Watergate Scandal Essay

What kind of person commits three major violations of the national law and gets away with it? Well that person is Nixon. President Richard Nixon was one of the most famous presidents in the United States. He was mainly renowned for his huge role in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal was important because Nixon and his cabinet arranged to get people to spy on the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building. After it became clear Nixon was responsible, he manages to resign before he was going to be impeached. President Nixon was involved with the Watergate scandal and should be sentenced to jail because he organized it, which then got leaked out and finally led to his resignation.

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

After the break-in, Nixon needed to protect his image so that American’s could still trust him. To accomplish this, he let a number of employees take the blame for him. The Watergate Seven were a group of men involved in the scandal, who were also advisors and aides to President Nixon. On January 8, 1973, these men were put to trial. With urges from Nixon, five of the seven pleaded guilty. Then on January 30, 1973, six of Nixon’s aides and the lawyer for his re-election committee were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to cover-up the break in. This included John Mitchell, Harry Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles W. Colson, Gordon Strachan, and Kenneth Wells Parkinson. However, after the trial, CIA operative, James W. McCord, wrote a letter to Judge John Sirica. In which he claimed that the defendants had pleaded guilty under duress. He also said that they committed perjury and that others were involved in the Watergate break-in. Leading to further pressure being put on Nixon and his alleged involvement in the break-in. Eventually, Nixon’s deceitful involvement would be revealed to the American public.

In late June 17, 1972 two robbers were caught inside the office of the Democratic National Committee. These two were caught red handed wiretapping phones and stealing secret documents. These two burglars where somehow connected to Nixon and his reelection campaign. Thus, a long line of bad decisions led to Nixon’s downfall. He tried to raise “hush money” for the burglars to keep the FBI from investigating the crime. Nixon went as far as to destroy evidence and fire unwilling employees who were against the cover up. When all this was made to public light in 1974, Nixon resigned from

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

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

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

To further maintain his innocence, President Nixon started creating distance between himself and those of senior authority within his administration who could be directly linked to the Watergate scandal. At this time, many of President Nixon’s aides were either being prosecuted for obstruction of justice, burglary, wiretapping, etc, or they were resigning their positions within the administration due to the overwhelming evidence that was appearing against them in relation to their criminal activities. Many of President Nixon’s aides were either cutting a deal in court or preparing to testify against the him in relation to their personal knowledge about the details of the scandal and their personal knowledge about President Nixon’s involvement. The characters that will be examined were both senior politicians within the Nixon Administration as well as law enforcement agents and high ranking attorneys. They will be investigated to determine their connection to the Nixon Administration and their role in the Watergate scandal.

Richard Nixon was a widely accepted president before the Watergate break-in which changed American views on government forever. The Watergate Scandal started when five men, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, James McCord, and Eugenio Martinez known as CREEP, broke into the Watergate complex in order to bug the office with microphones to hear the plans for the upcoming election. However this plan backfired when the five men were arrested leading investigations to trace back to the White House and later President Nixon. Watergate was the largest government scandal in American history, affecting the lives of Americans, their trust in government, and forced the only resignation of a U.S. President.

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.

On June 17, 1972, there was an attempted burglary at the Watergate office complex. A security guard named Frank Wills noticed tape covering a few latches here and there and removed them unconcernedly, only to find them back again a while later. There were five men in the DNC at this point and they were promptly arrested. Unbeknownst to most at the time, there had been another burglary before June 17th, on May 28th, and two phones were wiretapped in the process. The reason there was a second break-in was due to repairs. These were both performed by the White House Plumbers, a group formed in 1971 under Nixon to stop security leaks. They eventually branched out into illegal affairs, like the Watergate burglary.

There are many facts about the Watergate affair that readers should know. The first of many is that in 1972 there were five burglars who were found in the Democratic National Committee headquarters. These burglars were later indicted on wiretapping and sentenced to prison. Following the break-in two of Nixon's closest advisors resigned because of their ties to the

On July 12th, 1972, 5 men were arrested at the Watergate Hotel, supposedly trying to bug the Democratic National Committees meetings. It was soon discovered that someone from the White House was a part of this scandal. It was discovered that some of the people trying to bug the meetings were members of President Nixon's re-election party. This gave investigators a reason to suspect Nixon as a part of the scandal and that he has probably done more to make him at the top. Nixon had straight up denied any evidence that was geared toward him being a part of the scandal. An investigation was instituted to try to find evidence of burglary in the White House and at the Hotel. It was discovered that some of the top people in Nixon’s political campaigns

The discovery of a burglary that occurred in the early morning of June 17, 1972 in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C., unleashed a series of arrests and investigations that are known as the Watergate scandal. This incident led to the arrest of five men, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martínez, James W. McCord Jr., and Frank Sturgis who were inside the office attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. When these men, which were dressed in business attire and wore latex gloves, were taken into custody they had in their possession cameras, film, tools to break in, and three pen-size tear gas guns.

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