Release of the tapes. The tapes revealed several crucial conversations that took place between the President and his counsel, John Dean, on March 21, 1973. In this conversation, Dean summarized many aspects of the Watergate case, and focused on the subsequent cover-up, describing it as a "cancer on the presidency".
Pieces of police evidence around the Watergate scandal. To the left are arrest photo enlargements of the 4 Cubans from Miami who committed the crime: Valdez Martinez, Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, and Frank Sturgis. Prosecutors discover a memo to John Ehrlichman regarding plans for the Plumbersâ break-in of Daniel Ellsbergâs psychiatrist.
The Supreme Court in 1974 ordered President Richard M. Nixon, here in March 1973, to turn over tape recordings of White House conversations for the Watergate prosecution. (John Duricka/AP)
George McGovern; too liberal In order to get Nixon reelected, Nixon advisors ordered the break-in at the Democratic Party's headquarters at the Watergate on June 17, 1972. Which two tasks were assigned to them?
William Mark Felt Sr. (August 17, 1913 â December 18, 2008) was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal.
Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that resulted in a unanimous decision against President Richard Nixon, ordering him to deliver tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials to a federal district court.
Archibald Cox Jr. (May 17, 1912 â May 29, 2004) was an American lawyer and law professor who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.
Washington, D.C., U.S. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon.
According to his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, Nixon ordered the system removed, but during the first two years of his presidency he came to the conclusion (after trying other means) that audio recordings were the only way to ensure a full and faithful account of conversations and decisions.
Which prior Supreme Court case could be cited as a precedent for the majority decision in United States v. Nixon (1974)? In Gonzalez v. Raich (2005), the Supreme Court ruled that the commerce clause gave Congress the authority to ban the use of marijuana, despite conflicting state law.
John Newton Mitchell (September 15, 1913 â November 9, 1988) was the 67th Attorney General of the United States under President Richard Nixon and chairman of Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns.
James Walter McCord Jr. (January 26, 1924 â June 15, 2017) was an American CIA officer, later head of security for President Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. He was involved as an electronics expert in the burglaries which precipitated the Watergate scandal.
Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski (September 19, 1905 â December 9, 1982) was an American attorney and law professor who served as the second special prosecutor during the Watergate Scandal.
Who were the two reporters in the Watergate story for the Washington Post? -Bob Woodward. -Carl Bernstein. What was the initial crime that uncovered Watergate?
Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for The Washington Post as a reporter in 1971 and currently holds the title of associate editor.
Woodward and Bernstein were reporters for The Washington Post, and Deep Throat provided key details about the involvement of U.S. president Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal.
The Watergate scandal was a series of interlocking political scandals of the U.S. President Richard M. Nixon's administration. The scandal included...
Police apprehended five burglars at the office of the DNC in the Watergate complex. Four of the five burglars were formerly active in Central Intel...
Deep Throat was the anonymous source who provided leaks to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Only after some 30 years later, it was reveal...
On September 8, 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford chose to grant Richard Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed...
On August 9, 1974, facing likely impeachment for his role in covering up the scandal, Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Investigate. The Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon Resigns. The Watergate scandal began early in the morning of June 17, 1972, when several burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, D.C.
Their reporting won them a Pulitzer Prize and was the basis for their best-selling book âAll the Presidentâs Men.â Much of their information came from an anonymous whistleblower they called Deep Throat, who in 2005 was revealed to be W. Mark Felt, a former associate director of the FBI.
Meanwhile, seven conspirators were indicted on charges related to the Watergate affair. At the urging of Nixonâs aides, five pleaded guilty to avoid trial; the other two were convicted in January 1973.
Early in 1974, the cover-up and efforts to impede the Watergate investigation began to unravel. On March 1, a grand jury appointed by a new special prosecutor indicted seven of Nixonâs former aides on various charges related to the Watergate affair. The jury, unsure if they could indict a sitting president, called Nixon an âunindicted ...
The origins of the Watergate break-in lay in the hostile political climate of the time. By 1972, when Republican President Richard M. Nixon was running for reelection, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, and the country was deeply divided.
Six weeks later, after Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president, he pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed while in office. Some of Nixonâs aides were not so lucky: They were convicted of very serious offenses and sent to federal prison.
His abuse of presidential power had a long-lasting effect on American political life, creating an atmosphere of cynicism and distrust. While many Americans had been deeply dismayed by the outcome of the Vietnam War, and saddened by the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and other leaders, Watergate added further disappointment to a national climate already soured by the difficulties and losses of the previous decade.
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continuous attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National ...
On August 1, a $25,000 (approximately $155,000 in 2019 dollars) cashier's check was found to have been deposited in the US and Mexican bank accounts of one of the Watergate burglars, Bernard Barker.
Rather than ending with the conviction and sentencing to prison of the five Watergate burglars on January 30, 1973, the investigation into the break-in and the Nixon Administration's involvement grew broader. "Nixon's conversations in late March and all of April 1973 revealed that not only did he know he needed to remove Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean to gain distance from them, but he had to do so in a way that was least likely to incriminate him and his presidency. Nixon created a new conspiracyâto effect a cover-up of the cover-upâwhich began in late March 1973 and became fully formed in May and June 1973, operating until his presidency ended on August 9, 1974." On March 23, 1973, Judge Sirica read the court a letter from Watergate burglar James McCord, who alleged that perjury had been committed in the Watergate trial, and defendants had been pressured to remain silent. In an attempt to make them talk, Sirica gave Hunt and two burglars provisional sentences of up to 40 years.
Two months later, Mitchell approved a reduced version of the plan, including burglarizing the Democratic National Committee 's (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C.âostensibly to photograph campaign documents and install listening devices in telephones.
The resulting Senate Watergate hearings were broadcast "gavel-to-gavel" nationwide by PBS and aroused public interest. Witnesses testified that the president had approved plans to cover up administration involvement in the break-in, and that there was a voice-activated taping system in the Oval Office.
On February 7, 1973, the United States Senate voted 77-to-0 to approve 93 S.Res. 60 and establish a select committee to investigate Watergate, with Sam Ervin named chairman the next day. The hearings held by the Senate committee, in which Dean and other former administration officials testified, were broadcast from May 17 to August 7. The three major networks of the time agreed to take turns covering the hearings live, each network thus maintaining coverage of the hearings every third day, starting with ABC on May 17 and ending with NBC on August 7. An estimated 85% of Americans with television sets tuned into at least one portion of the hearings.
Watergate Trial Conversations â Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The Watergate Files, at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, National Archives. Official and unofficial documents on the Watergate scandal from the Presidential collection of President Nixon's successor, Vice President Gerald R. Ford.
John Dean t estifying for the second day before the Senate Watergate Committee, saying he was sure that President Nixon not only knew about the Watergate cover-up as early as last fall, but also helped try to keep the scandal quiet.
January 30, 1973. Former Nixon aide and FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord, an ex-CIA agent and former security director of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), are convicted for their roles in the break-in at the Watergate complex.
The New York Times reports that McCord told the Senate Watergate Committee that a Republican group, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) had made cash payoffs to the Watergate burglars.
The New York Times reports that McCord told the Senate Watergate Committee that a Republican group, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) had made cash payoffs to the Watergate burglars.
March 21, 1973. In a White House meeting, White House Counsel John Dean tells Nixon, âWe have a cancerâwithinâclose to the Presidency, thatâs growing.â. He and Nixon discuss how to pay the Watergate bribers as much as $1 million in cash to continue the cover-up.
In total, 41 people will receive criminal convictions related to the Watergate scandal.
The Washington Post reports that Dean told Watergate prosecutors that he discussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35 times. On June 25, Dean testifies before the Senate Select Committee about Nixonâs involvement.
The Watergate scandal was a series of interlocking political scandals of the U.S. President Richard M. Nixon's administration. The scandal included a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972, and subsequent cover-up by people who worked for or with ...
Throughout the 1972 campaign season, Woodward and Bernstein were fed leaks by an anonymous source they referred to as âDeep Throat,â who, only some 30 years later, was revealed to be FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt, Sr.
Meanwhile, the conspirators destroyed evidence, including their burglary equipment and a stash of $100 bills. Jeb Magruder, deputy director of CREEP, burned transcripts of wiretaps from an earlier break-in at the DNCâs offices.
On August 9, 1974, facing likely impeachment for his role in covering up the scandal, Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign.
Soon after, Woodward and Bernstein and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators identified two coconspirators in the burglary: E. Howard Hunt, Jr. , a former high-ranking CIA officer only recently appointed to the staff of the White House, and G. Gordon Liddy , a former FBI agent working as a counsel for CREEP.
Throughout the 1972 campaign season, Woodward and Bernstein were fed leaks by an anonymous source they referred to as âDeep Throat,â who, only some 30 years later, was revealed to be FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt, Sr. They kept up a steady stream of scoops demonstrating (1) the direct involvement of Nixon intimates in Watergate activities, (2) that the Watergate wiretapping and break-in had been financed through illegally laundered campaign contributions, and, in a blockbuster October 10 front-page article, (3) that âthe Watergate bugging incident stemmed from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of President Nixonâs re-election and directed by officials of the White House,â part of âa basic strategy of the Nixon re-election effort.â
The preponderance of early media reports, driven by a successful White House public relations campaign, claimed that there had been no involvement by the Nixon administration or the reelection committee. Meanwhile, the conspirators destroyed evidence, including their burglary equipment and a stash of $100 bills.
President Nixon refuses to hand over tapes in 1974. President Richard Nixon was unwilling to give up evidence to Ervin Panel. (AP) (Originally published by the Daily News on January 5, 1974. This story was written by Paul Healy.)
At the committee's request, a special bid had been passed by Congress to permit the Watergate committee to subpena the documents from the White House directly.
Nixon also argued that some of the materials subpenaed might be relevant to some of the grand jury inquiries into various Watergate matters. He said this "could seriously impair the ability of the office of the special prosecutor to complete its investigations and successfully prosecute the criminal cases which may arise from the grand juries."
His Daily Diary. Nixon noted that a second subpena asks for 37 categories of documents or materials, one of which is "President Richard Nixon's daily diary for Jan. 1, 1970, to Dec. 19, 1973.". He recalled that in a letter he wrote Ervin last July 6, he stressed that "formulation of sound public policy requires that the president ...
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Jan. 4 - President Nixon declined flatly today to produce any of the more than 500 documents subpenaed by the Senate Watergate committee, branding the request "an overt attempt to intrude into the executive office to a degree that constitutes an unconstitutional usurpation of power."
Fed Buzhardt Jr. will move from special Watergate counsel to the post of counsel to the President, the position held by John W. Dean 3d., who was fired by Nixon last spring and later testified against him in the Watergate hearings. Advertisement.
Also today, Nixon announced a three-step shuffle of his legal staff. His acting White House counsel, Leonard Garment, will move up to become an assistant to the President. J. Fed Buzhardt Jr. will move from special Watergate counsel to the post of counsel to the President, the position held by John W. Dean 3d., who was fired by Nixon last spring and later testified against him in the Watergate hearings.
Ervin said that he re garded the Watergate investi gation as âcrucialâ because it dealt with allegations that in dividuals with great power âhave imparied, if not de stroyed,â the integrity of the election process.
He said that the Senate in vestigators would be âde lightedâ if the âultimate reso lutionâ of their inquiry was to determine that Mr. Nixon was innocent of any involvement in the Watergate scandal.
Dean had told the com mittee that he became suspi cious that President Nixon was tapeârecording a meeting with him in April because of âlead ingâ questions by Mr. Nixon and a comment that the Presi dent made, in a lowered voice , at one point. Donald G. Sanders, an assistant Republi can counsel to the panel, asked Mr. Butterfield on Friday if the President could have made a recording.
Butterfield said that he was reluctant to disclose the existence of the devices because the revelation âcould have a number of serious repercussions with regard to foreign govern ments.â He did not elaborate, but presumably referred to the possibility that meetings be tween Mr. Nixon and visiting heads of state had been re corded without the knowledge of the visitors.
He said that the recordings were meant to serve as part of a record âfor posterityâ of Mr. Nixon's Administration and that they would ultimately have gone into a Nixon library.
Say ing that he had ânever found a finer statementâ on the sub ject, Mr. Ervin quoted from the chapter titled âPolitics with Honorâ in Mr. Nixon's book, âSix Crises.â
In a letter to Senator Sam J. Ervin Jr. of North Caro lina, the Democratic chairman of the committee, the President said that he would have to refuse the request because of his constitutional obligation to maintain the separation be tween the executive and legis lative branches of government.
With respect to the Vietnam War, Dr. Henry Kissinger announced that "peace is at hand" in October 1972. What was the timing of that announcement significant?
In order to get Nixon reelected, Nixon advisors ordered the break-in at the Democratic Party's headquarters at the Watergate on June 17, 1972. Which two tasks were assigned to them?
5 men(James McCord and 4 others who worked for CRP) broke into the DNC (democratic national committee)
Nixon complied with the courtâs order in United States v. Nixon.
In the District Court, the Presidentâs counsel argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to issue the subpoena because the matter was an intra-branch dispute between a subordinate and superior officer of the Executive Branch, and hence not subject to judicial resolution. That argument has been renewed in this Court with emphasis on the contention that the dispute does not present a âcaseâ or âcontroversyâ which can be adjudicated in the federal courts. The Presidentâs counsel argues that the federal courts should not intrude into areas committed to the other branches of Government. [p693] He views the present dispute as essentially a âjurisdictionalâ dispute within the Executive Branch which he analogizes to a dispute between two congressional committees. Since the Executive Branch has exclusive authority and absolute discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case, Confiscation Cases, 7 Wall. 454 (1869); United States v. Cox, 342 F.2d 167, 171 (CA5), cert. denied sub nom. Cox v. Hauber, 381 U.S. 935 (1965), it is contended that a Presidentâs decision is final in determining what evidence is to be used in a given criminal case. Although his counsel concedes that the President ha delegated certain specific powers to the Special Prosecutor, he has not
This litigation presents for review the denial of a motion, filed in the District Court on behalf of the President of the United States, in the case of United States v. Mitchell (D.C.Crim. No. 7110) , to quash a third-party subpoena duces tecum issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, pursuant to Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 17 (c). The subpoena directed the President to produce certain tape recordings and documents relating to his conversations with aides and advisers. The court rejected the Presidentâs claims of absolute executive privilege, of lack of jurisdiction, and of failure to satisfy the requirements of Rule 17 (c). The President appealed to the Court of Appeals. We granted both the United Statesâ petition for certiorari before judgment (No. 7 1766), [n1] and also the Presidentâs cross-petition for certiorari [p687] before judgment (No. 73-1834), [n2] because of the public importance of the issues presented and the need for their prompt resolution. 417 U.S. 927 and 960 (1974).
Having determined that the requirements of Rule 17 (c) were satisfied, we turn to the claim that the subpoena should be quashed because it demands âconfidential conversations between a President and his close advisors that it would be inconsistent with the public interest to produce.â App. 48a. The first contention is a broad claim that the separation of powers doctrine precludes judicial review of a Presidentâs claim of privilege. The second contention is that, if he does not prevail on the claim of absolute privilege, the court should hold as a matter of constitutional law that the privilege prevails over the subpoena duces tecum.
On May 20, 1974, the District Court denied the motion to quash and the motions to expunge and for protective orders. 377 F.Supp. 1326. It further ordered âthe President or any subordinate officer, official, or employee with custody or control of the documents or [p689] objects subpoenaed,â id. at 1331, to deliver to the District Court, on or before May 31, 1974, the originals of all subpoenaed items, as well as an index and analysis of those items, together with tape copies of those portions of the subpoenaed recordings for which transcripts had been released to the public by the President on April 30. The District Court rejected jurisdictional challenges based on a contention that the dispute was nonjusticiable because it was between the Special Prosecutor and the Chief Executive and hence âintra-executiveâ in character; it also rejected the contention that the Judiciary was without authority to review an assertion of executive privilege by the President. The courtâs rejection of the first challenge was based on the authority and powers vested in the Special Prosecutor by the regulation promulgated by the Attorney General; the court concluded that a justiciable controversy was presented. The second challenge was held to be foreclosed by the decision in Nixon v. Sirica, 159 U.S.App.D.C. 58, 487 F.2d 700 (1973).
The subpoena directed the President to produce certain tape recordings and documents relating to his conversations with aides and advisers. The court rejected the Presidentâs claims of absolute executive privilege, of lack of jurisdiction, and of failure to satisfy the requirements of Rule 17 (c).
United States v. Ryan, 402 U.S. 530, 533. Such an exception is proper in the unique circumstances of this case, where it would be inappropriate to subject the President to the procedure of securing review by resisting the order and inappropriate to require that the District Court proceed by a traditional contempt citation in order to provide appellate review. Pp. 690-692.