Water Gate Scandal

The Watergate scandal officially started on November 5, 1968, and still goes on to today. "I am not a crook," President Richard Nixon famously said, but some of the people working for his campaign certainly were. President Richard Nixon owns a hotel named Watergate, the office complex and the hotel building are located in Washington D.C. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is also located in Washington D.C. In 1972, five men broke into the Watergate hotel and into the DNC office. The reasoning for breaking in was to spy on all of the Democratic campaigns. In the process of breaking in they were caught in the act of the Watergate scandal arguably one of the largest scandals known to man and to ever come out of the white house since Andrew Jackson in 1870.

The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970 and depending on whom you talk to may still be going on in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic Nation Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. Nixon administration attempted to cover up its involvement. The effects of the scandal eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974. The scandal also resulted in the indictment trial conviction. The affair began with the arrest of the five men (G. Gordon Liddy, Jon Dean, Jeb Magruder, L. Patrick Gray, and E. Howard Hunt) for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee on June 27; 1972.The FBI connected the payments to the burglars to the "slush fund". In January 1972 G. Gordon Liddy, general counsel of the CRP, presented a plan for re-election. During the congressional investigational of the White House role in the scandal, it came to light there was a listening device in place that recorded everything in the oval office on tape. Those tapes became central to the investigation of Nixon's knowledge to the potential investigation. After it became clear that Archibald Cox planned pursue the subpoena, Nixon demanded that the Attorney General Elliot Richards fire him. President Nixon resigned immediately after the release of the tape containing conversion recorded days after the break-in between Nixon and his staff containing conversation recorded. The impeachment charges that where brought against the President made it clear that he had engaged in a criminal act to obstruct justice in the Watergate case. On August 9, 1974 faces with imminent impeachment, Nixon resigned as President on September 8, 1974. His successor, General R. Ford pardoned Nixon for all federal crimes he committed. With President Nixon's resignation, Congress dropped its impeachment proceedings. Criminal prosecution was still a possibility both on the Federal level. Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who on September 8, 1974, issued a full and unconditional pardon of President Nixon. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that the pardon was in the best interest of the country. Gerald Ford, who had become Vice President upon the resignation of Nixon's Original Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, assumed the highest office of the land. Nixon was the only one to "Watergate conspirator' spent no time in jail.

The Watergate scandal was so important because for the first time in the White House history a president was publicly