. The official hearings began on January 8th, 1973 (Files 1). However, fair trials would not prevail. Edward B. Hunt ordered the payout of twenty thousand dollars to each member of the break-in team, fifty thousand for his lawyer, and seventy thousand dollars for himself (Files 6). The “hush money” proved successful. All four Cuban men pled