Richard Nixon and The "Saturday Night Massacre"
Since the time of Franklin Roosevelt, Presidents have followed the practice of recording their conversations in the Oval Office. Richard Nixon was the first President to implement a system that was automatically activated by voice as opposed to being manually activated by a switch. On February 16, 1971, Nixon's taping system was installed in two rooms in the White House: the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. Three months later, microphones were added to President Nixon's private office in the Old Executive Office Building, and the following year microphones were installed in the presidential lodge at Camp David. The system was installed and monitored by the Secret Service, and tapes were kept in a room in the White House basement. Significant phone lines were tapped as well, including those in the Oval Office and the Lincoln Sitting Room, which was Nixon's favorite room in the White House.
In the course of the Watergate investigation, the existence of the White House taping system came to the attention of the Senate Committee investigating Watergate on July 13, 1973 in an interview senate aide Donald Saunders had with White House aide Alexander Butterfield. Three days later, it was made public during Butterfield's televised testimony, when he was asked about the possibility of a White House taping system by Senate Counsel (and future Senator/Law and Order actor) Fred Thompson.
On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee that Nixon had ordered a taping system installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations. Only a few White House employees had ever been aware that this system existed. Special Counsel Archibald Cox, a former United States Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy, asked District Court Judge John Sirica to subpoena eight relevant tapes to confirm the testimony of White House Counsel John Dean. The request for the subpoena was granted.
Despite the issuance of the subpoena, Nixon refused to release the tapes. He gave two reasons: (1)that the Constitutional principle of executive privilege extended to the tapes and (2) that they were vital to national security. On October 19, 1973, Nixon offered a compromise. He proposed that U.S. Senator John C. Stennis, a Democrat, review and summarize the tapes for accuracy and report his findings to the special prosecutor's office. Special prosecutor Archibald Cox refused to agree to the compromise.
On Saturday, October 20, 1973 (39 years ago today), on a day that some have referred to as the "Saturday Night Massacre", Nixon ordered the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, to dismiss Cox. Richardson refused and resigned instead. Nixon gave the same direction to Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Ruckleshaus also refused and he also regigned. Nixon next appointed Solicitor General Robert Bork as acting head of the Justice Department and instructed Bork to fire Archibald Cox. Bork complied with this direction. Nixon appointed Leon Jaworski special counsel on November 1, 1973.
The firing of Archibald Cox was later found to be an illegal act in November of that year in a law suit brought by consumer rights activist and future presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Bork said he dismissed Mr. Cox in order to hold the Justice Department together by sparing it from a long succession of resignations and to continue the Watergate investigation at a time when the alternative might have been chaos. Philip A. Lacovara, a Washington lawyer who was counsel to Mr. Cox, had offered some defence of Bork, despite his representing the interests of Cox. Lacovara told the New York Times that Bork based his decision to follow the President's orders on an honest assessment of the legal issues. He said "He made a choice that was within the range of reason, even though in my view it was not the correct choice. But it was not one that reflected evil motives or a fundamental misunderstanding of constitutional law."
In the course of the Watergate investigation, the existence of the White House taping system came to the attention of the Senate Committee investigating Watergate on July 13, 1973 in an interview senate aide Donald Saunders had with White House aide Alexander Butterfield. Three days later, it was made public during Butterfield's televised testimony, when he was asked about the possibility of a White House taping system by Senate Counsel (and future Senator/Law and Order actor) Fred Thompson.
On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee that Nixon had ordered a taping system installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations. Only a few White House employees had ever been aware that this system existed. Special Counsel Archibald Cox, a former United States Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy, asked District Court Judge John Sirica to subpoena eight relevant tapes to confirm the testimony of White House Counsel John Dean. The request for the subpoena was granted.
Despite the issuance of the subpoena, Nixon refused to release the tapes. He gave two reasons: (1)that the Constitutional principle of executive privilege extended to the tapes and (2) that they were vital to national security. On October 19, 1973, Nixon offered a compromise. He proposed that U.S. Senator John C. Stennis, a Democrat, review and summarize the tapes for accuracy and report his findings to the special prosecutor's office. Special prosecutor Archibald Cox refused to agree to the compromise.
On Saturday, October 20, 1973 (39 years ago today), on a day that some have referred to as the "Saturday Night Massacre", Nixon ordered the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, to dismiss Cox. Richardson refused and resigned instead. Nixon gave the same direction to Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Ruckleshaus also refused and he also regigned. Nixon next appointed Solicitor General Robert Bork as acting head of the Justice Department and instructed Bork to fire Archibald Cox. Bork complied with this direction. Nixon appointed Leon Jaworski special counsel on November 1, 1973.
The firing of Archibald Cox was later found to be an illegal act in November of that year in a law suit brought by consumer rights activist and future presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Bork said he dismissed Mr. Cox in order to hold the Justice Department together by sparing it from a long succession of resignations and to continue the Watergate investigation at a time when the alternative might have been chaos. Philip A. Lacovara, a Washington lawyer who was counsel to Mr. Cox, had offered some defence of Bork, despite his representing the interests of Cox. Lacovara told the New York Times that Bork based his decision to follow the President's orders on an honest assessment of the legal issues. He said "He made a choice that was within the range of reason, even though in my view it was not the correct choice. But it was not one that reflected evil motives or a fundamental misunderstanding of constitutional law."