Nixon's Legal Transgressions: Breaking Laws As President

The Watergate scandal was a series of interlocking political scandals that occurred during the administration of President Richard Nixon. It began on June 17, 1972, when five burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), located in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. The burglars were caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents.

The burglars were connected to Nixon's reelection campaign, and the scandal revealed multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration. The president took aggressive steps to cover up the crimes, but Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed his role in the conspiracy.

Nixon was charged with three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. He resigned on August 9, 1974, before the full House voted on the articles, becoming the only U.S. president to resign.

Obstruction of justice

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted to adopt three articles of impeachment against President Nixon, the first of which was obstruction of justice. The article alleged that Nixon had worked with subordinates to "delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation" into the Watergate break-in; to "cover up, conceal and protect those responsible"; and to "conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities".

The article specified nine ways by which Nixon was alleged to have carried out the plan to obstruct the investigation:

• Using the powers of his office to direct subordinates to undertake illegal actions that would substantially impede the investigation
• Withholding relevant information from investigators
• Using the powers of his office to direct subordinates to undertake illegal actions to substantially impede the investigation
• Using the powers of his office to direct an aide to make false or misleading statements to investigators
• Using the powers of his office to direct an aide to make false or misleading statements to investigative officials and employees of the United States
• Using the powers of his office to direct an aide to make false or misleading statements to investigative officials and employees of the United States
• Using the powers of his office to direct an aide to make false or misleading statements to investigative officials and employees of the United States
• Using the powers of his office to direct an aide to make false or misleading statements to investigative officials and employees of the United States

The article also stated that Nixon's actions "constituted a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation" and that he had "acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States".

Nixon's actions related to the Watergate scandal were seen as a "paradigmatic case of impeachable behaviour in a President". The House Judiciary Committee's investigation found that Nixon had illegally harassed his enemies through the use of tax audits and that the "plumbers unit", a group of White House aides used to plug damaging leaks, had committed burglaries before.

The Committee's investigation also revealed that Nixon had a tape recording system in his office, raising the possibility that many of his conversations about the Watergate incident were recorded. Nixon refused to hand over these tapes to the special prosecutor or Congress, leading to a constitutional crisis.

In late July 1974, following its investigation and hearings, the House Judiciary Committee voted to adopt three articles of impeachment against Nixon. The first article, obstruction of justice, was approved by a vote of 27-11, with six Republicans voting in favour along with all 21 Democrats.

On August 5, 1974, Nixon released a transcript of one of the White House tapes, known as the "smoking gun" tape, which made clear his complicity in the Watergate cover-up. This destroyed Nixon politically, and he resigned on August 9, 1974, before the full House could vote on the articles of impeachment.

Abuse of power

Richard Nixon's abuse of power was a central focus of the impeachment inquiry against him. The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, the second of which was abuse of power.

Nixon was accused of using the office of the presidency to unlawfully use federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as establishing a covert White House special investigative unit, to violate the constitutional rights of citizens and interfere with lawful investigations.

Nixon was also accused of using the powers of the office of President of the United States to violate his constitutional oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. This included allegations that he had:

• Endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law.
• Misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office.
• Authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the office of the President, financed in part with money derived from campaign contributions to him, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in covert and unlawful activities, and attempted to prejudice the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial.
• Failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavoured to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive; judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and the cover-up thereof, and concerning other unlawful activities including those relating to the confirmation of Richard Kleindienst as attorney general of the United States, the electronic surveillance of private citizens, the break-in into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, and the campaign financing practices of the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

Contempt of Congress

The third article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon charged him with contempt of Congress. The article accused Nixon of defying eight subpoenas issued by the House Judiciary Committee between April and June 1974, demanding tapes of conversations and other materials related to the Watergate scandal. The article stated that Nixon's refusal to comply with the subpoenas threatened to diminish the House's constitutional impeachment power.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the article of impeachment for contempt of Congress on July 30, 1974, by a vote of 21-17. The article stated that Nixon,

> "...contrary to his oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, had failed without lawful cause or excuse, to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives..."

Nixon's refusal to comply with the subpoenas was seen as a challenge to the authority of Congress and an attempt to obstruct the impeachment process. The article further stated that Nixon,

> "...substituting his judgement as to what materials were necessary for the inquiry, interposed the powers of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, thereby assuming to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment vested by Constitution in the House of Representatives."

Illegal campaign financing

The Watergate Scandal, which began in 1972, was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. It revolved around members of a group associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign breaking into and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The scandal led to the resignation of several of Nixon's aides, including H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and John Dean, and the arrest of five men who were employed by the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP). The scandal also revealed that Nixon had a tape recording system in his office, raising the possibility that many of his conversations about the Watergate incident were recorded.

Nixon was found to have illegally harassed his enemies through the use of tax audits and other means, and the men arrested for the Watergate break-in, known as the "plumbers unit", had committed burglaries before.

Nixon's involvement in the scandal was further confirmed when he refused to hand over tapes of conversations in the Oval Office to the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who had been appointed by Attorney General Elliot Richardson to investigate the connection between the five burglars and CRP. This sparked the sequence of events known as the Saturday Night Massacre, in which Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox, and, after Richardson refused and resigned, ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned, and Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out the order.

The House Judiciary Committee began an official investigation of the Watergate issue and commenced impeachment hearings in April 1974. On March 1, 1974, a grand jury indicted seven individuals connected to the larger Watergate investigation and named Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release the tapes, and the House Judiciary Committee recommended that he be impeached for obstructing justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.

On August 5, 1974, the White House released a previously unknown audio tape from June 23, 1972, which documented the initial stages of the cover-up. Nixon and Haldeman were heard formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved. This tape, later known as the "smoking gun", proved that Nixon had been involved in the cover-up from the beginning and destroyed him politically.

Faced with the inevitability of his impeachment and removal from office, Nixon decided to resign. In a nationally televised address on August 8, 1974, he said:

> "In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future."

Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, brought an end to the impeachment process against him, and he was pardoned by his vice president and successor, Gerald Ford, on September 8, 1974, for all crimes he had "committed or may have committed or taken part in" as president.

Illegal use of federal agencies

During the Watergate Scandal, President Richard Nixon was accused of illegally using federal agencies to violate the constitutional rights of citizens and interfere with lawful investigations.

The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, including the abuse of power. The second article charged Nixon with using the office of the presidency on multiple occasions to unlawfully use federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to violate the constitutional rights of citizens and interfere with lawful investigations.

Nixon was accused of using the IRS to initiate tax audits or obtain confidential tax data for political purposes. He was also accused of using the FBI to interfere with lawful investigations, such as the Watergate break-in investigation. Nixon's administration was also accused of using the CIA to block the FBI's investigation into the Watergate break-in.

The House Judiciary Committee voted to adopt the three articles of impeachment against Nixon, including the abuse of power, on July 27-30, 1974. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, before the full House voted on the articles.

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