Many Americans watched the televised Watergate hearings. What were some of the most startling details that emerged in these hearings?
In January 1973, the seven men arrested in the break-in were tried in U.S. District Court before Judge John J. Sirica for their role in the burglary. Five of the men confessed, and the remaining two were convicted. When they were sentenced in March, Judge Sirica read aloud a letter by convicted burglar James W. McCord, who claimed that higher government officials had been involved in the Watergate affair, and predicted ominously that "every tree in the forest will fall."
In April, the president's Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman, an aide, Bob Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resigned. Nixon also dismissed his counsel, John Dean, who had interfered in the FBI's investigation of Watergate. The president admitted that these aides had tried to cover-up the scandal, but he insisted that he had been unaware of their actions.
In May 1973, a U.S. Senate committee headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina began hearings into the Watergate scandal. Archibald Cox, a professor of law at Harvard University, was appointed as a special prosecutor to oversee the government investigation of Watergate. These hearings were nationally televised, and attracted growing interest among Americans as Congressmen and Senators discovered further evidence the presidential aides: 1.) had known about the burglary; and 2.) had attempted to cover up their involvement after the burglars were arrested.
Several memorable moments occurred during the hearings. Senator Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican inclined to defend the president, posed a famous question. As he put it, the hearings were designed to ask "What did the president know and when did he know it?" Baker assumed that the burglary and cover-up had been committed without the president's knowledge, so he expected Nixon to survive the scandal. As the investigation continued, however, evidence of the president's involvement grew. Former counsel to the president John Dean testified that the president had been deeply involved in the cover-up and also revealed that the White House kept an "Enemies List" of politicians, journalists, and others who opposed Nixon's policies.
Perhaps the most important discovery made in the hearings occurred when a former Nixon aide, Alexander Butterfield, informed the committee that the Nixon White House had secretly tape-recorded his telephone conversations and Oval Office meetings. Upon learning of the existence of these tapes, the Senate committee and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox obtained a subpoena (a court order to supply evidence for a trial or investigation) ordering Nixon to make the tapes available to their investigations. Nixon refused, claiming that he had executive privilege. According to Nixon, the tapes were his possession, not public records, and, as president, he needed to be able to preserve the confidentiality of conversations with his staff and with others. Judge Sirica ruled that Nixon must turn over the tapes. The president appealed to the Supreme Court, but he lost the case. At this point, Nixon offered to supply an edited transcript of the tapes, but not the original recordings.