How Did The Watergate Scandal

The Watergate Scandal is one of America’s most shameful moments that we still haven’t completely recovered from. The Watergate Scandal involved President Richard Nixon between 1972 and 1974. On June 17, 1972, the police had found five burglars at the office of the Democratic national Committee at the Watergate complex. Four of them were part of the CIA and the fifth burglar was security chief of the committee trying to re-elect the president. They had stole copies of top-secret documents and bugged the office phones. Because there was a fault in their wiretaps, they had to return on June 17 but the police caught them. It was not clear if the burglars were partnered with the president. However in August, Nixon gave a speech defending himself

He had instructed the CIA to delay the FBI’s investigation. Nixon had abused his power as the president and deliberate obstruction of justice. Five of Nixon’s aides were pleaded guilty and avoided the trial while another two were convicted in 1973. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein began to suspect that there was more to this scandal. Many government officials were beginning to crack and testified that Nixon had taped every conversation that took place in the Oval office. Nixon tried to hide the tapes during 1973. Archibald Cox was a prosecutor who was determined to obtain the tapes. Nixon orders Cox to be dismissed which lead to the resignation of many Justice Department officials. This was known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon had released some of his tapes but not all. The cover-up was falling apart. In July 1974, the Supreme Court had ordered Nixon to surrender all of the tapes. The House of Representatives voted to impeach the president for his abuse of power, criminal cover-up, violated the Constitution, and for interfering with justice. On August 5, 1974, Nixon had turned the tapes over to the public. He resigned three days