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Question: What is the watergate scandal? (Posted by: mrsD on 2009-08-08 16:46:48) I know this sounds naive because it was obviously a big deal. but in regards to richard nixon, what exactly happened? (i'm not american)

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Posted by: izy on 2009-08-08, 17:16:00 Watergate is the name of American political scandal named for the Watergate apartment complex which ultimately led to the resignation of the President, Richard Nixon. It also resulted in the indictment and conviction of several of Nixon's closest advisors, and ultimately in the resignation of the President himself, on August 9, 1974. The scandal began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. Investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and later by the Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the press revealed that this burglary was one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon's staff. They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations.[1] This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy the silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in.[2][3] Nixon and his staff conspired to cover up the break-in, and especially its connection with the White House, as early as six days after it occurred.[4] After two years of mounting evidence against the President and his staff, which included former staff members testifying against them in a Senate investigation, it was revealed that Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations.[5][6] Recordings from these tapes revealed that he had obstructed justice and attempted to cover up the break-in.[4][7] This recorded conversation later became known as the Smoking Gun. After a series of court battles, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in United States v. Nixon that the President had to hand over the tapes; he ultimately complied. Facing certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and the strong possibility of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned ten days later, becoming the only U.S. president to have resigned from office.[8][9] His successor, Gerald Ford, would issue a controversial pardon for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed while in office. On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the locks on several doors in the complex. He took the tape off, and thought nothing of it. An hour later, he discovered that someone had retaped the locks. He called the police and five men were arrested inside the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) office.[10] The five men were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis. The five were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On September 15, a grand jury indicted them and two other men (E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy[1]) for conspiracy, burglary and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The men who broke into the office were tried and convicted in January 1973. All seven men were either directly or indirectly employed by President Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or sometimes pejoratively referred to as CREEP) and many people, including the trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials.[11] In March 1973, James McCord wrote a letter to Judge John J. Sirica charging a cover up of the burglary. In it, he said he was under political pressure to plead guilty and he implicated high Government officials, including former Attorney General John Mitchell.[12] His letter transformed the affair into a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude.[13] [edit] Immediate significance The scandal revealed the existence of a White House dirty tricks squad, which was behind an orchestrated campaign of political sabotage, an enemies list, a "plumbers" unit to plug political leaks and a secret campaign slush fund associated with CRP, all with high-level administration involvement. It brought into the open the involvement of Attorney General John N. Mitchell in the dirty tricks, funds and cover-up, as well as key White House advisers, all of whom went to prison for these crimes, for sentences of one to four years. The jail terms had been shortened on the basis of the high level of the convicted, and their cooperation in the hearings.[citation needed] [edit] Investigation "Woodward and Bernstein" redirects here. For the individual journalists, see Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. See also: United States Senate Watergate Committee The unraveling of the coverup began in the immediate aftermath of the arrests in the Watergate complex, the search of the burglars' hotel rooms (the keys to which the burglars still had in their pockets when they were arrested); and