Watergate Scandal Essay Example for Free

Watergate poop EssayThe Watergate Scandal is one of the most crucial and controversial mo handsts in United States history, proving to be super influential in both constitutional and political concerns. What began as a seemingly simple burglary dour out to be a revelation of the abuse of power of the Chief Executive and the violations of the rights of the citizens. It eventuall(a)y resulted in the firstborn resignation of an American chairwoman. The name Watergate is the term designated to collectively identify the scandal and controversy that border the Nixon administration (Patterson 64 Watergate). The scandal began with the burglary which occurred on June 17, 1972, as five men forced entry into the furnish of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The DNC office was situated at the Watergate building in Washington, D. C. In the beginning, the burglary was non highly publicized. However, there were two reporters from the Washington Post that persistently followed the s tory they were Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (Washington Post Watergate). Woodward concisely learned that the burglars were from Miami they used surgical gloves in the burglary and left with a significant sum of money (Washington Post).Bernstein and Woodward briefly hited on other reports which began to reveal more about the nature of the burglary (Washington Post). It was later revealed that one of the burglars was mob McCord he was involved in the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) (Patterson 64 Washington Post). Afterwards, President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff H. R. Haldeman began prep ways in which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can persuade the Federal Bureau of probe (FBI) to discontinue the investigation regarding the burglary (Washington Post).Some weeks after, the two reporters observed that the grand jury responsible for the burglary investigation had move to obtain the testimony of two officials that previously worked in the Nixon White H ouse (Washington Post). These men were E. Howard Hunt, who used to work for the CIA, and G. Gordon Liddy, who used to work for the FBI. Hunt and Liddy participated in the burglary through the use of walkie-talkies situated in one of the hotel board across the building, they used the said device to guide the burglars.In September 1972, Hunt, Liddy, McCord and the four other burglars were supercharged with burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping (Patterson 64). District solicit Judge buns J. Sirica was the presiding judge for the case, and he convicted all seven men who received prison term sentences (Patterson 64). The Washington Post reporters continued their thorough inquiry into the burglary issue. Bernstein proceeded to Miami, wherein he discovered that a check worth $25,000 that was intended for the reelection campaign of Nixon was deposited in one of the burglars bank account (Washington Post). agree to the report, the check was received by Maurice Stans he was the former Secr etary of Commerce which also became the chief fundraiser for Nixon. This is the first time that a direct link between the burglary and the reelection campaign funds of Nixon was discovered. All the important inside information that Washington Post used in their reports were taken from a reliable anonymous source that was referred to as Deep Throat (Washington Post Watergate). The identity of this source was only revealed in 2005 it turned out to be W. Mark Felt, the deputy director for the FBI during the Watergate scandal (Washington Post Watergate).The Washington Post stories continued its investigation, and soon it brought to swooning the involvement of several of Nixons closest aides (Washington Post Watergate). These included John N. Mitchell, a former U. S. attorney General and assistant to the CRP director John W. Dean III, a counsel to the White House John Ehrlichman, a White House Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs and Haldeman. In February 1973, the U. S. Senate create d a military commission to be lead by North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, to investigate the issue at hand.On April 30, 1973, as the reports regarding the White House involvement with Watergate burglary intensified, Nixon made public the resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman, as well as the sack of Dean (Washington Post Watergate). Richard Kleindienst, the U. S. Attorney General, also submitted his resignation (Watergate). The Senate investigation also intensified (Patterson 64). Aside from the Committee, the investigation now included Judge Sirica, Bernstein and Woodward, and Archibald Cox. Elliot Richardson succeeded Kleindienst as attorney general, and Cox was the special prosecutor assigned by Richardson (Watergate).In May 1973, the hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Activities began. Dean told the committee that the burglary was the brainchild of Mitchell. He also claimed that Nixon himself released money to silence the burglars (Watergate). However, the most crucial step in the investigation was the testimony of horse parsley Butterfield (Watergate). Butterfield was a former staff member in the White House (Patterson 64). On July 16, 1973, he testified that Nixon staged for a system to be installed which enabled all conversations to be tape recorded (Watergate).Immediately, the Senate Committee sought to dumbfound the tapes (Patterson 64). The former subpoenaed eight tapes as included in Deans testimony (Watergate). Nixon used Executive Privilege as an excuse to not to release the tapes he also attempted to have Cox fired (Patterson 64). On October 20, 1973, Richardson resigned in protest of Nixons efforts to have Cox fired (Patterson 64 Watergate). Even William Ruckelshaus, the Deputy Attorney General, resigned. In the end, it was Solicitor General Robert Bork who fired Cox. The series of events was later known as the Saturday Night Massacre (Patterson 64 Watergate).On November 1, Leon Jaworski became the new special prosecutor (Patterson 64 Watergate). Nixon did submit the tapes to Judge Sirica, but some conversations were wanting while one tape had an 18-minute gap caused by erasures (Watergate). In March 1974, seven men, including Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell, were indicted for conspiracy to retard justice with regards to the Watergate cover up (Patterson 64 Watergate). Soon, the House Judiciary Committee held its own investigation in April that same year, the tapes of 42 conversations in the White House were subpoenaed by the committee.Later that month, Nixon released instead edited transcripts (Watergate). The transcripts were not accepted by the committee, as it was not what they were asking for in the subpoena. Afterwards, Judge Sirica also subpoenaed for another desex of tapes. This time, it was those which contained the 42 conversations in the White House. The said tapes were to be used as evidence against the seven same officials. One again, Nixon failed to do so. This forced Jaworski to appeal to the Supreme Court (Patterson 64 Watergate). On July 24, The Supreme Court unanimously voted that Nixon release the tapes (Patterson 64 Watergate).The last few days of July 1974 was characterized by the efforts of the Judiciary Committee to summon Nixon (Watergate). The grounds for impeachment were the following obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers, and trying to impede the impeachment process by defying committee subpoenas (Patterson 64). On August 5, 1974, Nixon finally released the tapes in public (Patterson 64 Watergate). One of the said tapes revealed how Nixon was indeed culpable in attempting to hinder the FBI in investigating the Watergate burglary (Patterson 64).On August 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned as chief decision maker (Patterson 64 Watergate). The Watergate scandal had extremely shattered the belief of the American community in their own president (Watergate). Even the U. S. Constitution was tested in this situation. However, the scandal proved that indeed the system of checks and balances was effective tolerable to detect the abuse in power. It also taught everyone a lesson regardless of the ones position in society, the law applies to all (Watergate). Hence, the Watergate scandal brought the downfall of an abusive president and the peoples belief in the presidency.However, it was also a victory for the American people, as justice was served to those at fault as justice was attained by those who fought for it.Works CitedPatterson, James T. Watergate. Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia. 21 vols. New York Lexicon Publications, 1992. Watergate. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2007. 20 May 2008 http//encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761553070/Watergate. html. Washington Post. Part 1 The Post Investigates. The Watergate Story. 20 May 2008 http//www. washingtonpost. com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/part1. html.