Watergate scandal

The Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. – a group of brutalist, curving buildings by the Potomac river.

A view of the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., with the Howard Johnson's motel to the left, with legal notation from the trial of the White House Plumbers

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Nixon's efforts to conceal his administration's involvement led to an impeachment process and his resignation in August 1974.

Emerging from the White House's intelligence efforts to stop leaks, the break-in was an implementation of Operation Gemstone, enacted by mostly Cuban burglars led by former intelligence agents E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. After the burglars' arrests, investigators traced their funding to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, the fundraising arm of Nixon's campaign. Revelations from investigators and reporters like The Washington PostTemplate:'s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—who were guided by the anonymous leaker "Deep Throat"—exposed a political espionage program illegally funded by donor contributions. Nixon denied involvement, but his administration destroyed evidence, obstructed investigators, and bribed the arrested burglars. This cover-up was initially successful: Nixon won a landslide re-election. Revelations from the burglars' trial in early 1973 led to a Senate investigation.

Mounting pressure led Attorney General Elliot Richardson to appoint Archibald Cox as Watergate special prosecutor. Cox subpoenaed Nixon's Oval Office tapes: thousands of hours of recorded presidential conversations. Nixon cited executive privilege and blocked their release, triggering a constitutional crisis. In the "Saturday Night Massacre", Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox; Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned, while Solicitor General Robert Bork obeyed the order. The incident fueled suspicions of Nixon's involvement. Nixon then began releasing the tapes: one had an intentional 18-minute erasure, while two others were found to have disappeared. In April 1974, Cox's replacement Leon Jaworski reissued a subpoena, but Nixon only released redacted transcripts. In July, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release the tapes, and the House Judiciary Committee recommended impeachment for obstructing justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. The White House released the "Smoking Gun" tape, revealing that Nixon ordered the CIA stop the FBI's investigation. Facing impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, becoming the only U.S. president to do so. In total, 69 people were charged with Watergate crimes—including two cabinet members—and most pleaded guilty or were convicted. Nixon himself was pardoned by his vice president and successor Gerald Ford.

Watergate, often considered the greatest presidential scandal, tarnished Nixon's legacy and had electoral ramifications for the Republican Party: the loss of four Senate seats and 48 House seats in the 1974 midterms. President Ford's pardon of Nixon also contributed to his election defeat in 1976. Despite significant coverage, no consensus exists on the motive for the break-in nor who specifically ordered it. Theories range from an incompetent break-in by rogue campaign officials to a sexpionage operation or CIA plot. The scandal generated over 30 memoirs and left such an impression that it is common for scandals, even outside politics or the United States, to be named with the suffix "-gate".

Prelude

Leaks and early wiretrapping

Nixon surrounded by a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania, with outstretched arms

Nixon giving his staple V sign in Pennsylvania during his 1968 campaignTemplate:Sfn

Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was elected to the White House in 1968 as a champion of "law and order".Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He had served as vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower and narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As president, Nixon inherited American involvement in the Vietnam War, which he promised to end honorably.Template:Sfn Seeking to force a diplomatic resolution, Nixon escalated the war and secretly expanded bombing to Cambodia.Template:Sfn

When The New York Times revealed the bombing operation in May 1969, Nixon ordered the wiretapping of reporters and suspected leakers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) could not bug some targets, Nixon had domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman directly arrange the wiretapping.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nixon's discontent with the FBI also led him to hire former New York Police Department detectives Jack Caulfield and Anthony Ulasewicz as his own private investigators.Template:Sfn

In June 1971, The New York Times started publishing the Pentagon Papers: a leaked 7,000-page study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, commissioned in 1967.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Leaked by former RAND analyst Daniel Ellsberg,Template:Sfn the papers exposed government deception about the war's progress.Template:Sfn Nixon was initially unworried, as the Pentagon Papers predated his presidency,Template:Sfn but National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger—furious as Ellsberg was his mentee—pushed Nixon into what White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman called a "frenzy".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nixon had Attorney General John Mitchell threaten the Times, which halted the papers' publication as it litigated a restraining order.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, The Washington Post began to publish the papers instead, and the Times case traveled to the Supreme Court, which ruled against Nixon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The episode was, according to journalist Garrett Graff, a "self-inflicted... disaster".Template:Sfn

The White House Plumbers

"We've got a damn counter-government here and we've got to fight it. I don't give a damn how it is done, do whatever has to be done to stop these leaks. I don't want to be told why it can't be done. This government cannot survive, it cannot function if anyone can run out and leak."

— Nixon to aide Chuck Colson after New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)Template:Sfn

After the Supreme Court's ruling, Nixon told aide Chuck Colson to stop all leaks by any means.Template:Sfn Nixon fixated on files at the Brookings Institution on the Chennault Affair, which implicated him in the sabotage of 1968 Vietnam peace talks,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn and urged aides to "get in and get those files—blow the safe and get it".Template:Sfn Nixon advisors had previously drafted the Huston Plan, which proposed expanded domestic surveillance and tactics like "surreptitious entry" (burglary).Template:Sfn Although approved by Nixon, a worried Hoover had the plan officially withdrawn.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

For the Brookings burglary, Colson recruited retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent E. Howard Hunt,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn who had helped arrange the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The plot escalated into a planned firebombing with burglars posing as firefighters: concerned White House Counsel John Dean halted the operation.Template:Sfn Their focus shifted to leaker Ellsberg: Hunt was teamed with aides Egil Krogh and David Young in the new "Special Investigations Unit".Template:Sfn Former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy also joined the group, which he dubbed "ODESSA" after a rumored Nazi Schutzstaffel group.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Young's grandmother, misunderstanding what leaks were, suggested another name: the "Plumbers".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Plumbers targeted Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding, believing he held compromising files.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After Hunt and Liddy scouted his Los Angeles office, Krogh approved a burglary: "Hunt/Liddy Project #1".Template:Sfn Hunt enlisted Cuban collaborators from the Bay of Pigs: CIA veteran Bernard Barker—who had served under Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista—and anti-Castro exiles Eugenio Martínez and Felipe De Diego.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The September 3 burglary reportedly failed, with the Cubans finding no Ellsberg files and having to stage an addict's rampage after damaging the safe.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, De Diego said that they found and photographed Ellsberg's records, and Fielding reported that Ellsberg's health files were in his office and appeared to have been "fingered". Liddy later suspected that Hunt had deceived him, photographing the files and sending them instead to the CIA.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Hunt and Liddy then planned to burglarize Fielding's home but were stopped by Ehrlichman.Template:Sfn

The Plumbers next plotted to discredit Ellsberg by drugging him with LSD at a Washington gala, but White House approval came too late.Template:Sfn They revived the Brookings firebombing scheme, proposing to buy a fire engine for firefighter‑disguised Cubans, which the White House ultimately deemed too costly.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other projects included investigating Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick accident, assessing whether Hoover should be made to leave the FBI, and forging a cable to link John F. Kennedy to the 1963 assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Plumbers also helped discover that the Pentagon was surveilling the White House via a leaker on the National Security Council, outraging an increasingly paranoid Nixon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Collectively, the Plumbers' schemes are often called the "White House horrors", a phrase coined by Attorney General Mitchell.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Committee for the Re-Election of the President

As Nixon prepared for his 1972 re-election campaign, Caulfield proposed Operation Sandwedge: a private-sector intelligence operation against the Democrats, staffed by himself and Ulasewicz.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn White House officials deemed the plan too moderate and doubted Caulfield's competence: Liddy was selected to head the project before it was scrapped.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn In December 1971, Liddy instead became general counsel for the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP)—the fundraising arm of Nixon's re-election campaign—introduced by deputy campaign manager Jeb Stuart Magruder as "our man in charge of dirty tricks".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The CRP also recruited retired CIA officer James McCord, recommended by Caulfield, as its security chief.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

With Hunt, Liddy devised Operation Gemstone, a set of covert campaign schemes pitched to Attorney General Mitchell on January 27.Template:Sfn These included Operation Diamond: kidnapping, drugging, and detaining in Mexico likely protesters during the 1972 Republican National Convention. The plan, nicknamed Nacht und Nebel after an Adolf Hitler directive, would be enacted by an "Einsatzgruppe" of mobsters that Hunt said had committed 22 murders.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other plots included Operation Emerald, a spy airliner to trail the Democratic nominee; Operation Turquoise, Cuban commandos sabotaging air-conditioning at the Democrats' 1972 Miami convention; and Operation Sapphire, a boat with sex workers to entrap Democrats at the convention.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Mitchell rejected the plots as unrealistic and expensive, requesting a simpler Gemstone.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In February, Mitchell resigned to become CRP director.Template:Sfn Although disputed by Graff and biographer James Rosen, Mitchell is generally believed to have approved Liddy's next version of Gemstone, which proposed burglarizing and bugging the office of Larry O'Brien at the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters within D.C.'s Watergate Complex, the Fontainebleau Hotel suites of top Democrats during their Miami convention, and the campaign headquarters of the eventual nominee.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As another break-in target, Mitchell or Magruder suggested Las Vegas Sun publisher Hank Greenspun's office.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The desired material may have involved possible Democratic nominee Edmund Muskie or the financial dealings of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes with Nixon or his brother Donald.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although—according to Hunt and Liddy—the burglary was abandoned after Hughes would not provide a getaway plane, Greenspun's office showed evidence of forced entry, and Ehrlichman told Nixon in 1973 that Hunt and Liddy "flew out [to Las Vegas], broke his safe, got something out" [sic].Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Oval Office taping system

A Sony tape-recorder used by Nixon to record all conversations in the Oval Office

A Sony tape-recorder used by Nixon to record all conversations in the Oval Office

After his election, Nixon made the Army Signal Corps remove a taping system used by predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson in the Oval Office.Template:Sfn By 1971, Nixon worried that his presidency would not be sufficiently preserved for posterity and had the Secret Service install microphones in his desk and throughout the room. The system was deliberately kept secret from the White House Communications Agency, Kissinger, and even Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods.Template:Sfn From February 16, 1971 to July 12, 1973, the system recorded 3,432 hours of conversation.Template:Sfn According to Graff, the tapes were ultimately "the root cause of [Nixon's] downfall".Template:Sfn No president since Nixon is known to have taped White House conversations, although President Donald Trump suggested that he did.Template:Sfn

Watergate break-ins

Assembling the crew

A mugshot of the dour Eugenio Martínez

Eugenio Martínez, one of the Cuban burglars

Following the May 1972 death of FBI director Hoover, Colson asked the CRP to send counterprotestors to a protest at Hoover's state funeral in the Capitol rotunda.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hunt and Liddy again recruited Bay of Pigs collaborators: Barker flew to D.C. with nine men from Miami.Template:Sfn After the counterprotest, according to Lukas, Barker's team may have committed two unsolved burglaries in Washington, those of the Chilean Embassy and of a major Democratic law firm within the Watergate Complex on May 16.Template:Sfn The counterprotest may also have been a ruse to bring the Cubans to D.C. to burglarize Hoover's home in search of alleged kompromat used to blackmail politicians.Template:Sfn

After meeting with Hunt in Miami, Barker selected the men for the DNC break-in planned for Memorial Day weekend: Martínez, as photographer; Virgilio Gonzalez, as picklock; and De Diego, Reinaldo Pico, and Frank Sturgis as guards.Template:Sfn Sturgis was the only non-Cuban member, but he had fought alongside Castro during the Cuban Revolution.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Pico and De Diego were dropped because McCord forgot two walkie-talkies.Template:Sfn After a planning session with McCord and Hunt at the Hamilton Hotel near the White House, Barker's team checked into the Watergate Hotel on May 26.Template:Sfn McCord recruited former FBI agent Alfred Baldwin III to perform the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward; he was booked at the Howard Johnson's motel opposite the Watergate.Template:Sfn

Initial attempts and May 28 break-in

The brutalist Watergate complex with intricate, modern cement designs

The Watergate Complex and its parking garage entrance (pictured 1982), through which the Plumbers first broke into the Democratic National Committee office on May 28, 1972

The Plumbers attempted a break-in on the night of May 26, with Hunt and seven others posing as executives in a banquet room located beneath the Watergate office building and connected to the office's stairwell. This effort failed when Hunt and Martínez, after hiding in a closet to evade a night guard, were unable to pick the lock and were stuck in the banquet room overnight.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn A concurrent, spontaneous plot led by Liddy with the Cubans—the bugging of George McGovern's D.C. campaign headquarters—failed on two nights when a lone volunteer was seen working late.Template:Sfn On May 27, a second DNC break-in failed after Gonzalez lacked proper tools for the DNC office's door; he flew back to Miami to retrieve them.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On May 28, Gonzalez and Sturgis entered the office on their third attempt, approaching via the garage.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They were joined by Barker, who sought files on Cuban contributions and had Martínez photograph convention security files, and McCord, who bugged the phones of both staffer R. Spencer Oliver and O'Brien's secretary.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After the team left the office, McCord was unable to pick up the secretary wiretap transmitter with his remote receiver.Template:Sfn In the following weeks, Baldwin recorded hundreds of calls on Oliver's wiretap, including many sexual conversations from secretaries using his phone.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Liddy delivered the phone transcripts and developed photosTemplate:Efn to Magruder and a disappointed Mitchell, who dismissed them as "shitty".Template:Sfn

On June 12, Magruder asked Liddy to photograph all documents in the office.Template:Sfn Later that day, Baldwin, directed by Liddy, visited the Watergate DNC office under the guise of a nephew of former DNC chairman John Bailey and was given a tour of the floor.Template:Sfn Two days later, Liddy told Hunt that the DNC break-in would be reattempted. On June 16, Barker's team returned to D.C. and checked into the Watergate.Template:Sfn

June 17 break-in

Corded radios disguised within chapstick tubes

Chapstick radio microphones discovered in E. Howard Hunt's White House safe after the burglary

For the May 28 break-in, Sturgis and Gonzalez had used tape to cover latches and prevent doors locking. On the night of June 17, McCord volunteered to tape the doors but did so horizontally such that excess tape was visible on the sides.Template:Sfn He then returned to Baldwin's listening post at the Howard Johnson's,Template:Sfn where Hunt called him to ask if the DNC office was empty. McCord reported a lone staffer: Bruce Givner, an intern calling friends.Template:Sfn At around 12:45, Givner left the office, and security guard Frank Wills began his shift.Template:Sfn At 1 a.m., Wills removed the garage door tape, assuming a worker left it.Template:Sfn Stumbling into Givner, Wills left to eat with him at the Howard Johnson's.Template:Sfn

Accounts differ on which burglar decided to proceed with the operation after the tape removal was found.Template:Sfn Regardless, McCord rejoined the burglars, and Gonzalez repicked and retaped the door.Template:Sfn Reaching the DNC office, the burglars abandoned picking the lock and removed the door from the hinges instead.Template:Sfn At around 1:50 a.m., Wills returned and discovered the new tape and called the police. An unmarked Metropolitan Police cruiser, belonging to a special undercover vice squad disguised as hippies, arrived within three minutes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Baldwin, acting as spotter, saw the car but ignored it.Template:Efn He contacted Hunt, however, when the officers turned on the eighth floor lights.Template:Sfn Hunt dismissed it as the night guard, and the team continued installing a new bug disguised as a smoke detector.Template:Sfn

The three Metropolitan officers swept the ninth floor and, after finding a taped door on the sixth floor, began searching the DNC offices.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Baldwin radioed Hunt that three armed men were approaching.Template:Sfn McCord and the four others, hiding behind a partition, surrendered to the officers under false names.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Hunt and Liddy escaped their hotel room in a Jeep, leaving behind traceable items in the team's two hotel suites, and told Baldwin to flee.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hunt drove to the White House, where he dumped electronic equipment in a safe and took $10,000: the three men then slept at their respective homes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The arrested burglars' listening devices led the Metropolitan police to involve the FBI under the presumption of a federal intercepted communications violation;Template:Sfn by June 23, a federal grand jury of 23 D.C. residents began hearing testimony.Template:Sfn

Motives

The purpose of the Watergate break-in and who ultimately ordered the operation has never been established and has spawned conspiracist literature akin to that on the Kennedy assassination.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn No one was ever charged for ordering the burglary, and the Plumbers' accounts conflict.Template:Sfn According to Graff, the burglars may have had "two or even three distinct and separate motives" and deceived even each other.Template:Sfn

The simplest theory is that Watergate was an incompetent break-in to bug O'Brien, emerging from White House paranoia, and that Hunt, Liddy, and McCord were overzealous and acted without proper oversight.Template:Sfn Alternative theories often focus on the bugging of the relatively minor staffer Oliver, which investigators could not explain. Although Dean said that Oliver was accidentally bugged, the FBI found that Martinez carried a key matching the locked desk of Oliver's secretary.Template:Sfn

Kompromat

A common theory argues that the burglars sought "dirt" on the Democrats, specifically involving illegal Democratic finances or sexual scandals.Template:Sfn Both Dean and Magruder said that the break-in sought to expose the Democrats for "cutting deals" with donors to fund their convention.Template:Sfn Hunt testified that he told the Cubans to photograph files on finances and contributions:Template:Sfn the Cubans believed they were looking for files linking the Democrats to funding from Castro.Template:Sfn

In 1980, Liddy conversely wrote that the break-in's purpose "was to find out what O'Brien had of a derogatory nature about us",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn often suggested to be files on illegal contributions to Nixon, possibly CIA-linked, from the Greek junta or Howard Hughes.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn A sexual blackmail theory, as advanced in Secret Agenda (1984) and Silent Coup (1992), alleges a link either between Oliver and a high-end escort service, or that Dean feared Democrat-held files linking his partner to a D.C. escort ring run by lawyer Phillip Mackin Bailley, or both.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Liddy and Ehrlichman endorsed this theory, and Colson called it "one of the most plausible explanations".Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Dean rejected it as "baloney", and Oliver's secretary sued Liddy regarding the claims.Template:Sfn

CIA involvement and other theories

"Even if we should learn the Administration was victimized by a CIA plot—even if we should learn the motive for the burglary—that would change nothing regarding our understanding of John Mitchell's 'White House horrors.' Nor would it mitigate the resulting inter-institutional conflicts and encounters, which raised profound constitutional and political questions, or the constitutional crisis generated by the Administration's behavior in the wake of the burglary. That behavior resulted in the special crimes of cover-up and obstruction by high Administration officials—up to and including the President of the United States."

— Historian Stanley Kutler, 1992Template:Sfn

A prominent theory, supported by Colson and Haldeman, alleges that the CIA sabotaged the break-in or the cover-up to smear Nixon—with whom it had a tense relationship—or to conceal ties to the Bailley escort ring or ally Howard Hughes.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In January 1974, according to Colson, Nixon nearly removed CIA director William Colby over such suspicions; that June, Senator Howard Baker released an inconclusive report on CIA complicity.Template:Sfn Beyond the burglars' past roles in CIA plots, both McCord and Hunt had been CIA agents, Hunt continued to work for a firm that was a CIA cover, and Martínez was on the CIA's payroll throughout Watergate. The CIA also had unexplained insight into the plot, helped Hunt develop the Fielding photographs, and did not cooperate with investigators.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A "sixth man" theory links McCord's periodic absences to the possible presence of Lou Russell, a CRP security guard allegedly linked to the escort ring and CIA.Template:Sfn Another theory noted by Stanley Kutler suggests that Colson and Hunt were rogue operatives and proceeded with a version of Gemstone that also targeted election rival George Wallace and, after Wallace's attempted assassination, sought to plant leftist literature at the shooter's home—a story broken by Seymour Hersh.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

The final major theory, according to Graff, is that the Democrats or Metropolitan Police had foreknowledge of the burglary and "sprung a trap" or were somehow alerted by McCord or Hunt. Proponents note that the responding Metropolitan squad were coincidentally vice officers with experience dismantling D.C. sex work.Template:Sfn

Cover-up and investigations

Reactions and destruction of evidence

Address book of Bernard Barker

Address book of Bernard Barker, discovered in a room at the Watergate Hotel, June 18, 1972

On the morning of June 18, Liddy visited the CRP, destroyed Gemstone files, and reported the arrests to Magruder.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nixon was informed shortly thereafter.Template:Sfn Later that day, federal prosecutors Earl Silbert and Chuck Work searched the burglars' hotel rooms: they found spying gear, $100 bills, papers mentioning Hunt, Barker's address books (listing "WH"), and Martínez's telephone directory (listing "W. House").Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Investigators learned that the burglars had given pseudonyms, that McCord worked for the CRP, and that the White House had conducted a background check on Hunt.Template:Sfn The burglars did not cooperate with the FBI or in court.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Visited by FBI agents, Hunt admitted that a check found at Watergate was his but refused further comment.Template:Sfn

On June 19, Liddy offered to be sacrificed in an assassination to protect Nixon, which Dean rejected.Template:Sfn That same day, CIA agent Lee Pennington Jr. destroyed incriminating material at McCord's home.Template:Sfn The CRP similarly conducted a "massive housecleaning"; Magruder burned Gemstone files at his home; and Colson destroyed pages in the White House phone directory listing Hunt.Template:Sfn Nixon made his first public statement on Watergate on June 22, denying White House involvement.Template:Sfn

Following Ehrlichman's orders, Dean had Hunt's White House safe drilled open;Template:Sfn Ehrlichman told Dean to "deep six" incriminating files in the Potomac River.Template:Sfn As a Secret Service agent and two aides had seen the files' removal, Dean feared perjuring himself in future testimony. On June 27, he instead gave nonsensitive files to the FBI and sensitive files—on the Fielding burglary and other Plumber activities—directly to acting FBI director L. Patrick Gray.Template:Sfn Dean personally destroyed two Hunt notebooks and an address book, and Gray burned the surrendered files around Christmas 1972.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Early press investigations

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein seated together on stage

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, 2024

Shortly after the break-in, DNC counsel Joseph Califano Jr. notified The Washington Post: editor Barry Sussman assigned veteran journalist Alfred Lewis and the novices Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to the story.Template:Sfn The team found that four of the burglars were Cuban exiles;Template:Sfn Woodward attended the burglar's preliminary hearing, where McCord admitted to being former CIA.Template:Sfn While The Washington PostTemplate:'s next issue contained three stories on Watergate, the scandal received negligible coverage from papers like The New York Times.Template:Sfn

Based on the address book and letters found in the burglar's suite, Woodward and Bernstein contacted the White House switchboard and asked for Hunt. They were connected to "Mr. Colson's office" and then referred to Hunt's office at the Mullen Company PR Firm. They were able to reach Hunt, who hung up.Template:Sfn

Contacting acquaintances, they learned that Hunt was "with the CIA" and that McCord had created a presidential list of "domestic radicals" and a censorship plan in case of a national emergency.Template:Sfn Based on Sussman's research on Colson, the trio published a headline implicating the White House: "White House Consultant Linked to Bugging Suspects".Template:Sfn Press attention on the "Watergate caper" grew from other outlets.Template:Sfn The New York TimesTemplate:' Latin-American specialist Tad Szulc connected the Cuban burglars to past CIA plots and Hunt to the Bay of Pigs.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Kidnapping of Martha Mitchell

A loquacious Marth Mitchell at a social event

After the burglary, Martha Mitchell was kidnapped and sedated.

Martha Mitchell, the wife of CRP head John Mitchell, was a vocal Nixon supporter and, according to Graff, "perhaps the first national conservative celebrity pundit".Template:Sfn After the arrests, John Mitchell distanced the CRP from McCord—who had previously been assigned to guard Martha—claiming he was just an outside security contractor.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Through aides, he unsuccessfully tried to prevent Martha from seeing news about McCord.Template:Sfn Furious at the deception, Martha had a nervous episode.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn If her husband would not leave politics, she threatened to permanently leave D.C. and contact UPI reporter Helen Thomas.Template:Sfn In a locked bedroom of a Newport Beach villa, Martha's call to Thomas was interrupted when bodyguard Steve King broke down the door, destroyed the phone, and restrained her.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A thwarted morning escape attempt from King resulted in Martha slicing her hand on a broken glass door. A doctor visited the house and forcibly sedated Martha, who was restrained and had her pants removed by FBI and Secret Service agents. Other escape attempts also failed.Template:Sfn Her concerned husband had her flown to the Westchester Country Club in New York, where she called Thomas, stating that "I'm black and blue. I'm a political prisoner".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She was then interviewed by the New York Daily News.Template:Sfn John and his team denied Martha's account and blocked the FBI from interviewing her.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On June 30, less than two weeks after the break-in, John Mitchell resigned to tend to his wife and because he had become a liability for Nixon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

"Smoking Gun" conversation

A still image of Nixon and Haldeman in the Oval Office, over-laid with the audio of the so-called Smoking Gun tape

Part of the "Smoking Gun" tape of Nixon and Haldeman discussing how to pressure the CIA into stopping the FBI investigation

The FBI traced $4,500 from the burglars' suite to Barker's account and then to $89,000 in four Mexican checks and a $25,000 check from the CRP's Midwest finance chairman Kenneth Dahlberg, closing in on the "money trail" source: CRP contributions.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The FBI's progress—including a hypothesis by the Washington field office head that Watergate was "in furtherance of the White House efforts to locate and identify 'leaks'"—alarmed the White House.Template:Sfn As Gray was considering CIA involvement, Dean, Haldeman, and Mitchell plotted to have the CIA pressure the FBI to drop its probe under the pretense of national security.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On June 23, Nixon approved the plan and instructed Haldeman in a recorded conversation known as the "Smoking Gun" tape:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

"... When you get in (inaudible) people, say 'Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that ah, without going into the details — don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say no involvement, but just say this is a comedy of errors, without getting into it, the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah, because these people are plugging for (inaudible) and that they should call the FBI in and (inaudible) don't go any further into this case period!'"Template:Sfn

Haldeman and Ehrlichman relayed this message to CIA director Richard Helms and deputy director Vernon Walters in a White House meeting: Helms agreed to pressure the FBI to end their investigation by claiming that it might reveal CIA money laundering.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although he threatened to resign, Walters reluctantly repeated this message to Gray; he refused to halt the investigation unless the CIA put the request in writing, which it rebuffed.Template:Sfn

The meaning of "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" has drawn much attention.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Helms deemed it "incoherent";Template:Sfn investigators for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence suspected it referred to the then-secret CIA assassination attempts on Cuban leader Castro but did not raise the subject with Nixon during 1975 testimony.Template:Sfn Haldeman's memoir said it was Nixon's "way of reminding Helms, not so gently, of the cover-up of the CIA assassination attempts on the hero of the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro, a CIA operation that may have triggered the Kennedy tragedy and which Helms desperately wanted to hide."Template:Efn Journalist Jefferson Morley cites another tape in which Nixon mentions "the 'Who shot John?' angle" to support Haldeman's interpretation.Template:Sfn

Deep Throat

A portrait of Mark Felt

FBI associate director Mark Felt, revealed to be "Deep Throat" in 2005, was labeled by The New York Times as "the most famous anonymous source in American history".Template:Sfn

In 1971, Hoover made Mark Felt deputy associate director and his apparent successor.Template:Sfn However, Felt was spurned after Hoover's 1972 death when Nixon selected L. Patrick Gray as acting director (avoiding a pre-election Senate confirmation).Template:Sfn Gray named Felt as acting associate director. Hoping to become director, Felt sought to undermine Gray through leaks.Template:Sfn

Woodward first met Felt in 1970, and he became a key anonymous source.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn No one else at the Post knew his identity; editor Howard Simons dubbed him "Deep Throat", referencing both his deep background status and the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Woodward and Bernstein also relied on the anonymous "Z": a female grand juror.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Felt gave Woodward many early Watergate leads but soon avoided the telephone. According to Woodward, Felt created a covert protocol to schedule 2 a.m. rendezvous in an underground garage in Rosslyn, Virginia. The system involved Woodward placing a flag on his sixth floor apartment's balcony and Felt intercepting and notating Woodward's daily The New York Times.Template:Sfn Felt also leaked to The Washington Daily News and TimeTemplate:'s Sandy Smith;Template:Sfn other FBI agents, like the Washington field office head, were also likely leakers.Template:Sfn

Woodward and Bernstein's role in Watergate is often exaggerated,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and some, including Post managing editor Ben Bradlee and biographer Adrian Havill, have criticized their account as overly cinematic and have identified inaccuracies.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Edward Jay Epstein wrote that their reporting was derivative or the mere presentation of leaks. Woodward has said that "the mythologizing of our role in Watergate has gone to the point of absurdity, where journalists write… that I, single-handedly, brought down Richard Nixon. Totally absurd."Template:Sfn

Obstruction and bribery

Artime saluting alongside President Kennedy

Following the death of E. Howard Hunt's wife Dorothy on United Air Lines Flight 553, Bay of Pigs invasion leader Manuel Artime (seen far left with President Kennedy in 1962) dispersed the hush money.

By July, Baldwin was granted immunity by the FBI and became their first major insight into Watergate.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The administration grew concerned over $250,000 in CRP funds authorized for Liddy's operations, of which $199,000 was used.Template:Sfn That month, Magruder pressed CRP treasurer Hugh Sloan to fabricate a narrative of CRP payments to Liddy, suggesting perjury.Template:Sfn Sloan, conflicted, confided to two lawyers, fled to California, and then returned to D.C. a week later to resign from the CRP.Template:Sfn He confessed to the U.S. attorney's office and gave truthful grand jury testimony.Template:Sfn

Alarmed, Mitchell convened with Magruder, Dean, and Nixon advisor Fred LaRue to concoct a cover.Template:Sfn They decided to inflate funding for Liddy's less illicit activities, such as campus surveillance of radicals, and convinced aide Herbert Porter to perjure himself.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Their motto became "The buck stops with Liddy", who was fired from the CRP to create distance.Template:Sfn Other efforts including delaying FBI interviews on "national security" grounds, coaching witnesses,Template:Sfn and having Dean and assistant Fred Fielding sit in on FBI interviews of White House staff.Template:Sfn They also disrupted the grand jury by making staffers testify privately at the DOJ, rather than before jurors that could assess their credibility.Template:Sfn Throughout the grand jury investigation, prosecutors Silbert and especially Henry Petersen were overly deferent to Nixon.Template:Sfn

Before the burglary, an unknown official had assured Liddy that the Plumbers would be "taken care of" financially if caught.Template:Sfn Liddy reminded Mitchell of this, leading Dean to unsuccessfully ask CIA deputy director Walters to front hush money.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Dean then convinced Nixon's former deputy campaign finance manager Herbert Kalmbach to provide the bribes.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Ulasewicz delivered $180,000 in cash to the Plumbers, dispersed by Hunt's wife and,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn after her death on United Air Lines Flight 553,Template:Efn by Bay of Pigs invasion leader Manuel Artime.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

Patman probe and indictment of the Plumbers

A 1972 Nixon re-election campaign poster, featuring a pensive Nixon and the text "The Nation needs coolness more than clarion calls; intelligence more than charisma; a sense of history more than a sense of histrionics."

The cover-up enabled Nixon to win re-election in 1972 in the largest landslide in American history.

In August 1972, the Government Accountability Office released an audit of Nixon's re-election campaign, referring $350,000 in questionable transactions to the DOJ for prosecution.Template:Sfn The DOJ did not pursue these, and Nixon declined to appoint a special prosecutor.Template:Sfn Wright Patman, the Democrat House Banking Committee chair, initiated his own probe. Like the FBI, his committee was stonewalled by the White House.Template:Sfn

In September, O'Brien's legal team—all of whom also worked for the Post—interviewed Baldwin, yielding a front-page story for Woodward and Bernstein. Felt used the story to shift leaking suspicion to other FBI staffers,Template:Sfn and Silbert made the FBI search his office and the grand jury room for bugs: none were found.Template:Sfn However, another wiretap of unclear origin was found in Oliver's DNC office.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On September 13, the Patman probe released a confidential report on the Mexican transactions: the findings were leaked to the Post.Template:Sfn Fearing more revelations, Nixon used House Republican leader Gerald Ford to stop the probe from gaining subpoena power.Template:Sfn

On September 15, Hunt, Liddy, and the five burglars were indicted on eight counts, none relating to the misuse of campaign funds.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The limited indictment, sparing Nixon officials, was a White House victory, and Eisenhower appointee John Sirica assigned himself as judge.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Baldwin then gave his complete account of Watergate to the Los Angeles TimesTemplate:' Jack Nelson and Ronald Ostrow.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although Hunt's lawyers and Silbert convinced Sirica to issue a gag order and advise the Times against publication, the paper printed the story—the first directly linking the break-in to the White House—on October 5.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, the cover-up proved effective, and Democrats could not make Watergate a campaign issue.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although most Americans knew of the break-in, few associated it with Nixon,Template:Sfn and in November he won re-election in the largest landslide in American history, winning 49 of 50 states.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Trial

A view of the George Washington Parkway snaking beside the Potomac River

Jack Caulfield thrice met with James McCord alongside the George Washington Parkway to dissuade him from cooperating with prosecutors.

On January 6, 1973, Dean promised Liddy $30,000 annually, legal fees, and a 1975 pardon if he stayed silent;Template:Sfn as early as January 8, Nixon discussed "Goddamn hush money" with Colson.Template:Sfn Two days later, the trial began, with the Silbert-led prosecution arguing that McCord and Liddy were rogue agents and that Hunt and the other burglars acted on Liddy's payments.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hunt and the Cubans unexpectedly pleaded guilty.Template:Sfn Using Sturgis as a source, The New York TimesTemplate:' Seymour Hersh—who had exposed the My Lai massacre—revealed that the burglars were receiving hush money and were pressured to plead guilty.Template:Sfn Questioned by Sirica, the Cubans refused to say who sent the payments.Template:Sfn

The White House learned that McCord, who had expressed concerns that he or the CIA might be scapegoated, was considering cooperating with prosecutors.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Through Ulasewicz, Dean promised McCord an eventual government job and his family's financial security. To calm McCord, Caulfield thrice met with him alongside the George Washington Parkway. McCord proposed that the trial could be dismissed if prosecutors introduced telephone conversations regarding Watergate that he had made to the Israeli and Chilean embassies—both of which were illegally wiretapped.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Dean rejected this approach.Template:Sfn

In the trial's only interruption, Oliver's lawyer Charles Morgan convinced Sirica and Silbert to suspend the trial to stop Baldwin from describing the conversations from Oliver's wiretap: an appeals court sealed the transcripts. As of 2022, these remain secret and are, according to Graff, "the last and potentially only chance to [know] whether... the burglary and wiretapping plot included a sexual motive."Template:Sfn In resumed testimony, administration officials denied involvement in the break-in.Template:Sfn Dissatisfied with Silbert's examination, Sirica made the unusual move to interrogate the officials privately.Template:Sfn On January 30, the jury found the last two defendants—Liddy and McCord—guilty on all counts, and Sirica scheduled sentencing for March 23.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn After setting bail at $100,000 each on February 2, he declared that he was "still not satisfied that all pertinent facts that might be available... have been produced before an American jury".Template:Sfn

Ervin Committee and the "Dean Report"

In addition to the trial's perceived failure, a multi-month, secret inquiry by Senator Ted Kennedy raised Congress' suspicions about Watergate.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On February 7, 1973, the Senate voted 77–0 to establish a select committee to investigate Watergate, with Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina named chairman.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ervin in turn selected Samuel Dash as chief counsel.Template:Sfn They inherited files created by both Ted Kennedy and the Patman probe.Template:Sfn

Due to his loyalty, Nixon nominated Gray as FBI director.Template:Sfn During his confirmation proceedings, Gray admitted that he had given the bureau's investigative Watergate reports to John Dean, alarming both his own agents and the senators.Template:Sfn In a bid to save his nomination, Gray offered the reports to Congress, which was vetoed by an infuriated Nixon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In late February, Nixon devised two ways to stop the committee: executive privilege—a then-vague doctrine that the Constitution's separation of powers prevented presidential disclosure to Congress—and the release of an exonerative "Dean Report".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The report was, according to Graff, "mythic" as Dean had never conducted a real investigation of Watergate and was himself involved.Template:Sfn

On March 21, Dean told Nixon that "I have the impression that you don't know everything I know" and gave a full account of Watergate—which he called "a cancer within"—particularly blaming Liddy and Magruder.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although Nixon seemed largely ignorant and asked over 150 questions, Dean was sometimes surprised by Nixon's knowledge of the plot, including the hush money and Fielding break-in.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The following day, Gray testified that Dean had lied about his ignorance of the opening of Hunt's safe, damaging Dean's credibility and leading Gray to withdraw his nomination.Template:Sfn

McCord, Dean, and Magruder cooperate

A portrait of Jeb Magruder at a table

By the end of April, both Jeb Magruder (pictured) and John Dean were cooperating with prosecutors.

At the March 23 sentencing, Judge Sirica read a confession from McCord that the Plumbers were told to plead guilty; perjury occurred; others were involved; and the Cubans were misled to think that Watergate was a CIA operation.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Sirica tabled McCord's sentencing and gave maximum sentences to Liddy, Hunt, and the Cubans.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn McCord identified false testimony to the Ervin Committee, implicating Magruder and Dean,Template:Sfn and leaked his account—mostly hearsay through Liddy—to the Los Angeles Times.Template:Sfn Press attention on Watergate exploded,Template:Sfn and the Ervin Committee uncovered Gemstone, the destruction of evidence, and the Liddy payments.Template:Sfn

In April, Dean and Magruder began cooperating with prosecutors, exposing the Fielding break-in and the cover-up complicity of Magruder, Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman—but not Nixon.Template:Sfn Liddy refused to testify before the grand jury and was held in contempt; in jail he created an unused plan to kill Hunt if ordered by the White House.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn By the end of April, Nixon—to save face—made Ehrlichman, Haldeman, Magruder, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resign; Dean was fired on April 30.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Watergate scrutiny spawned probes into other abuses, including a "dirty tricks" campaign by Donald Segretti; Kissinger-ordered wiretaps that led to Felt's resignation; B-52 bombings in Cambodia; illegal CRP donations from firms like American Airlines; and an off-record $200,000 from investor Robert Vesco that led to the May 10 indictment of Mitchell and CRP finance chairman Maurice Stans.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Later that month, Congressman William Mills committed suicide after it emerged that he had taken an unreported $25,000 from a CRP slush fund.Template:Sfn In July, Nixon was hospitalized with pneumonia, possibly caused by the stress of Watergate;Template:Sfn acting White House Counsel Leonard Garment wrote that "The organizing objective of these investigations was to bleed Nixon to death".Template:Sfn

Ervin hearings and Special Prosecutor Cox

"If the many allegations to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were, in effect, breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States. And if these allegations prove true, what they were seeking to steal were not the jewels, money, or other property of American citizens, but something more valuable—their most precious heritage: the right to vote in a free election."

— Senator Sam Ervin on the first day of hearingsTemplate:Sfn

The Ervin Committee's public hearings began on May 17.Template:Sfn Testimony from McCord, Caulfield, Ulasewicz, and others suggested White House involvement in the break-in and cover-up,Template:Sfn which Nixon vehemently denied.Template:Sfn The hearings—which also included testimony from Dean, Magruder, and Mitchell—drew immense publicity: three in four American households watched live testimony, an average of 30 hours per home.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In concurrent Senate proceedings, Attorney General nominee Elliot Richardson agreed to appoint a special prosecutor on Watergate.Template:Sfn After rejecting Nixon's suggestions, Richardson chose Archibald Cox—President Kennedy's solicitor general. They negotiated that Cox could only be fired by Richardson and only due to "extraordinary improprieties".Template:Sfn Cox built a legal team he called the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As early as July 4, Nixon expressed a desire to fire Cox after the Force considered investigating the financial impropriety of his California estate, La Casa Pacifica.Template:Sfn In August, the Force empaneled a second grand jury to pursue crimes beyond the break-in, such as campaign finance irregularities.Template:Sfn

Struggle for the tapes

Archibald Cox in a suit and bow-tie

Special prosecutor on Watergate Archibald Cox in 1973

On July 13, Haldeman assistant Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes to the Ervin Committee.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In urgent meetings, White House counsel J. Fred Buzhardt and Vice President Spiro Agnew suggested the tapes be destroyed.Template:Sfn Nixon did not destroy the tapes for unclear reasons, possibly to preserve his legacy, protect himself against perjury or Kissinger's aggrandizement, or because he did not believe he would ever have to surrender them.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Following Butterfield's revelation, Cox and the Ervin Committee formally subpoenaed tapes corresponding to meetings suspected to involve Watergate.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nixon rejected both subpoenas, leading to objections in court.Template:Sfn Due to stronger standing under the separation of powers, Sirica prioritized the executive branch Cox over the legislative Ervin committee.Template:Sfn

Nixon's legal team—led by Charles Alan Wright—invoked executive privilege and argued that releasing the tapes would create a precedent allowing judicial access to all sensitive presidential material.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Cox asserted that executive privilege did not apply when criminality was suspected,Template:Sfn and also cited United States v. Burr, in which Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that President Thomas Jefferson could be subpoenaed.Template:Sfn In a decision that upset both parties, Sirica ordered the tapes be submitted to him to determine if any were protected by executive privilege.Template:Sfn This was appealed, and on October 12 the appeals court ruled 5–2 to force Nixon to surrender the tapes to Sirica, or to make a deal with Cox.Template:Sfn

Saturday Night Massacre

Attorney General Elliot Richardson is pictured Speaking to Senator John Stennis in the columned halls of Congress.

Attorney General Elliot Richardson (right)—seen with Senator John Stennis (left)—resigned when ordered by Nixon to fire Special Prosecutor Cox.

During October, Cox and the Force made progress on Watergate-related investigations, including securing a grand jury indictment of Krogh for false declarations on the Fielding break-in,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and guilty pleas from American Airlines, Goodyear, and the 3M Company for illegal contributions to the CRP.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Cox also began investigating Nixon's closest friend Bebe Rebozo for mediating an illicit $100,000 campaign contribution from Howard Hughes.Template:Sfn

After weighing the appellate decision, Nixon proposed giving Sirica the tapes and then firing Cox to negate the appeals court case; Attorney General Richardson rejected the scheme.Template:Sfn Negotiations with Cox to drop the subpoena and have Senator John Stennis review the tapes also collapsed.Template:Sfn On October 19—citing the need for stability in the Middle East amid the Yom Kippur War—Nixon unexpectedly announced that Stennis (whom he called "Judge" Stennis) would review the tapes: a deal not approved by Stennis, the Ervin Committee, Cox, or Richardson.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On October 20, in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox. He refused and resigned in protest.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox, but Ruckelshaus declined and was fired after offering his resignation.Template:Sfn The next acting attorney general, Solicitor General Robert Bork, agreed to fire Cox.Template:Sfn FBI agents sealed the Force's office and blocked the entry of Cox's staff, an action that prosecutor Leon Jaworski said evoked the Gestapo.Template:Sfn Though Bork believed Nixon's order was legal and justified, he considered resigning to avoid being "perceived as a man who did the President's bidding to save my job".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Impeachment process and resignation

Massacre aftermath

The Saturday Night Massacre triggered a constitutional crisis and drew wide condemnation and calls for Nixon's resignation or impeachment.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Congress received an unprecedented near-500,000 mailgrams and telegrams,Template:Sfn and protests were held outside the White House.Template:Sfn Nixon's approval rating fell to 24 percent;Template:Sfn 98 representatives and 57 senators introduced bills calling for another special prosecutor.Template:Sfn Nixon, under severe stress, withdrew from engagements and drank: in his absence, Kissinger briefly declared DEFCON 3 when Soviet deployment in the Yom Kippur War seemed imminent.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

At an October 26 press conference, Nixon denounced the "hysterical reporting" and promised to appoint another special prosecutor, although with limited access to presidential material.Template:Sfn Representatives introduced over 20 impeachment and impeachment-inquiry resolutions;Template:Sfn the House Judiciary Committee launched an impeachment inquiry on October 30 and granted Chairman Peter Rodino subpoena power.Template:Sfn

Missing tapes and building pressure

On October 30, Buzhardt informed Sirica that two of the nine subpoenaed tapes—a June 20, 1972 Nixon-Mitchell call and an April 15, 1973 Nixon–Dean meeting—were "missing".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Secret Service agents and aides testified that the tapes had been signed out and not returned; aides like Buzhardt inconsistently said they never existed due to recorder malfunctions or insufficient tape.Template:Sfn Investigators discovered a tape labeled "April 15 Part I", implying a missing "Part II".Template:Sfn

A view of Disney's Contemporary Resort, a modernist building with a monorail passing through its center and surrounded by Floridian foliage

Nixon's "I am not a crook" defense (recording below) was delivered at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. File:Richard Nixon - "I'm not a crook.".oga

On November 1, Nixon and Haig selected as special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, a former Nuremberg prosecutor presumed to be sympathetic to the president.Template:Sfn Impeachment calls grew, including from the editors of The New York Times and Time and—for the first time—from a Republican Senator, Edward Brooke.Template:Sfn Buzhardt and Garment flew to Miami to urge a vacationing Nixon to resign; he refused to see them.Template:Sfn

Tipped off by Dean, Senator Lowell Weicker and investigators uncovered likely tax fraud: Nixon had claimed deductions for an illegally-backdated document donation to the National Archives—a loophole outlawed in 1969 after President Johnson exploited it.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The investigation expanded to Nixon's other finances, including publicly-funded renovations to his private homes in California and Florida.Template:Sfn On November 17, addressing Associated Press editors at Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort, Nixon denied wrongdoing and, in a defense considered the most iconic line from Watergate, declared, "I am not a crook."Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The eighteen-minute gap

Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods demonstrating the implausible "Rose Mary Stretch" reaching backwards to pick up the phone

Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods demonstrating the implausible "Rose Mary Stretch" that the White House said erased the 18½ minute gap

On November 21, Buzhardt told Jaworski that an 18-minute, 15-second segment was missing from a June 20, 1972 tape: a Nixon-Haldeman conversation thought to be Nixon's first on Watergate after the break-in.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Buzhardt believed the erasure was intentional and blamed Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who could not explain the gap;Template:Sfn Sirica ordered all tapes be surrendered within five days.Template:Sfn Nixon complied, and they were placed in a National Security Agency-installed safe—guarded by U.S. Marshals—in Sirica's chambers; the seven extant tapes were given to the Force on December 12.Template:Sfn

In December hearings, Force lawyer Jill Volner interrogated Woods, who now claimed that, while transcribing the tape on October 1, she accidentally hit "record" instead of "off" while reaching for the telephone and also kept her foot on the "forward" pedal throughout the call.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In a reenactment, Woods could not keep her foot on the pedal.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Photos of the recreation generated the mocking label of the "Rose Mary Stretch".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Woods' five-minute call also did not match the erasure's 18-minute duration.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Questioned on the discrepancy, Haig suggested the "devil theory", that "some sinister force had come in and applied the other energy source and taken care of the information."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Volner theorized that Woods and Nixon had listened to the tape (the first subpoenaed) and that Nixon had panicked and made Woods erase it before realizing that the other subpoenaed tapes were equally incriminating.Template:Sfn Sirica deemed the erasure "more symbolic than substantive", and Jaworski and the FBI declined to prosecute.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In January 1974, an expert panel appointed by Sirica concluded that the tape had been erased in five to nine separate segments using the hand keys—not the pedal.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other tapes had apparent seconds-long deletions—obscuring key words—but Sirica decided that further analysis was tangential.Template:Sfn

Investigations advance

Pushed by Speaker Tip O'Neill to accelerate the impeachment inquiry, Rodino's Judiciary Committee selected John Doar as special counsel.Template:Sfn In December, Nixon withdrew from engagements—sometimes for days—amid drinking bouts. On New Year's Eve, he resolved to "fight it all out", selecting trial lawyer James St. Clair to resist and delay all investigations.Template:Sfn

In January, Sirica's scientific panel began deciphering the muffled and compressed tapes, which were recorded at a fast 15/16th inch per second speed to save tape.Template:Sfn Transcription was arduous, with 100 hours of labor needed for just one hour of tape.Template:Sfn The contents were damning, with Sirica finally concluding that the White House had obstructed justice.Template:Sfn Concurrently, the Judiciary Committee—whose team of lawyers included Hillary Clinton—debated charging Nixon with specific offenses or more ambiguous Constitutional crimes.Template:Sfn

Prosecutors focused on the cover-up—an explicit White House conspiracy—rather than the break-in, a more nebulous campaign conspiracy.Template:Sfn Although Jaworski identified at least 15 instances where Nixon acknowledged or advanced the hush money scheme,Template:Sfn he hesitated to indict the president due to lack of precedent.Template:Sfn The Force instead designated Nixon an unindicted co-conspirator, allowing jurors to hear him on the tape and empowering Jaworksi to send incriminating evidence to the impeachment inquiry.Template:Sfn On March 1, the Force indicted the "Watergate Seven": Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, Gordon Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson on 24 counts of conspiracy, lying, and obstructing justice.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On March 26, Sirica transferred a 55-page report on presidential criminality, compiled by Jaworski and the grand jury, to the Judiciary Committee.Template:Sfn

Nixon releases tape transcripts

Nixon seated in the Oval Office, explaining the release of edited transcripts

President Nixon announcing the release of edited transcripts, April 29, 1974

In mid-April, Jaworski subpoenaed 64 additional taped conversations, with a May 2 deadline.Template:Sfn Nixon then spent his days listening to the tapes, taking notes, and brooding in what Graff calls "one of the oddest weeks in all of modern presidential history".Template:Sfn Instead of releasing the tapes, Nixon's staff produced edited transcripts, with Nixon himself excising "unpresidential" language,Template:Sfn namely replacing profanity and vulgarity with hundreds of "expletive deleted".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On April 29, Nixon released 1,300 pages of transcripts spanning 46 tapes.Template:Sfn

House investigators discovered that only 20 of the 64 subpoenaed conversations had been transcribed.Template:Sfn Comparison with tapes already acquired by investigators showed pervasive misrepresentations and intelligible dialogue marked "unintelligible".Template:Sfn However, the edited transcripts still showed Nixon's apparent acceptance of the cover-up.Template:Sfn

The House Judiciary Committee informed Nixon that the transcripts did not fulfill the subpoena.Template:Sfn St. Clair moved to block Jaworski's subpoena, calling the tapes "inadmissible hearsay" as Nixon was not a conspirator.Template:Sfn Jaworski revealed that Nixon was an unindicted co-conspirator and offered, as a compromise, to keep this secret and drop the subpoena if the White House released just 38 of the 64 tapes.Template:Sfn St. Clair rejected this as blackmail.Template:Sfn

On May 9, the pro-Nixon Chicago Tribune abandoned the president in an editorial: "He is humorless to the point of being inhumane. He is devious. He is vacillating. He is profane."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott called the transcripts "deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral".Template:Sfn Nixon's miscalculation yielded the first poll showing that a majority of Americans supported impeachment.Template:Sfn

Impeachment hearings and United States v. Nixon

Impeachment proceedings, with live television cameras on either side of an audience before the seated committee members

First day of impeachment proceedings, May 9, 1974

On May 9, impeachment hearings began.Template:Sfn Over ten weeks, Doar and colleagues presented representatives with a complete account of Watergate from the break-in through to the cover-up, highlighting likely constitutional crimes.Template:Sfn On May 10, Jaworski released a 39-page brief naming Nixon an unindicted co-conspirator; Sirica concluded that "the president was doomed".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn To avoid protracted appeals, Jaworski requested the Supreme Court directly review the subpoena's legality, to which it agreed on May 31.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On June 15, Woodward and Bernstein published All the President's Men, which became a bestseller.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Later that month, the Ervin Committee released its 1,094-page final report, outlining White House misconduct without explicitly accusing Nixon.Template:Sfn After the Fourth of July recess, the inquiry presented "seminars" synthesizing the information to the House and began releasing evidential "Statements of Information", beginning with a 4,133-page installment.Template:Sfn Aiming to remain neutral, Rodino presented no analysis of the evidence, frustrating readers.Template:Sfn

Conservative Southern Democrats began abandoning Nixon, and on July 23 Lawrence Hogan became the first Republican representative to support impeachment.Template:Sfn The following day, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously (8–0) that the subpoenaed tapes were admissible while also affirming executive privilege.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nixon complied and released the first 20 subpoenaed tapes on July 30.Template:Sfn

'Smoking gun' tape released

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-to-11 to recommend the first article of impeachment: obstruction of justice.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn On July 29, the committee recommended a second article, abuse of power,Template:Sfn and, on the following day, approved a third—obstruction of Congress—and rejected two related to the Cambodian bombings and tax fraud.Template:Sfn Ninety percent of Americans listened to the proceedings on radio or television.Template:Sfn As Congressional support for Nixon collapsed and the release of the June 23 "smoking gun" tape loomed, Nixon weighed resigning to preserve his federal benefits and those of his staff and limit liability.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn If impeached by the House, Nixon needed the support of 34 Senators for acquittal.Template:Sfn

On August 5, the White House released the "smoking gun" tape.Template:Sfn The Haldeman-Nixon conversation showed that the president had lied and had been involved in the cover-up from its inception.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Its release extinguished most Congressional support for Nixon, particularly among Republicans who felt betrayed.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Republican House minority leader John Rhodes and ten Republican House Judiciary Committee members who had opposed the articles now backed impeachment.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The following day, California governor Ronald Reagan and RNC chairman George H. W. Bush both urged Nixon to resign.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Senator Barry Goldwater told Haig that Nixon only had 12 votes in the Senate and said "He has lied to me for the last time".Template:Sfn Fearing a "berserk" Nixon might unilaterally trigger nuclear armageddon, Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger alerted military leaders to confirm any presidential launch orders with himself or Kissinger.Template:Sfn

Resignation

On August 7, House minority leader Rhodes, Senate minority leader Hugh Scott, and Senator Goldwater—a respected Republican statesman—visited Nixon in the Oval Office and, although not explicitly urging his resignation, informed him that he did not have enough support to be acquitted.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Faced with the inevitability of his impeachment and removal, Nixon resolved to resign.Template:Sfn

In an August 8 Oval Office address, Nixon announced his resignation—the first of any U.S. president—effective at noon the following day, and his succession by Ford.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although he declared that he was not a "quitter", Nixon explained that he lacked support in Congress and had to "put the interest of America first".Template:Sfn Jaworski noted that the farewell speech expressed no remorse.Template:Sfn

In the morning, Nixon and his family bid farewell to the White House staff in the East Room.Template:Sfn They left on the presidential helicopter, Army One, for Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base, where they boarded Air Force One for California.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Ford delivered an 8-minute inauguration speech, also in the East Room, declaring that "our long national nightmare is over".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn TimeTemplate:'s resignation special sold 527,000 copies—the most of any newsweekly ever.Template:Sfn

Aftermath

Ford's pardon of Nixon

President Ford at his desk in the Oval Office announcing his pardon of Nixon on September 8, 1974

President Ford announcing his pardon of Nixon on September 8, 1974

With Nixon's resignation, Congress dropped its impeachment proceedings, though federal prosecution remained a possibility.Template:Sfn In its final report, the House Judiciary identified 36 instances of obstruction of justice by Nixon,Template:Sfn and Jaworski and the Force weighed indicting Nixon.Template:Sfn However, on September 8, President Ford issued Nixon a full pardon for all acts committed as president.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ford may have feared the damage of a long, divisive trial, or a technical acquittal that might delegitimize his own presidency.Template:Sfn

Ford was criticized for the unilateral pardon's suddenness, granted without consultation with Congressional leaders.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Senator Ervin called it "incompatible with good government",Template:Sfn and Ford's press secretary Jerald terHorst resigned in protest.Template:Sfn The president's approval rating fell by 22 percentage points.Template:Sfn Although some argued that the Force could still prosecute Nixon, Jaworski resigned in October.Template:Sfn According to Hersh, Jaworski was in financial distress at the time and could no longer be absent from his Texan law practice.Template:Sfn

Many, including O'Neill, suspected a secret pardon deal between Ford and Nixon.Template:Sfn No tapes or documentation suggest an explicit agreement,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but biographer Jay Farrell concluded that implicit suggestions may have "greased his departure".Template:Sfn When Haig approached him about Nixon's possible choices, then-Vice President Ford reportedly refused to offer advice as he was an "interested party."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Starting September 4, Ford—through aides—sought a formal apology from Nixon in exchange for a pardon. The former president refused to make any admission of guilt, and Ford abandoned the effort.Template:Sfn According to Kutler, Nixon correctly assumed that Ford would pardon him regardless.Template:Sfn Hersh argues that a recorded September 7 call shows Nixon threatening to expose Ford's prior promises of a pardon if he was not pardoned.Template:Sfn

Final legal actions

In total, 69 people were charged with crimes in conjunction with Watergate, including two of Nixon's Cabinet secretaries. Most were convicted or pleaded guilty.Template:Sfn A Watergate-related probe on the ITT corporation resulted in the conviction of Ed Reinecke, Lieutenant Governor of California under Ronald Reagan.Template:Sfn Of the Watergate Seven, Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman were convicted. Parkinson was acquitted, and Mardian's conviction was overturned.Template:Sfn Mitchell remains the highest-ranking US government official to be imprisoned. Upon his sentencing, he quipped: "It could have been worse. They could have sentenced me to spend the rest of my life with Martha Mitchell."Template:Sfn

In June 1975, Nixon gave secret testimony to a grand jury.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He evaded questions on the 18-minute gap and tax fraud and praised "hardball" tactics used by Kennedy in contrast to the Watergate "bunglers".Template:Sfn In 1978, FBI directors Gray and Felt and FBI Domestic Intelligence head Edward Miller were indicted for their approval of "surreptitious entries".Template:Sfn Nixon voluntarily testified in their defense in 1980, his only appearance in any Watergate-related trial.Template:Sfn Felt and Miller were found guilty.Template:Sfn

Legacy

An aerial view of the Watergate complex

The Watergate Complex in September, 2025

Watergate is regarded as the greatest scandal in presidential history and a successful demonstration of the separation of powers.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn It is frequently invoked during presidential scandals and impeachments, particularly those of President Trump.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Haig and Kissinger respectively blamed Watergate for the Yom Kippur War (1973) and the Fall of Saigon (1975).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1977, Nixon—hoping to improve his legacy and financially distressed—accepted $600,000 for a series of interviews with British journalist David Frost.Template:Sfn Nixon expected Frost to be amenable and was surprised by his combative questions, leading Nixon to declare "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although Nixon formally apologized for Watergate after the interview, his legacy remained tarnished.Template:Sfn The Watergate Hotel has conversely embraced the scandal, incorporating it into its theming and converting Hunt and Liddy's room into the "scandal suite".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Political and professional

An anti-Ford button generated during the 1976 presidential election: it reads "Gerald ... Pardon me!" and depicts a cartoony thief cracking a safe labeled "Watergate".

An anti-Ford button referencing Watergate from the 1976 presidential election

Watergate led to legislation limiting the powers of the "imperial presidency", including the designation of all presidential records as publicly-owned (the Presidential Records Act) and a mechanism for counsel investigations of executive scandals (the Ethics in Government Act).Template:Sfn These reforms were partly achieved by "Watergate Babies", new Democratic legislators who swept the post-Watergate November 1974 Senate and House elections.Template:Sfn Ford's pardon of Nixon effectively caused his loss to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election, with seven percent of voters voting against Ford explicitly due to the pardon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Seeking to restore public trust after Watergate and the release of the CIA's "Family Jewels", Congress organized the Church Committee to investigate illegal activities by the CIA and other agencies, as did President Ford with the Rockefeller Commission.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Concerns emerging from the burglaries and wiretappings resulted in the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which limited the ability of federal agencies to collect, maintain, and share information on Americans.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Congress also strengthened the Freedom of Information Act,Template:Sfn and created intelligence oversight committees with access to classified material.Template:Sfn

As nearly all involved in Watergate crimes were lawyers,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the American Bar Association mandated ethics courses at law schools.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Watergate also revived investigative reporting, popularizing the use of anonymous sources and displacing "New Journalism" approaches.Template:Sfn

Cultural impact and depictions

Watergate is often regarded as the climactic moment in the loss of American trust in government following the Vietnam War.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Journalist Bill Schneider writes that although American political cynicism did not "start with Watergate... Watergate turned an erosion of public confidence into a collapse".Template:Sfn It left such an impression that post-Watergate scandals are often named with the suffix "-gate".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These range from genuine political scandals like Koreagate to the sports scandal Deflategate and the discredited Pizzagate conspiracy theory.Template:Sfn The paranoia of the "Watergate era" is often associated with a subgenre of 1970s conspiracy thrillers, such as cinematic releases such as Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) or Three Days of the Condor (1975).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In some cases, production had begun before the scandal's zenith and are partly a reflection of the period's zeitgeist.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Over thirty Watergate participants have written memoirs.Template:Sfn Woodward and Bernstein's 1974 book All the President's Men was adapted into a 1976 film of the same name by Alan J. Pakula—in which Watergate guard Frank Wills played himself.Template:Sfn Although not used in the book, the phrase "follow the money" became part of the American lexicon after its use in the movie: Graff calls it the second most famous Watergate quote after "I am not a crook".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The book also popularized the term "ratfucking" to describe covert political espionage.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other depictions include Oliver Stone's Nixon (1996) and Frost/Nixon (2008),Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn adapted from a Tony-winning play of the same name.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn