Watergate

The Watergate Scandal shook the faith of the public in our system of government and the justice of our courts. Initially, it was thought that the break-in into the Watergate complex was an isolated event. Even when it became apparent that there was more depth to the incident than people had originally thought, and that there had been widespread use of espionage and sabotage, Nixon had not been suspected much of knowing ahead of time about the Watergate break-in. Later, more and more evidence accumulated showing that Nixon’s close subordinates had been involved at least to some degree in the illegal operations, and that Nixon had been deeply involved in the later cover up of the actions. By the time of his resignation, Nixon faced imminent and almost definite impeachment in the House and conviction by the Senate on several charges. Unsurprisingly, he became the first president to resign in order to escape from this fate.

Initially, five men were caught breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office and hotel complex. They had been found wearing surgical gloves, and carrying a walkie-talkie, film, cameras, lock picks, and bugging devices. In the beginning of the inquiry, the FBI and Justice Department investigated this break-in, believing that it was an isolated incident. However, it slowly became apparent that there were other related illegal activities against the Democrats that had been directed by the Committee to Re-elect the President. Evidence had also appeared that pointed guilt to people higher up in the hierarchy. A Senate Watergate Committee, chaired by Senator Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina, was formed to investigate the affair more deeply, possibly because the FBI and the Justice Department were both under the control of the Executive Branch. Also, Attorney General Elliot Richardson appointed Archibald Cox as a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate incident. The committee immediately began subpoenaing members of the White House staff to testify in court. Soon after, in March of 1973, James McCord wrote a letter to Judge Sirica stating that “political pressure had been applied to the defendants to plead guilty and remain silent,” and that “perjury had occurred during the trial.” This letter led to a chain reaction of confessions, each person implicating someone higher up, including John Dean, the counsel to the president. In his confessions, Dean made accusations against the former Attorney General John Mitchell, and President Nixon. Dean later went on to become an important witness in the Watergate trials. This accusation of the president caused the investigation to shift towards the question of Nixon’s involvement in the break-in and the other illegal activities.