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Richard Nixon Watergate Scandal

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When the Watergate scandal happened, Richard Nixon was the president, and it was during the Vietnam War. Nixon had very bad judgement, and lost trust from a lot of America. Nixon tried to hide what he did, but everyone still found out. In May 1972, five of Richard Nixon’s committee members broke into the Watergate headquarters. They used wiretaps on the phones and stole secret documents. The wiretaps ended up not workings and they had to go back later and replace them. This time a security guard noticed tape on the locks and called the police. No one knew at the time that they had something to do with Nixon. He later made a speech and promised to everyone that he had nothing to do with it so he could be reelected. Nixon was later reelected …show more content…

He then got the CIA to keep the FBI from investigating so he wouldn’t get caught as easily. Money later showed up in one of the burglars bank accounts. The five that broke in, all pleaded guilty and the others were convicted in January 1973. Nixon’s aides testified in front of the grand jury for his crimes. They also said Nixon had taped all the conversations from the Oval office. In the summer of 1973 it became very hard for Nixon the keep all the tapes hidden. Nixon’s lawyers stated that he could keep the tapes for himself and that he committed no crime doing it. John Sirica, the chief judge of the United States district court, didn’t agree and was determined to get the tapes from Nixon. Richard Nixon stated that he should be fired and forced some of the Justice Department officials to resign in protest. The House of Representatives voted to call him into question for violations to the constitution, and criminal cover up. On August 5th, he gave up the tapes and they proved him to be guilty. The guy who listened to the tapes after he turned them in, Neal Smith, said, “ I really didn't believe it was as bad as was being reported, but I put on the earphones, and it was unbelievable what was being said by the president, the things he wanted to do." Nixon later resigned on August 9th, 1974 from impeachment from the

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