Watergate

Watergate was the political scandal that began with a 1972 burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington and ended with the resignation of President Nixon in August 1974. It reshaped American politics, journalism, and law.

On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington. The burglars were tied to the Committee to Re-Elect the President. President Nixon's administration denied involvement. Two reporters at the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, pursued the story with the help of a source they called Deep Throat, later revealed to be FBI Associate Director Mark Felt. A pattern emerged. The Nixon White House had organized political espionage against its opponents, used federal agencies to harass perceived enemies, and obstructed the investigation that followed. The Senate Watergate Committee held televised hearings in 1973. White House aide Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the Oval Office. The tapes became the central evidence. Nixon resisted turning them over. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Nixon in July 1974 that the President's claim of executive privilege did not extend to evidence in a criminal investigation. The tapes were released. They showed Nixon ordering the cover-up days after the break-in. The House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment. Republican senators told Nixon he would be convicted if the matter went to trial. He resigned on August 9, 1974, the only President to do so. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in and pardoned Nixon a month later. Watergate produced a wave of reform legislation, including the Ethics in Government Act, the Federal Election Campaign Act amendments, the Privacy Act, and amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. It also produced a generation of journalists who treated official accounts with deep skepticism and a public that did the same. The phrase "what did he know and when did he know it" entered the vocabulary of every subsequent presidential investigation.