Emerging from theWhite House's intelligence efforts to stopleaks, the Watergate break-in was an implementation ofOperation Gemstone, enacted by mostly Cuban burglars led by former intelligence agentsE. Howard Hunt andG. Gordon Liddy. After the burglars' arrests, investigators traced their funding to theCommittee for the Re-Election of the President, the fundraising arm of Nixon's campaign. Further revelations from investigators and reporters like theWashington Post'sBob Woodward andCarl Bernstein—who were guided by "Deep Throat", the leaking FBI Associate DirectorMark Felt—revealed a political espionage campaign illegally funded by donor contributions. Nixon denied responsibility, but his administration destroyed evidence, obstructed investigators, and bribed the arrested burglars. This cover-up was initially successful and allowed Nixon to win alandslide reelection. Revelations from the burglars' trial in early 1973 led to aSenate investigation. In April, Nixon denied wrongdoing and accepted top aides' resignations.
In May, Attorney GeneralElliot Richardson appointedArchibald Cox asspecial prosecutor for Watergate. Coxsubpoenaed Nixon'sOval Office tapes, but Nixon citedexecutive privilege and refused to release them, sparking aconstitutional crisis. In the "Saturday Night Massacre" in October, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox, after which Richardson resigned, as did his deputyWilliam Ruckelshaus; Solicitor GeneralRobert Bork carried out the order. The incident bolstered a growing public belief that Nixon had something to hide, but he continued to proclaim innocence. The first batch of surrendered tapes revealed that two were missing and another had an intentional18-minute erasure. In April 1974, Cox's replacementLeon Jaworski reissued a subpoena for the tapes, but Nixon only released redacted transcripts. In July, theSupreme Court ordered Nixon to release the tapes, and the House Judiciary Committeerecommended that he be impeached for obstructing justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. In one tape, known as the "Smoking Gun", he ordered aides to make the CIA stop the FBI's investigation. On the verge of being impeached, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, becoming the only U.S. president to do so. In total, 69 people were charged with Watergate-related crimes—including twocabinet members—and most pleaded guilty or were convicted, butNixon was pardoned by his vice president and successorGerald Ford.
Watergate, often considered the greatest presidential scandal, tarnished Nixon's legacy and had electoral ramifications for theRepublican Party: the loss of four Senate seats and 48 House seats in the1974 midterms. President Ford's pardon of Nixon is also widely agreed to have contributed tohis 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 asexpionage 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".
"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."
After the Supreme Court's ruling, Nixon told aideChuck Colson to stop leaks by any means.[25] Nixon fixated on files at theBrookings Institution on theChennault Affair, in which he had sabotaged 1968 Vietnam peace talks,[27][a] and urged aides to "get in and get those files—blow the safe and get it".[30] Nixon advisors had previously drafted theHuston Plan, which proposed expanded domestic surveillance and tactics like "surreptitious entry" — burglary.[31] Although approved by Nixon, a worried Hoover had the plan officially withdrawn.[32][33][b]
The Plumbers targeted Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding, believing he held compromising files.[45][46] After Hunt and Liddy scouted his Los Angeles office, Krogh approved a burglary: "Hunt/Liddy Project #1".[47] Hunt enlisted Cuban collaborators from the Bay of Pigs: CIA veteranBernard Barker—who had served under Cuban dictatorFulgencio Batista—and anti-Castro exilesEugenio Martínez and Felipe De Diego.[48][49][50] 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.[51][52] 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.[53][e] Hunt and Liddy then planned to burglarize Fielding's home but were stopped by Ehrlichman.[54]
The Plumbers next plotted to discredit Ellsberg by drugging him withLSD at a Washington gala, but White House approval came too late.[55] They revived the Brookings firebombing scheme, proposing to buy a fire engine for firefighter‑disguised Cubans, which the White House ultimately deemed too costly.[53][56] Other projects included investigatingTed Kennedy'sChappaquiddick accident, assessing whether Hoover should be made to leave the FBI, and forging a cable to link John F. Kennedy to the1963 assassination of South Vietnamese presidentNgô Đình Diệm.[57][58][59] The Plumbers also helped discover that thePentagon wassurveilling the White House via a leaker on theNational Security Council, outraging an increasingly paranoid Nixon.[60][61] Collectively, the Plumbers' schemes are often called the "White House horrors", a phrase coined by Attorney General Mitchell.[62][63]
Attorney GeneralJohn Mitchell (left) resigned to lead theCRP, which also hired former CIA officerJames McCord (right) as its head of security.
As Nixon prepared for his1972 reelection campaign, Caulfield proposedOperation Sandwedge: a private-sector intelligence operation against the Democrats, staffed by himself and Ulasewicz.[64][65] White House officials deemed the plan too moderate and doubted Caulfield's competence: Liddy was selected to head the project before it was scrapped.[66][f] In December 1971, Liddy instead becamegeneral counsel for theCommittee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP)—the fundraising arm of Nixon's reelection campaign—introduced by deputy campaign managerJeb Stuart Magruder as "our man in charge of dirty tricks".[68][69] The CRP also recruited retired CIA officerJames McCord, recommended by Caulfield, as its security chief.[70][71]
With Hunt, Liddy devisedOperation Gemstone, a set of covert campaign schemes pitched to Attorney General Mitchell on January 27.[72] These included Operation Diamond: kidnapping, drugging, and detaining in Mexico likely protestors during the1972 Republican National Convention. The plan, nicknamedNacht und Nebel after anAdolf Hitler directive, would be enacted by an "Einsatzgruppe" ofmobsters that Hunt said had committed 22 murders.[73][74] Other plots included Operation Emerald, aspy airliner to trail the Democraticnominee; Operation Turquoise, Cuban commandos sabotaging air-conditioning at the Democrats'1972 Miami convention; and Operation Sapphire, a boat withsex workers to entrap Democrats at the convention.[74][75] Mitchell rejected the plots as unrealistic and expensive, requesting a simpler Gemstone.[76][77]
In February, Mitchell resigned to become director of the CRP.[78] Although disputed by Graff and biographerJames Rosen, Mitchell is generally believed to have approved Liddy's next version of Gemstone, which proposed burglarizing and bugging the office ofLarry O'Brien at theDemocratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters within D.C.'sWatergate Complex, theFontainebleau Hotel suites of top Democrats during their Miami convention, and the campaign headquarters of the eventual nominee.[79][80] As another break-in target, Mitchell or Magruder suggestedLas Vegas Sun publisherHank Greenspun's office.[81][82] The desired material may have involved possible Democratic nomineeEdmund Muskie orHoward Hughes' financial dealings with Nixon or his brotherDonald.[82][83] 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].[82][84]
A Sony tape-recorder used by Nixon to record all conversations in the Oval Office
After his election, Nixon made theArmy Signal Corps remove a taping system used by predecessorLyndon B. Johnson in theOval Office.[85] By 1971, Nixon worried that his presidency would not be sufficiently preserved for posterity and had theSecret Service install microphones in his desk and throughout the room. The system was deliberately kept secret from theWhite House Communications Agency, Kissinger, and even Nixon's secretary,Rose Mary Woods.[86] From February 16, 1971 to July 12, 1973, the system recorded 3,432 hours of conversation.[87] According to Graff, the tapes were ultimately "the root cause of [Nixon's] downfall".[87] No president since Nixon is known to have taped White House conversations, although PresidentDonald Trump suggested that he did.[88]
Following theMay 2 death of FBI director Hoover, Colson asked the CRP to send counterprotestors as helay in state at theCapitol rotunda.[89][90] Hunt and Liddy again recruited Bay of Pigs collaborators: Barker flew to D.C. with nine men from Miami.[91] After the counterprotest—at which they tried to attack the protesting Ellsberg—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.[92] The counterprotest may also have been a ruse to bring the Cubans to D.C. to burglarize Hoover's home in search of allegedkompromat used toblackmail politicians.[90]
After meeting with Hunt in Miami, Barker selected the men for the DNC break-in planned forMemorial Day weekend: Martínez, as photographer;Virgilio Gonzalez, as picklock; and De Diego, Reinaldo Pico, andFrank Sturgis as guards.[93] Sturgis was the only non-Cuban member, but he had fought alongside Castro in theSierra Maestra during theCuban Revolution.[94][95] Pico and De Diego were dropped after McCord forgot two walkie-talkies.[94] After a planning session with McCord and Hunt at theHamilton Hotel near the White House, Barker's team checked into theWatergate Hotel on May 26.[94] McCord recruited former FBI agentAlfred Baldwin III to perform the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward; he was booked at theHoward Johnson's motel opposite the Watergate.[96]
The Watergate Complex and its parking garage entrance (pictured 1982), through which the Plumbers first broke into theDemocratic 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 that, although technically part of the hotel, was 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.[97][98][99] A parallel plot led by Liddy with the Cubans—the bugging ofGeorge McGovern's D.C.campaign headquarters—failed on two nights when a lone volunteer was seen working late.[100] 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.[101][102]
On May 28, Gonzalez and Sturgis entered the office on their third attempt, approaching via the garage.[101][102] 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 stafferR. Spencer Oliver and O'Brien's secretary.[103][104] After the team left the office, McCord was unable to pick up the secretary wiretap transmitter with his remote receiver.[105] In the following weeks, Baldwin recorded hundreds of calls on Oliver's wiretap, including many sexual conversations from secretaries using his phone.[106][g] Liddy delivered the phone transcripts and developed photos[h] to Magruder and a disappointed Mitchell, who dismissed them as "shitty".[109]
On June 12, Magruder asked Liddy to photograph all documents in the office.[110] Later that day, Baldwin, directed by Liddy, visited the Watergate DNC office under the guise of a nephew of former DNC chairmanJohn Bailey and was given a tour of the floor.[111] 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.[112]
Chapstick radio microphones discovered inE. Howard Hunt's White House safe after the burglary
For the May 28 break-in, Sturgis and Gonzalez had used tape to coverlatches 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.[113] He then returned to Baldwin's listening post at the Howard Johnson's,[113] where Hunt called him to ask if the DNC office was empty. McCord reported a lone staffer:Bruce Givner, an intern calling friends.[114] At around 12:45, Givner left the office, and security guardFrank Wills began his shift.[114] At 1 am, Wills removed the garage door tape, assuming a worker left it.[114] Stumbling into Givner, Wills left to eat with him at the Howard Johnson's.[114]
Accounts differ on which burglar decided to proceed with the operation after the tape removal was found.[115] Regardless, McCord rejoined the burglars, and Gonzalez repicked and retaped the door.[115] Reaching the DNC office, the burglars abandoned picking the lock and removed the door from the hinges instead.[115] At around 1:50 am, Wills returned and discovered the new tape and called the police. An unmarkedMetropolitan Police cruiser arrived within three minutes.[115] Baldwin, acting as spotter, saw the car but ignored it.[i] He contacted Hunt, however, when the officers turned on the eighth floor lights.[117] Hunt dismissed it as the night guard, and the team continued to install a new bug disguised as a smoke detector.[118]
The three Metropolitan officers—dressed undercover ashippies—swept the ninth floor and, after finding a taped door on the sixth floor, began searching the DNC offices.[118][119] Baldwin radioed Hunt that three armed men were approaching.[118] McCord and the four others, hiding behind a partition, surrendered to the officers under false names.[120][j] 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.[121][122][123] 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.[124][125] The arrested burglars' listening devices led the Metropolitan police to involve the FBI under the presumption of a federalintercepted communications violation;[126] by June 23, a federalgrand jury of 23 D.C. residents began hearing testimony.[127]
Theories on motive range from files on an escort ring allegedly linked to the CIA or White House CounselJohn Dean's (left) partner to illicitHoward Hughes contributions (seen right, on a 1948Time cover).
The purpose of the Watergate break-in and who ultimately ordered the operation has never been established and has spawned conspiracist literature akin tothat on theKennedy assassination.[128][129] No one was ever charged for ordering the burglary, and the Plumbers' accounts conflict.[130] According to Graff, the burglars may have had "two or even three distinct and separate motives" and deceived even each other.[131]
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.[132] 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.[133]
A common theory argues that the burglars sought "dirt" on the Democrats, specifically involving illegal Democratic finances or sexual scandals.[132] Both Dean and Magruder said that the break-in sought to expose the Democrats for "cutting deals" with donors to fund their convention.[134] Hunt testified that he told the Cubans to photograph files on finances and contributions:[135] the Cubans believed they were looking for files linking the Democrats to funding from Castro.[130]
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",[135][136] often suggested to be files on illegal contributions to Nixon, possibly CIA-linked, from theGreek junta or Howard Hughes.[137][138][139] Asexual blackmail theory, as advanced inSecret Agenda (1984) andSilent 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 Phillip Mackin Bailley, or both.[140][141] Liddy and Ehrlichman endorsed this theory, and Colson called it "one of the most plausible explanations".[142][143][144] Dean rejected it as "baloney", and Oliver's secretary sued Liddy regarding the claims.[144]
"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."
Others, including Colson and Haldeman, allege that the CIA sabotaged the break-in (or simply the cover-up) to smear Nixon—with whom it had a tense relationship—or to conceal ties to the Bailley escort ring orally Howard Hughes.[146][147][148][149] In January 1974, according to Colson, Nixon nearly removed CIA directorWilliam Colby over such suspicions; that June, SenatorHoward Baker released an inconclusive report on CIA complicity.[129] In addition to all 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 actively on the CIA's payroll. The CIA also had unexplained insight into the plot, helped Hunt develop the Fielding photographs, and did not cooperate with investigators.[36][150]
A "sixth man" theory addresses McCord's periodic absences and the possible presence of Lou Russell, a CRP security guard allegedly linked to the escort ring and CIA.[151] Another theory noted byStanley Kutler suggests that Colson and Hunt were rogue operatives and proceeded with a version of Gemstone that, beyond the Watergate break-ins, targeted election rivalGeorge Wallace and, after hisassassination attempt, sought toplant leftist literature at the shooter's home — a story broken bySeymour Hersh.[152][153][k]
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 Metropolitan squad that arrived were coincidentally vice officers with experience busting D.C. sex work.[151]
Address book ofBernard Barker, discovered in a room at the Watergate Hotel, June 18, 1972
In the morning, Liddy visited the CRP, destroyed Gemstone files, and reported the arrests to Magruder.[158][159][l] When informed around 11 am, Nixon smashed an ash tray and, according to his memoir, wondered "Why? Why then? Why in such a blundering way? And why, of all places, the Democratic National Convention?"[161] By lunch, Liddy asked Attorney GeneralRichard Kleindienst to free the burglars, claiming that Mitchell demanded it, but was rebuffed.[162]
That day, federal prosecutorsEarl Silbert andChuck 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").[160][163] Investigators learned that the burglars had given pseudonyms and that McCord worked for the CRP; the FBI team led by Special AgentAngelo Lano found that the White House had conducted a background check on Hunt.[164] The burglars did not cooperate with the FBI or in court: when asked their occupations, Barker said "anti-communists".[165][166] When FBI agents visited Hunt's home, he admitted that a check found at Watergate was his but refused further comment.[167]
On June 19, Liddy offered to be sacrificed in an assassination to protect Nixon, which Dean rejected.[168] That same day, CIA agent Lee Pennington Jr. destroyed incriminating material at McCord's home.[169] 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.[170] Nixon made his first public statement on Watergate on June 22, denying White House involvement.[171]
Following Ehrlichman's orders, Dean had Hunt's White House safe drilled open;[172] Ehrlichman told Dean to "deep six" incriminating files in thePotomac River.[173] 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 directorL. Patrick Gray.[174] Dean personally destroyed two Hunt notebooks and an address book, and Gray burned the surrendered files around Christmas 1972.[175][176]
Shortly after the break-in, DNC counselJoseph Califano Jr. notified theWashington Post: editorBarry Sussman assigned veteran journalistAlfred Lewis and noviceBob Woodward to the story.[177] The team, joined by the youngCarl Bernstein, found that four of the burglars were Cuban exiles;[178] Woodward attended the burglar's preliminary hearing, where McCord admitted to being former CIA.[179] While theWashington Post's next issue contained three stories on Watergate, the scandal received negligible coverage from papers likeThe New York Times.[179]
Based on the address book and letters found in the burglar's suite, Woodward and Bernstein contacted the White Houseswitchboard and asked for Hunt. They were connected to "Mr. Colson's office", where a secretary referred them to Hunt's office at the Mullen Company PR Firm. Upon reaching Hunt, he exclaimed "Good God! In view that the matter is under adjudication, I have no comment." and hung up.[180]
Contacting acquaintances, they learned that Hunt was "with the CIA" and that McCord had worked with theOffice of Emergency Preparedness to develop a list of "domestic radicals" and a censorship plan in case of a national emergency.[181] Based on Sussman's research on Colson, the trio published a headline linking the plot to the White House: "White House Consultant Linked to Bugging Suspects".[182] Press attention on the "Watergate caper" grew from other outlets.[183] TheNew York Times' Latin-American specialistTad Szulc connected the Cuban burglars to past CIA plots and Hunt to the Bay of Pigs.[183][184]
After the burglary,Martha Mitchell was kidnapped and sedated.
Martha Mitchell, the wife of CRP head John Mitchell, was a vocal supporter of Nixon and, per Graff, "perhaps the first nationalconservative celebrity pundit".[185] 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.[186][187] Through aides, he unsuccessfully tried to prevent Martha from seeing any news about McCord.[188] Furious at her husband's deception, Martha had a nervous episode.[187][189] If her husband would not leave politics, she threatened to never return to D.C. and to contactUPI reporterHelen Thomas.[189] In a locked bedroom of aNewport Beach villa, Martha's call to Thomas was interrupted when bodyguardSteve King broke down the door, pulled the phone from the wall, and restrained her.[187][188][190]
A thwarted morning escape attempt from King resulted in Martha slicing her hand on a broken glass door. A doctor visited the house and, restrained and pants removed by FBI and Secret Service agents, she was forcibly sedated. Other escape attempts also failed.[190] Her concerned husband had her flown to theWestchester Country Club in New York, where she called Thomas, stating that "I'm black and blue. I'm a political prisoner".[191][192] She was then interviewed by theNew York Daily News.[192] John and his team denied Martha's account and blocked the FBI from interviewing her.[192][193] 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.[191][194]
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' hotel room to Barker's account and then to $89,000 in four Mexican checks and a $25,000 check fromKenneth Dahlberg — closing in on the "money trail" source: CRP contributions.[195] 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.[196] 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.[197][198] On June 23, Nixon approved the plan and instructed Haldeman in a recorded conversation known as the"Smoking Gun" tape:[197][199][200]
"... 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!'"[201]
Haldeman and Ehrlichman relayed this message to CIA directorRichard Helms and deputy directorVernon Walters in a White House meeting: Helms agreed to pressure the FBI to end their investigation by claiming that it might reveal CIAmoney laundering.[202][203] 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.[204]
The meaning of "the whole Bay of Pigs thing"—which Nixon also called a "scab" and "a lot ofhanky-panky"—has drawn much attention.[199][205] Helms deemed it "incoherent";[199] investigators for theSenate Select Committee on Intelligence suspected it referred to thethen-secret CIA assassination attempts on Cuban leader Castro but did not raise the subject with Nixon during 1975 testimony.[205] 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 thatmay have triggered the Kennedy tragedy and which Helms desperately wanted to hide."[m] JournalistJefferson Morley cites another tape in which Nixon mentions "the 'Who shot John?' angle" to support Haldeman's interpretation.[199]
FBI associate directorMark Felt, revealed to be "Deep Throat" in 2005, was labeled byThe New York Times as "the most famous anonymous source in American history".[206]
In 1971, Hoover madeMark Felt deputy associate director and his apparent successor.[207] Disliked in the FBI and nicknamed the "white rat" due to his white hair and tendency to leak for personal gain,[208] Felt was spurned after Hoover's 1972 death when Nixon selected L. Patrick Gray as acting director — avoiding a pre-electionSenate confirmation.[209] Gray named Felt as acting associate director. Hoping to become director, Felt sought to undermine Gray through leaks.[210]
Woodward—then aNavy lieutenant—met Felt in 1970, and he became a key anonymous source.[181][211][212] No one else at thePost knew his identity; editorHoward Simons dubbed him "Deep Throat", referencing both hisdeep background status and the 1972 pornographic filmDeep Throat.[213][214] Second only to Deep Throat, Woodward and Bernstein also relied on the anonymous "Z": a female grand juror.[215][216]
Felt gave Woodward many early Watergate leads but soon avoided the telephone. According to Woodward, Felt created a covert rendezvous protocol. If Woodward wished to contact Felt, he placed a potted plant with a flag on his sixth floor apartment's balcony: the two would then meet at 2 am in an underground garage inRosslyn, Virginia. If Felt wished to speak, he intercepted Woodward's dailyNew York Times, circled page 20, and drew a clock showing the time to meet in the garage.[211] Felt also leaked toThe Washington Daily News andTime's Sandy Smith;[217] other FBI agents, like the Washington field office head, were also likely leakers.[218]
Some, including their managing editorBen Bradlee, have criticized aspects of Woodward and Bernstein's Deep Throat account—particularly the rendezvous system—as implausible and overly cinematic.[211][219] BiographerAdrian Havill identified many inaccuracies, such as Bernstein's ironic story of avoiding a subpoenae by watchingDeep Throat at anadult theater — despite the film having already left cinemas.[220] Woodward and Bernstein's role in Watergate is often exaggerated:[221][222][n]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."[221]
By July, Baldwin was granted immunity by the FBI and became their first major insight into Watergate.[116][224] The administration grew concerned over $250,000 in CRP funds (of which $199,000 was used) authorized for Liddy's operations.[225] That month, Magruder pressed CRP treasurerHugh Sloan—the "single greatest menace to the cover-up" per journalistJ. Anthony Lukas—to fabricate a narrative of CRP payments to Liddy, suggesting perjury.[226] Sloan, conflicted, confided to two lawyers, fled to California, and then returned to D.C. a week later to resign from the CRP.[62] He confessed to the U.S. attorney's office and gave truthful grand jury testimony.[227]
Alarmed, Mitchell convened with Magruder, Dean, and Nixon advisorFred LaRue to concoct a cover.[228] They decided to inflate funding for Liddy's less illicit activities, such as campus surveillance of radicals, and convinced aideHerbert Porter to perjure himself.[229][230] Their motto became "The buck stops with Liddy", who was fired from the CRP to create distance.[231] Other efforts including delaying FBI interviews on "national security" grounds, coaching witnesses,[232] and having Dean and assistantFred Fielding sit in on FBI interviews of White House staff.[233] They also disrupted the grand jury by making staffers testify privately at the DOJ, rather than before jurors that could assess their credibility.[234] Throughout the grand jury investigation, prosecutors Silbert and especiallyHenry Petersen were overly deferent to Nixon.[235]
Before the burglary, an unknown official had assured Liddy that the Plumbers would be "taken care of" financially if caught.[236] Liddy reminded Mitchell of this, leading Dean to unsuccessfully ask CIA deputy director Walters to fronthush money.[237][238] Dean then convinced Nixon's former deputy campaign finance managerHerbert Kalmbach to provide the bribes.[239][240][o] Ulasewicz delivered $180,000 in cash to the Plumbers, dispersed by Hunt's wife and,[241][242] after her death onUnited Air Lines Flight 553,[p] by Bay of Pigs invasion leaderManuel Artime.[244][245][246][q]
The cover-up enabled Nixon towin re-election in 1972 in the largest landslide in American history.
In August 1972, theGovernment Accountability Office released an audit of Nixon's reelection campaign, referring $350,000 in questionable transactions to the DOJ for prosecution.[248] The DOJ did not pursue these, and Nixon declined to appoint a special prosecutor.[248]Wright Patman, the DemocratHouse Banking Committee chair, initiated his own probe. Like the FBI, his committee was stonewalled by the White House.[249]
In September, O'Brien's legal team—all of whom also worked for thePost—interviewed Baldwin, yielding a front page story for Woodward and Bernstein. Felt used the story to shift leaking suspicion to other FBI staffers,[250] and Silbert made the FBI search his office and the grand jury room for bugs: none were found.[251] However, another wiretap of unclear origin was found in Oliver's DNC office.[251][252] On September 13, the Patman probe released a confidential report on the Mexican transactions: the findings were leaked to thePost.[251] Fearing more revelations, Nixon usedHouse Republican leaderGerald Ford to stop the probe from gainingsubpoena power.[253]
On September 15, Hunt, Liddy, and the five burglars were indicted on eight counts, none relating to the misuse of campaign funds.[254][255] The limited indictment, sparing Nixon officials, was a White House victory, and Eisenhower-appointeeJohn Sirica assigned himself as judge.[256][257] Baldwin then gave his complete account of Watergate to theLos Angeles Times'Jack Nelson andRonald Ostrow.[116][258] Although Hunt's lawyers and Silbert convinced Sirica to issue a gag order and advise theTimes against publication, the paper printed the story—the first directly linking the break-in to the White House—on October 5.[116][259] However, the cover-up proved effective, and Democrats could not make Watergate a campaign issue.[260][261] Although most Americans knew of the break-in, few associated it with Nixon,[262] and in November he won re-election in the largest landslide in American history, winning 49 of 50 states.[260][263]
On January 6, 1973, Dean promised Liddy $30,000 annually, legal fees, and a 1975 pardon if he stayed silent;[264] as early as January 8, Nixon discussed "God damn hush money" with Colson.[264] 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.[265][266] Hunt and the Cubans unexpectedly pled guilty.[267] Using Sturgis as a source,The New York Times' Seymour Hersh—who had exposed theMy Lai massacre—revealed that the burglars were receiving hush money and were pressured to plead guilty.[267] Questioned by Sirica, the Cubans refused to say who sent the payments.[268]
The White House learned that McCord, who had expressed concerns that he or the CIA might be scapegoated, was considering cooperating with prosecutors.[269][270][271] Through Ulasewicz, Dean promised McCord an eventual government job and his family's financial security. To calm McCord, Caulfield thrice met with him alongside theGeorge Washington Parkway. McCord proposed that the trial could be dismissed if prosecutors introduced telephone conversations regarding Watergate that he had made to theIsraeli andChilean embassies — both of which were illegally wiretapped.[272][273][r] Dean rejected this approach.[274]
In the trial's only interruption, Oliver's lawyerCharles 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."[275] In resumed testimony, administration officials denied involvement in the break-in.[276] Dissatisfied with Silbert's examination, Sirica made the unusual move to interrogate the officials privately.[277] On January 30, the jury found the last two defendants—Liddy and McCord—guilty on all counts, and Sirica scheduled sentencing for March 23.[278][279][280] 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".[279]
In addition to the trial's perceived failure, a multi-month, secret inquiry by Senator Ted Kennedy raised Congress' suspicions about Watergate.[281][282] On February 7, 1973, the Senate voted 77–0 to establish aselect committee to investigate Watergate, with SenatorSam Ervin ofNorth Carolina named chairman.[282][283] Ervin in turn selectedSamuel Dash as chief counsel.[284] They inherited files created by both Ted Kennedy and the Patman probe.[285]
Due to his loyalty, Nixon nominated Gray as FBI director.[286] 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.[287] In a bid to save his nomination, Gray offered the reports to Congress, which was vetoed by an infuriated Nixon.[288][289] In late February, Nixon devised two ways to stop the committee:executive privilege—a then-vague doctrine that theConstitution'sseparation of powers prevented presidential disclosure to Congress—and the release of an exonerative "Dean Report".[290][291] The report was, per Graff, "mythic" as Dean had never conducted a real investigation of Watergate and was himself involved.[292]
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.[293][294] 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.[295][296] 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.[297]
By the end of April, bothJeb Magruder (pictured) andJohn 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.[298][299] Sirica tabled McCord's sentencing and gave maximum sentences to Liddy, Hunt, and the Cubans.[300][301] McCord identified false testimony to the Ervin Committee, implicating Magruder and Dean,[302] and leaked his account—mostlyhearsay through Liddy—to theLos Angeles Times.[303] Press attention on Watergate exploded,[304] and the Ervin Committee uncovered Gemstone, the destruction of evidence, and the Liddy payments.[305]
In April, Dean began cooperating with prosecutors, exposing the Fielding break-in and the cover-up complicity of Magruder, Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman — but not Nixon.[306] After brief negotiations, Magruder also agreed to cooperate.[307] 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.[308][309] By the end of April, Nixon—to save face—made Ehrlichman, Haldeman, Magruder, and Attorney GeneralRichard Kleindienst resign; Dean was fired on April 30.[310][311][312]
Watergate scrutiny spawned probes into other abuses, including a "dirty tricks" campaign byDonald Segretti; Kissinger-ordered wiretaps that led to Felt's resignation; B-52 bombings in Cambodia; illegal CRP donations from firms likeAmerican Airlines; and an off-record $200,000 from investorRobert Vesco that led to the May 10 indictment of Mitchell and CRP finance chairmanMaurice Stans.[313][314] Later that month, CongressmanWilliam Mills committed suicide after it emerged that he had taken an unreported $25,000 from a CRP slush fund.[315] In July, Nixon was hospitalized withpneumonia, possibly caused by the stress of Watergate;[316] acting White House CounselLeonard Garment wrote that "The organizing objective of these investigations was to bleed Nixon to death".[317]
"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."
The Ervin Committee's public hearings began on May 17.[319] Testimony from McCord, Caulfield, Ulasewicz, and others suggested White House involvement in the break-in and cover-up,[320] which Nixon vehemently denied.[321] Following Magruder's June 14 testimony, Dean read a 245-page statement stretching from the Huston Plan and Gemstone to the cover-up.[322] In two days of testimony, John Mitchell evaded questions and did not implicate Nixon.[323] The hearings drew immense publicity: three in four American households watched live testimony, an average of 30 hours per home.[324][325]
In concurrent Senate proceedings, Attorney General nomineeElliot Richardson agreed to appoint aspecial prosecutor on Watergate.[326] After rejecting Nixon's suggestions, Richardson choseArchibald Cox — President Kennedy'ssolicitor general. They negotiated that Cox could only be fired by Richardson and only due to "extraordinary improprieties".[327] Cox built a legal team he called the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.[328][329] 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.[317] In August, the Force empaneled a second grand jury to pursue crimes beyond the break-in, such as the Fielding burglary and campaign finance irregularities.[330]
Special prosecutor on WatergateArchibald Cox in 1973
On July 13, Haldeman assistantAlexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes to the Ervin Committee.[331][332] In urgent meetings, White House counselJ. Fred Buzhardt suggested the tapes be destroyed; Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew recommended a bonfire on theWhite House lawn.[333] 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.[334][335]
Following Butterfield's revelation, Cox and the Ervin Committee formally subpoenaed tapes corresponding to meetings suspected to involve Watergate.[336][337] Nixon rejected both subpoenas, leading to objections in court.[338] Due to strongerstanding under the separation of powers, Sirica prioritized the executive branch Cox over the legislative Ervin committee.[339]
Nixon's legal team—led byCharles Alan Wright—invoked executive privilege and argued that releasing the tapes would create a precedent allowing judicial access to all sensitive presidential material.[340][341] Cox asserted that executive privilege did not apply when criminality was suspected,[340] and also citedUnited States v. Burr, in which Chief JusticeJohn Marshall ruled that PresidentThomas Jefferson could be subpoenaed.[342] In a decision that upset both parties, Sirica ordered the tapes be submitted to him to determine if any were protected by executive privilege.[343] 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.[344]
Attorney GeneralElliot Richardson (right)—seen with SenatorJohn 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 forfalse declarations on the Fielding break-in,[345][346] and guilty pleas from American Airlines,Goodyear, and the3M Company for illegal contributions to the CRP.[347][348] Cox also began investigating Nixon's closest friendBebe Rebozo for mediating an illicit $100,000 campaign contribution from Howard Hughes.[349]
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.[350] Negotiations with Cox to drop the subpoena and have SenatorJohn Stennis review the tapes also collapsed.[351] On October 19—citing the need for stability in theMiddle East amid theYom 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.[352][353]
On October 20, in what became known as theSaturday Night Massacre, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox. He refused and resigned in protest.[354][355][s] Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney GeneralWilliam Ruckelshaus to fire Cox, but Ruckelshaus declined and was fired after offering his resignation.[357] The next acting attorney general, Solicitor GeneralRobert Bork, agreed to fire Cox.[358] FBI agents sealed the Force's office and blocked the entry of Cox's staff, an action that prosecutorLeon Jaworski said evoked theGestapo.[356] 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".[358][359]
The Saturday Night Massacre sparked aconstitutional crisis and drew wide condemnation and calls for Nixon's resignation or impeachment.[360][361] Congress received an unprecedented near-500,000mailgrams andtelegrams,[362] and protests were held outside the White House.[363] Nixon'sapproval rating fell to 24 percent;[364] bills calling for another special prosecutor were introduced by 98 representatives and 57 senators.[365] Nixon, under great stress, withdrew from engagements and drank: in his absence, Kissinger briefly declaredDEFCON 3 during a nightime crisis when Soviet deployment in the Yom Kippur War seemed imminent.[366][367]
At an October 26 press conference, Nixon denounced the "hysterical reporting" and promised to appoint a new special prosecutor, although with limited access to presidential material.[368] Representatives introduced over 20 impeachment and impeachment-inquiry resolutions;[369] theHouse Judiciary Committee launched an impeachment inquiry on October 30 and granted ChairmanPeter Rodino subpoena power.[369]
On October 30, Buzhardt informed Sirica that two of the nine subpoeaned tapes—corresponding to a June 20, 1972 Nixon-Mitchell call and an April 15, 1973 Nixon–Dean meeting—were "missing".[370][371] In testimony, Secret Service agents and aides said that the tapes had been signed out and not returned; aides like Buzhardt inconsistently said they never existed due to a recorder malfunction or insufficient tape.[370] Investigators discovered a tape labeled "April 15 Part I", implying that a "Part II" had existed.[372]
On November 1, Nixon and Haig selected as special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, a formerNuremberg prosecutor presumed to be sympathetic to the president.[373] Calls for impeachment continued, including from the editors ofThe New York Times andTime and—for the first time—from a Republican Senator,Edward Brooke.[374] Buzhardt and Garment flew to Miami, where Nixon sought escape in boating, to urge him to resign; Nixon refused to see them.[375]
Tipped off by Dean, SenatorLowell Weicker and investigators uncovered likely tax fraud by Nixon, who counted an illegally-backdated document donation to theNational Archives towards tax deductions — a practice outlawed in 1969 after President Johnson had used the same loophole.[376][377] The investigation expanded to Nixon's other finances, including publicly-funded renovations to Nixon's private homes in California and Florida.[378] On November 17, at a meeting of Associated Press editors atWalt Disney World'sContemporary Resort, Nixon refuted the allegations and, in a defense considered the most iconic line from Watergate, declared, "I am not a crook."[379][380][381]
Nixon's secretaryRose Mary Woods demonstrating the implausible "Rose Mary Stretch" that the White House said erased the18½ 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.[382][383] Buzhardt believed the erasure was intentional and blamed Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who could not explain the gap;[384] Sirica demanded that all tapes be surrendered within five days.[385] Nixon complied, and they were placed in aNational Security Agency-installed safe—guarded byU.S. Marshals—in Sirica's chambers; the seven extant tapes were given to the Force on December 12.[386]
In December hearings, Force lawyerJill Volner interrogated Woods, who gave a new explanation: while transcribing the tape on October 1, she accidentally hit the "record" button instead of "off" while reaching for the telephone and, throughout the call, also kept her foot on the "forward" pedal.[387][388][389] In a recreation staged by Volner, Woods could not keep her foot on the pedal.[390][391] Photos of the recreation generated the mocking label of the "Rose Mary Stretch".[388][391]
Woods' five-minute call also did not match the duration of the 18-minute gap.[392][393] 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."[394][395] 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.[394] Sirica concluded that the erasure was "more symbolic than substantive", and Jaworski and the FBI declined to prosecute.[394][396] In January 1974, an expert panel appointed by Sirica concluded that the tape had been erased in five to nine separate segments,[397][398][399] and that audio signatures indicated that the hand keys—not the pedal—had been used.[400] Other tapes had apparent seconds-long deletions—obscuring key words—but Sirica decided that further analysis was tangential.[401]
Pushed by SpeakerTip O'Neill to accelerate the impeachment inquiry, Rodino's Judiciary Committee selectedJohn Doar as special counsel.[402] In December, Nixon withdrew from engagements—sometimes for multiple days—amid drinking bouts. On New Year's Eve, he resolved to "fight it all out", selecting trial lawyerJames St. Clair to resist and delay all investigations.[403]
In January, the scientific panel created by Sirica began deciphering the tapes' contents, which were muffled and compressed due to the 15/16th inch per second recording speed used to save tape.[404] Transcibing each tape was difficult, with 100 hours of labor needed to decipher just one hour of tape.[405] The tapes' content was damning, with Sirica finally concluding that the White House had obstructed justice.[405] Concurrently, the Judiciary Committee—with a team of lawyers that includedHillary Clinton—weighed charging Nixon with specific criminal charges or more ambiguous Constitutional crimes.[406]
Prosecutors focused on the cover-up—an explicit White House conspiracy—rather than the break-in, a more nebulous campaign conspiracy.[407] Although Jaworski identified at least 15 instances where Nixon acknowledged or advanced the hush money scheme,[408] he was hesitant to indict the presidentdue to lack of precedent.[409] The Force instead chose to designate Nixon an unindicted co-conspirator, allowing jurors to hear him on the tape and empowering Jaworksi to send incriminating evidence to the impeachment inquiry.[410] On March 1, the Force indicted the "Watergate Seven": Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson,Gordon Strachan,Robert Mardian, andKenneth Parkinson on 24 counts of conspiracy, lying, and obstructing justice.[411][412] On March 26, Sirica transferred a 55-page report on presidential criminality, compiled by Jaworski and the grand jury, to the House Judiciary Committee.[413]
President Nixon announcing the release of edited transcripts, April 29, 1974
In mid-April, Jaworski subpoenaed 64 additional taped conversations, with a deadline of May 2.[414] Nixon then spent most of his days personally listening to the tapes, taking notes and brooding in what Graff calls "one of the oddest weeks in all of modern presidential history".[415] Instead of releasing the tapes, Nixon's staff typed edited transcripts, with Nixon himself sometimes excising "unpresidential" speech,[416] namely replacing profanity and vulgarity with hundreds of "expletive deleted".[417][418] On April 29, Nixon released 1,300 pages of transcripts spanning 46 tapes.[419]
Upon receipt, House investigators realized that only 20 of the 64 Jaworski-subpoenaed conversations had been transcribed.[420] Comparison between the transcripts matching tapes already acquired by investigators showed pervasive misrepresentations and intelligible sections marked "unintelligible".[421] However, the edited transcripts still showed Nixon's apparent acceptance of the cover-up.[422]
In a letter, the House Judiciary Committee informed Nixon that the transcript release did not fulfill the tape subpoena.[423] St. Clair moved to block Jaworski's tape subpoena, calling them "inadmissible hearsay" as Nixon was not a conspirator.[424] Jaworski revealed that Nixon was officially 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.[425] St. Clair rejected this as blackmail.[426]
On May 9, the pro-NixonChicago 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."[427][428] Senate Republican leaderHugh Scott called the transcripts "deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral".[421] Nixon's transcript miscalculation resulted in the first poll showing that a majority of Americans supported Nixon's impeachment.[418]
The same day of theTribune editorial, impeachment hearings began.[427] Over ten weeks, Doar and colleagues presented representatives a complete account of Watergate from the break-in through to the cover-up, highlighting two particular constitutional crimes: the false invocation of national security and a total indifference to legality of their actions.[429]
On May 10, Jaworski released a 39-page brief revealing that Nixon was an unindicted co-conspirator; Sirica concluded that "the president was doomed".[430][t] Seeking to avoid a lengthy appeals process, Jaworski requested the Supreme Courtdirectly review the subpoena's legality.[432] On May 31, the court agreed to hear the case.[433]
On June 15, Woodward and Bernstein publishedAll the President's Men, which became a national bestseller.[434][435] AWall Street Journal reviewer noted that it was a "great guide for people like me who still have trouble figuring out where Ehrlichman begins and Haldeman ends."[435] Later that month, the Ervin Committee released its 1,094-page final report, outlining White House misconduct but not explicitly fingering Nixon.[436] After the Fourth of July recess, the inquiry presented "seminars" synthesizing the information to the House and began releasing "Statements of Information" encompassing the evidence: the first installment was 4,133 pages.[437] In an attempt to remain neutral, Rodino did not present analysis of the evidence, fustrating readers.[438]
ConservativeSouthern Democrats began to abandon Nixon, and on July 23Lawrence Hogan became the first Republican Representative to support impeachment.[439] The following day, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously (8–0) that the subpoenaed tapes were admissible but also formally recognized executive privilege.[440][441][u] Nixon complied with the order and released the first batch of 20 subpoenaed tapes on July 30.[442]
On July 27, 1974, theHouse Judiciary Committee voted 27-to-11 to recommend the firstarticle of impeachment against the president:obstruction of justice.[443][444][v] The committee recommended the second article,abuse of power, on July 29, 1974.[447] The following day, they approved a third—obstruction of Congress—and voted against two charges related to the Cambodian bombings and tax fraud.[447] Ninety percent of Americans listened to committee proceeding on radio or television.[448] Support for Nixon dwindled in the House and Senate, and, with the impending release of the June 23 "smoking gun" tape, Nixon weighed resigning, a move that would preserve his federal benefits and those of his staff and mitigate post-office liability.[449][450] If impeached by the House, Nixon needed 34 votes in the Senate for acquittal.[451]
On August 5, 1974, the White House released the "smoking gun" tape.[200] The Haldeman-Nixon conversation showed that the president had lied and that he had been involved in the cover-up at its inception.[452][453] The tape's release resulted in the loss of most support for Nixon in the Capitol, particularly among Republicans who felt betrayed.[200][454] In addition to Republican House minority leaderJohn Rhodes,[455] ten Republican House Judiciary Committee members who had voted against the articles pledged to vote for impeachment.[200] The following day, California governorRonald Reagan andRNC chairmanGeorge H. W. Bush both called for Nixon to resign.[456][457] SenatorBarry Goldwater informed Haig that Nixon only had 12 votes in the Senate and said "He has lied to me for the last time".[456] Fearing a "berserk" Nixon might unilaterally triggernuclear armageddon, Secretary of DefenseJames R. Schlesinger alerted top military leaders that any launch orders from the president must be confirmed by himself or Kissinger.[458]
Following an August 7 meeting with Senate minority leaderHugh Scott, SenatorBarry Goldwater, and House minority leaderJohn Rhodes (pictured left), Nixon decided to resign. He left the White House on August 9 (right).
On August 7, House minority leader Rhodes, Senate minority leaderHugh 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.[459][460] Faced with the inevitability of his impeachment and removal, Nixon resolved to resign.[461]
In an August 8Oval Office address, Nixon announced his resignation, the first of any U.S. president and effective at noon the following day, and his succession by Ford.[263][462] 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".[263] Jaworski noted that the farewell speech expressed no remorse.[463]
In the morning, Nixon and his family bid farewell to the White House staff in theEast Room.[464] They left on the presidential helicopter,Army One, for Maryland'sAndrews Air Force Base, where they boardedAir Force One for California.[464][465][466][w] Ford delivered an 8-minute inauguration speech, also in the East Room, declaring that "our long national nightmare is over".[467][468]Time's resignation special sold 527,000 copies — the most of any newsweekly ever.[469]
President Ford announcing his pardon of Nixon on September 8, 1974
With Nixon's resignation, Congress dropped its impeachment proceedings. Criminal prosecution was still a possibility at the federal level.[470] In its final report, the House Judiciary Committee identified 36 instances of obstruction of justice by Nixon.[469] Jaworski weighed indicting Nixon, with an internal Force memo by Assistant Special ProsecutorGeorge Frampton urging his prosecution.[471] However, on September 8, President Ford issued Nixon a full pardon for any acts committed while president.[157][472] Ford may have feared the damage brought by a long, divisive trial, or, if Nixon was acquitted on a technicality, the delegitimization of his own presidency.[473]
Ford was criticized for the sudden, unilateral nature of the pardon, granted without consultation with Congressional leaders.[472][473] Senator Ervin criticized the pardon as "incompatible with good government",[474] and Ford's press secretaryJerald terHorst resigned in protest.[475] The president's approval rating fell by 22 percentage points.[476] Although some spectators argued that the special prosecutor's powers permitted prosecution of Nixon even if pardoned, Jaworski resigned in October.[477] According to Hersh, Jaworski was in financial distress at the time and could not be absent from his Texan law practice any longer.[157]
Many, including O'Neill, raised the possibility of a secret deal between Ford and Nixon.[478] No tape recording or documentation suggests an explicit pardon deal,[474][478] but biographer Jay Farrell concluded that implicit suggestions may have "greased his departure".[478] When approached by Haig to discuss Nixon's possible choices, then-Vice President Ford reportedly refused to offer advice as he was an "interested party."[157][479] Beginning on September 4, President Ford—through aides—had tried to secure a formal apology by Nixon in exchange for a pardon. The former president refused to make any admission of guilt, and Ford abandoned the effort.[480] According to Kutler, Nixon and his advisors correctly assumed that Ford would pardon him regardless.[481] Hersh argues that a recorded September 7 telephone call shows Nixon threatening to expose Ford's prior promises of a pardon if he was not pardoned.[482]
In total, 69 people were charged with crimes in conjunction with Watergate, including two of Nixon's Cabinet secretaries. Most were convicted or pled guilty.[130] A Watergate-related probe on theITT corporation resulted in the conviction ofEd Reinecke,Lieutenant Governor of California under Ronald Reagan.[483] Of the Watergate Seven, Mitchell, Haldemann, Ehrlichman were convicted. Parkinson was acquitted, and Mardian's conviction was overturned.[463] 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."[484]
In 1978, FBI heads Gray and Felt and FBI Domestic Intelligence Division head Edward Miller were indicted for their approval of "surreptitious entries".[485] Nixon voluntarily testified in their defense in 1980, his only appearance in any Watergate-related trial.[486] Felt and Miller were found guilty.[487] Conversely, revelations regarding the Fielding break-in ultimately resulted in the dismissal of all charges against Ellsberg for leaking thePentagon Papers.[488]
On June 24 and 25, 1975, Nixon gave secret testimony to a grand jury.[489][490] He evaded questions on the 18-minute gap and tax fraud. Often cynical, Nixon praised "hardball" tactics used by Kennedy against him during his1962 gubernatorial campaign: "Rather than using a group of amateur Watergate bugglers, burglars — well they were bunglers — [the Kennedy administration] used the F.B.I., used the I.R.S. and used it directly by their own orders against, in one instance, a man who had been vice president of the United States, running for governor".[489]
Seeking to restore public trust after Watergate and the release of the CIA's "Family Jewels", Congress organized theChurch Committee to investigate illegal activities by the CIA and other agencies, as did President Ford with theRockefeller Commission.[493][494] Concerns emerging from the burglaries and wiretappings resulted in thePrivacy Act of 1974 and theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which limited the ability of federal agencies to collect, maintain, and share information on Americans.[495][496] Congress also strengthened theFreedom of Information Act,[497] and created intelligence oversight committees with access to classified material.[491]
Watergate is regarded as the greatest scandal in American presidential history and a successful demonstration of the separation of powers.[502][503][504] It is frequently invoked during presidential scandals and impeachments, particularlythose of President Trump.[504][505][506][507] Haig and Kissinger respectively blamed Watergate for the Yom Kippur War (1973) and theFall of Saigon (1975).[350][508]
In 1977, Nixon—hoping to improve his legacy and effectively broke—accepted $600,000 to doa series of interviews with British journalistDavid Frost.[509] 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."[510][511] Although Nixon formally apologized for Watergate after the interview, his legacy remained tarnished.[511] The Watergate Hotel has conversely embraced the scandal, incorporating it into its theming and converting the room where Hunt and Liddy communicated by radio into the "scandal suite".[512][513] The Rosslyn garage where Woodward met with Deep Throat was demolished in 2017; its site is marked with a state historical marker.[514][515]
Watergate is often regarded as the climactic moment in the loss of American trust in government following the Vietnam War.[516][517]Bill Schneider writes that although American political cynicism did not "start with Watergate... Watergate turned an erosion of public confidence into a collapse".[516] It left such an impression that post-Watergate scandals are often named with thesuffix "-gate".[503][518] These range from genuine political scandals likeKoreagate to the sports scandalDeflategate and the discreditedPizzagate conspiracy theory.[518] The paranoia of the "Watergate era" is often associated with a subgenre of 1970s conspiracy thriller cinema, such asFrancis Ford Coppola'sThe Conversation (1974) orThree Days of the Condor (1975), although production for some began before the scandal's zenith and are partly a reflection of the period'szeitgeist.[519][520][521]
Over thirty Watergate participants have written memoirs.[522] Woodward and Bernstein's 1974 bookAll the President's Men was adapted into a1976 film of the same name byAlan J. Pakula—in which Watergate guard Frank Wills played himself.[523] 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".[524][525] The book also popularized the term "ratfucking" to describe covert political espionage.[526][527] Other depictions includeOliver Stone'sNixon (1996) andFrost/Nixon (2008),[501][528][529] adapted from aTony-winningplay of the same name.[501][530]
^In 1973,Walt Rostow—Johnson's former national security advisor—wrote that the affair was a clear precedent for Watergate: "They got away with [the Chennault Affair]. As the same men faced the election of 1972 there was nothing in their previous experience with an operation of doubtful propriety (or, even, legality) to warn them off; and there were memories ofhow close an election could get and the possible utility of pressing to the limit — or beyond."[28][29]
^SenatorRichard Schweiker noted that "Even though the Huston plan was dead, I believe it had nine lives."[34]
^Hunt continued to work for a firm that was a CIA cover.[36]
^The White House was apparently oblivious to the Nazi association. Liddy told them that it was an acronym for "our Organization has been Directed to Eliminate Subversion of the Secrets of our Administration". Liddy displayed a strong interest in Nazi paraphernalia, even arranging the screening of aLeni Riefenstahl film at the White House.[42]
^Hunt conspicuously celebrated the failed burglary with a champagne toast.[53]
^White House Chief of StaffJohn Dean later said regarding Caulfield: "I sensed that an Irish cop without a college education would not be entrusted with such a sensitive assignment in an administration ofWASP professional men.[67]
^These conversations—described by a federal prosecutor as "extremely personal, intimate, and potentially embarrassing"—were reportedly the result of secretaries regarding Oliver's phone as the most private in the office. Ehrlichman said that Oliver himself frequently called "his girl friends all over the country lining up assignations". According to Lukas, these telephone conversations have fueled speculation that an escort service was operated out of the DNC office.[107]
^After picking up the developed photographs in Miami, Hunt was shocked to notice the conspicuous shag rug of the Howard Johnson's motel in the background and not the floor of the DNC office. This led to suspicions that the photographed files may have been secretly swapped. McCord, who was responsible for the photographs, proclaimed innocence. The photographs no longer exist and were shredded.[108]
^A 2012 article in theWashingtonian claimed that Baldwin was distracted by the filmAttack of the Puppet People on the television. He denied this, saying the film was used to obscure the sound of his walkie-talkie from others in the hotel.[116]
^The five men were found to have rolls ofhundred-dollar bills, intended as bribes for any security guards that found them.[119]
^Lukas writes that, beyond unsubstantiated reports of would-be-assassinArthur Bremer meeting with Ulasewicz, nothing supports the theory that the Plumbers were involved in Wallace's attempted assassination. According to Hunt, Colson dispatched him to Bremer's Milwaukee apartment after the shooting to "take a look" and to evaluate whether he had leftist motives. Hunt said that Colson canceled the assignment as he was packing.[154][155] Colson called Hunt's claims "utterly preposterous".[156] As Vice President, Gerald Ford questioned Nixon lawyer James St. Clair as to whether the Nixon administration had been involved in the shooting. AWashington Post story one year after the shooting reported that Nixon had feared that the shooting was organized by members of his re-election campaign.[157]
^Liddy also destroyed his collection of hotel soap wrappers, which would have provided a physical trail of his recent travels.[160]
^CommentatorChris Matthews claims that this was fabricated by the ghostwriter (Haldeman died shortly after publication). This was denied by the ghostwriter and theNew York Times Books editor, who said that Haldeman was a "control freak" who would not have allowed such an insertion.[199]
^Graff writes that otherWashington Post journalists, like Simons and Sussman, are not given fair credit for their contributions to Watergate stories. Regarding Woodward and Bernstein, Sussman later said "I don't have anything good to say about either one of them."[223]
^Dean reportedly convinced Kalmbach to provide the funds under the false pretense of legal support kept secret to avoid negative publicity.[239]
^Some $10,000 was found on Dorothy Hunt's remains in the crash, possibly hush money. Hunt had also taken out a $225,000 life insurance plan shortly before the crash, which E. Howard Hunt received. Speculation of assassination was unfounded, and the FBI andNational Transportation Safety Board found no evidence of foul play.[243]
^These payments continued for months; by March 1973, the White House ran out of untraceable funds for hush money and secured funding from Greek grocery magnate Thomas Pappas by agreeing to not remove theUS ambassador to Greece.[247]
^Graff notes an "odd thread of Watergate" involving Chile and theITT Corporation that may suggest "deeper connections or further, still-uncovered plots and geopolitical intrigue".[274]
^Richardson later said that, in an attempt to dissuade him from resigning, White House chief of staffAlexander Haig suggested that the administration would help him secure the1976 Republican nomination for president.[356]
^The Los Angeles Times exposed the revelation that Nixon was an unindicted co-conspirator on June 5.[431]
^Then-Associate JusticeWilliam Rehnquist—who had recently been appointed to the Court by Nixon and most recently served in the Nixon Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel—recused himself from the case.
^The room was immediately evacuated after a false report of a pro-Nixon kamikaze plane about to crash into the Capitol.[445][446]
^After Ford's swearing-in, Air Force One reverted to callsign "SAM 27000" for Special Active Mission, designating a non-presidential military flight.[465]
Dargis, Manohla (December 5, 2008)."Mr. Frost, Meet Mr. Nixon".The New York Times.Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. RetrievedAugust 23, 2025.
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