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The Power Of The Watergate Scandal

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The Power Of The Watergate Scandal
Power -- We the United States of America give our people the power to make a difference and choose what they feel to be right. As Americans we put our faith and trust into the leaders we elect to vouch and advocate for us, but the real question is how much faith and trust do we have in these individuals to make the correct choices for we the people? On June 17, 1972 the faith and trust placed into President Nixon hands was abruptly taken away from him after the news of the Watergate Scandal that he was directly intertwined in.
Watergate came to be known as the greatest political scandal in United States history to date. It was not only a huge disappointment to the American people and the individuals who placed their faith and trust in him …show more content…
Four of the men arrested the night of the burglary plead guilty along with Howard Hunt. James McCord and Gordon Liddy were convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping. Political espionage was next on the list of thing the Senate was going to investigate. The involvement the White House had in the Watergate Scandal did not become evident until James McCord wrote a letter to Judge Sirica. His letter to the Judge went into great detail explaining the depths of the Watergate Scandal.
Alexander Butterfield, a former White House official, testified in July 1973 that Nixon had taped conversations in his office. Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox immediately subpoenaed the tape and Nixon refused to release them. Judge Sirica asked Nixon to let him hear the tapes. Nixon appealed the order, arguing that a president was excused from judicial orders enforcing subpoenas due to executive …show more content…
court of appeals upheld Sirica's decision, but Nixon then came up with the idea that Senator John Stennis could listen to the tapes and verify an edited version. Archibald Cox, first special prosecutor, rejected this plan and Nixon ordered that he make no further attempts to obtain the tapes. On October 20, Nixon dismissed both Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus and Cox. This "Saturday night massacre" triggered serious moves to impeach Nixon. Nixon then agreed to give the tapes to Sirica and he appointed a new Judge named Leon Jaworski.
While reviewing the subpoenaed tapes, one of them contained an eighteen minute gap. White House officials and Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, gave confusing testimony on how the gap might have occurred. Six court appointed electronics experts said that at least five separate erasures had caused the gap. Many people started to assume that someone had purposely destroyed certain parts of the
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