Watergate scandal |
|
Events |
|
People |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Watergate scandal was a major
political scandal that occurred in the
United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 17, 1972, break-in at the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the
Watergate office complex in
Washington, D.C., and the
Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the
U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a
constitutional crisis.
[1] The term
Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such "
dirty tricks" as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The scandal led to the discovery of multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration,
articles of impeachment,
[2] and the resignation of
Richard Nixon, the
President of the United States, on August 9, 1974—the only resignation of a U.S. President to date. The scandal also resulted in the
indictment of 69 people, with trials or
pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty and incarcerated, many of whom were Nixon's top administration officials.
[3]
The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The FBI connected cash found on the burglars to a
slush fund used by the
Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), the official organization of Nixon's campaign.
[4][5] In July 1973, as evidence mounted against the President's staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the
Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and that he had
recorded many conversations.
[6][7] After a protracted series of bitter court battles, the
U.S. Supreme Courtunanimously ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes to government investigators; he eventually complied. Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing he had attempted to cover up the questionable goings-on that had taken place after the break-in.
[5][8] Facing near-certain
impeachment in the
House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the
Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.
[9][10] His successor,
Gerald Ford, then issued a
pardon to him on September 8, 1974.
The name "Watergate" and the
suffix "
-gate" have since become synonymous with political scandals in the United States
[11]and in other English- and non-English-speaking nations as well.
[12]