Watergate evidence and the tapes

A political scandal that began with a 17 June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in Washington's Watergate complex and became a White House cover-up. It ended with President Richard Nixon's resignation on 9 August 1974 and convictions of many aides and burglars.

Five men inside the DNC offices, including James McCord of CRP. They were tied to E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The burglary was a political intelligence operation, not a random theft. The scandal was the lying that followed.

Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, with editor Ben Bradlee, kept publishing links between the burglars, CRP cash and the White House through 1972–73. An FBI source, later named as Mark Felt, helped. The paper did not act alone: courts and Congress built the public record.

On 20 October 1973 Nixon ordered special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired for insisting on the White House tapes. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than comply. Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out the firing. The crisis forced a new prosecutor and deepened impeachment talk.

After the Supreme Court ordered the tapes released in United States v. Nixon (24 July 1974), the 23 June 1972 'smoking gun' conversation showed him joining an effort to halt the FBI. The House Judiciary Committee had approved impeachment articles. Senate conviction looked certain. He resigned on 9 August 1974.

No. President Gerald Ford pardoned him on 8 September 1974 for federal crimes he 'committed or may have committed'. Many subordinates were convicted. That split is why this atlas marks the status mixed.