How Did The Watergate Scandal

On the morning of June 17th, 1972, burglars charged with attempted robbery and attempting to bug phone lines were arrested in the offices of the Democratic National Committee. This robbery began one of the most infamous scandals, later to be named “The Watergate Scandal”, in American history, and put the president himself under the microscope of the law. The Supreme Court tried the case against President Nixon and his seven aides who helped him cover up the conspiracy. After Nixon’s refusal to give up recordings of conversations he had incriminating himself, claiming executive privilege, the Supreme Court became involved and charged the president with the first three articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice. This court case defined
The reporters uncovered trails of people and hush money leading to government officials, including the President. Newly elected President Nixon denied any involvement in the break-in, but under severe public and political pressure he appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the event. When the prosecutor learned that Nixon had secretly taped conversations he had in the oval office that could contain sensitive evidence to the investigation, he filed a subpoena for the tapes. Nixon refused to give up the tape citing Article II of the Constitution. Unable to get the tapes from Nixon, a grand jury charged seven aides of the President for conspiracy to obstruct justice and other offences related to the Watergate Scandal. The president was named an uncharged co-conspirator. The District Court issued a subpoena demanding the president to hand over tapes of specified meetings which he had recorded. The president released edited tapes to the court and his counsel moved to void the subpoena based on the grounds of executive privilege. When the District Court denied the motion to void the subpoena, the President appealed and the case was brought before the Supreme
In order to prevent this, on August 9th, 1974, President Nixon resigned, becoming the first president in American history to do so. In his resignation speech he said, “Good evening. This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest… 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. ...I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require. Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon