I am not a crook!
On this day June 17th, back in 1972, five men were arrested for burglarizing the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. The men all worked for the reelection of President Nixon. The event was the beginning of the Watergate affair.
The break-in was discovered when Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latch on locks on several doors in the complex, leaving the doors unlocked. Wills took the tape off, and thought nothing of it. An hour later, he discovered that someone had retaped the locks, so Wills called the police.
The and five men who were arrested inside the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) office were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis. They five were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On September 15, a grand jury indicted them and two others (E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy) for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The burglars were tried and convicted on January 30, 1973.
After much investigation, all five men were directly, or indirectly, tied to the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President (sometimes pejoratively referred to as CReeP). The trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials.In March 1973, McCord wrote a letter to Sirica, claiming that he was under political pressure to plead guilty and he implicated high-ranking government officials, including former Attorney General John Mitchell. His letter helped to elevate the affair into a more prominent political scandal.
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in, and attempts to cover it up, led deep into the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and even the White House. Chief among the Post's anonymous sources was an individual they had nicknamed Deep Throat (who in 2005 was revealed to be former Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt.) A Senate committee chaired by Senator Sam Ervin was convened to examine Watergate. The committee began issuing subpoenas to White House staff members.
On April 30, 1973, Nixon asked for the resignation of two of his top aides, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, both of whom were indicted and ultimately went to prison. He also fired White House Counsel John Dean, who went on to testify before the Senate and become the key witness against President Nixon.
A taped conversation that cemented the case against President Nixon took place between the President and his counsel, John Dean, on March 21, 1973. In this conversation, and others later, Nixon confirms his knowledge of the break in and of the need to pay hush money to the burglary team.
Ultimately court orders for release of the tapes issued, and a movement in the senate for the impeachment of Nixon resulted. Nixon still denied any involvement in the ordeal. However, after being told by key Republican Senators that enough votes existed to remove him, Nixon decided to resign. He did so in a nationally televised address from the Oval Office on the evening of August 8, 1974, which can be heard here.
The break-in was discovered when Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latch on locks on several doors in the complex, leaving the doors unlocked. Wills took the tape off, and thought nothing of it. An hour later, he discovered that someone had retaped the locks, so Wills called the police.
The and five men who were arrested inside the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) office were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis. They five were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On September 15, a grand jury indicted them and two others (E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy) for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The burglars were tried and convicted on January 30, 1973.
After much investigation, all five men were directly, or indirectly, tied to the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President (sometimes pejoratively referred to as CReeP). The trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials.In March 1973, McCord wrote a letter to Sirica, claiming that he was under political pressure to plead guilty and he implicated high-ranking government officials, including former Attorney General John Mitchell. His letter helped to elevate the affair into a more prominent political scandal.
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in, and attempts to cover it up, led deep into the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and even the White House. Chief among the Post's anonymous sources was an individual they had nicknamed Deep Throat (who in 2005 was revealed to be former Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt.) A Senate committee chaired by Senator Sam Ervin was convened to examine Watergate. The committee began issuing subpoenas to White House staff members.
On April 30, 1973, Nixon asked for the resignation of two of his top aides, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, both of whom were indicted and ultimately went to prison. He also fired White House Counsel John Dean, who went on to testify before the Senate and become the key witness against President Nixon.
A taped conversation that cemented the case against President Nixon took place between the President and his counsel, John Dean, on March 21, 1973. In this conversation, and others later, Nixon confirms his knowledge of the break in and of the need to pay hush money to the burglary team.
Ultimately court orders for release of the tapes issued, and a movement in the senate for the impeachment of Nixon resulted. Nixon still denied any involvement in the ordeal. However, after being told by key Republican Senators that enough votes existed to remove him, Nixon decided to resign. He did so in a nationally televised address from the Oval Office on the evening of August 8, 1974, which can be heard here.