THE WATERGATE HEARINGS
Unlike President Johnson, Richard Nixon avoided impeachment only by resigning the office of the presidency after his illegal and corrupt activities were revealed. During Nixon's first term, his staff members began to use "dirty tricks," such as opening mail and tapping phones, to discover information that was used to embarrass, harass, and discredit Nixon's opponents. During the 1972 presidential election campaign, the Committee to Re-Elect the President, or CREEP, continued with the same tactics. In fact, five inept burglars hired by CREEP would make history when they broke into Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and set in motion the downfall of a president.
Nixon, concerned that this "third-rate burglary attempt" would connect directly to CREEP, ordered the FBI to participate in a cover-up, supposedly due to reasons of national security. The burglars were convicted, but kept silent by White House pressure and $400,000 in hush money. Unfortunately for Nixon, however, the cover-up soon began to unravel as the judge pressured the burglars to talk, and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post continued to investigate. White House counsel John Dean warned Nixon that the cover-up had become a "cancer on the presidency." Soon thereafter, Nixon accepted the resignations of H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Nixon also fired Dean.
Attention shifted to the hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. Millions of Americans watched on television as John Dean implicated Nixon in the cover-up and another staffer revealed the existence of a taping system Nixon used to record conversations in the Oval Office. A constitutional crisis ensued as Nixon sought to block the release of the tapes, citing executive privilege and the separation of powers. Next, in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," Nixon fired the special prosecutor and the attorney general instead of compromising on the issue of the tapes. Finally, when Nixon agreed to release the tapes, they had been heavily edited and important material was missing. On July 24, 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release sixty-four tapes, which then revealed that Nixon had directly participated in the cover-up and had been lying to the American people.
At the same time, Congress began impeachment proceedings and voted to impeach Nixon on three charges: obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and acting in a way subversive of the Constitution. Richard Nixon resigned on August 8. One month later, President Ford granted Nixon a pardon to "any and all crimes" he committed, sparing him from a trial.
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