After the Pentagon Papers came out, the White House set up a small unit to stop leaks. Three years later the President of the United States resigned.
Nearly every line here comes from the Special Prosecutor’s report, court opinions, Senate hearings and the White House tapes. A charge is an accusation, not a finding of guilt: where a court decided something, the story says which court and when.
1971
In June 1971 The New York Times began printing the Pentagon Papers. Soon after, the White House set up a unit to stop leaks. Two of its men were E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy.
the White House had established a special unit, nicknamed the “Plumbers,” to deter future leaks of classified material as well as to gather information on Ellsberg and Russo.
Sep 1971
In September 1971 the unit broke into the Los Angeles office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, looking for his records. Ellsberg was under indictment at the time.
a special investigative unit in the White House, known as the “Plumbers,” had been responsible for a break-in in September 1971 at the Los Angeles offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding
17 Jun 1972
At 2:00 in the morning on 17 June 1972, police found five men in the Democratic National Committee’s offices at the Watergate, with walkie-talkies and burglary tools. One of them, James McCord, ran security for the President’s campaign.
the door had been taped with sort of a light colored masking tape.
Jun 1972
The burglars carried $100 bills with their serial numbers in sequence. The bills went back to a bank account in Miami, and that account held checks given to re-elect the President.
$25,000A check meant for the President's campaign, found in a burglar's bank account
four Mexican checks totaling $89,000 and a check for $25,000 from Kenneth Dahlberg, which were originally contributed to the President's campaign, had been deposited in Bernard Barker's bank account in Miami.
23 Jun 1972
In the Oval Office, H. R. Haldeman told the President the FBI could trace the money, and how it could be stopped. A tape was running. The President’s answer: “Good. Good deal. Play it tough.”
They propose having the CIA ask the FBI to halt their investigation of the Watergate break-in by claiming that the break-in was a national security operation.
23 Mar 1973
The burglars pleaded guilty or were found guilty in January 1973. On 23 March, Chief Judge John Sirica read out a sealed letter from McCord. It said witnesses had lied at the trial and the defendants had been pressed to stay silent.
the letter charged that pressure had been exerted on the defendants to plead guilty and remain silent, that perjury had been committed during the Watergate trial
25 Jun 1973
The Senate opened public hearings in May 1973. John Dean, the President’s former counsel, testified that the President had known of the cover-up since September 1972.
I began by telling the President that there was a cancer growing on the Presidency and that if the cancer was not removed that the President himself would be killed by it.
16 Jul 1973
On 16 July 1973 a White House aide, Alexander Butterfield, told the committee that the President’s offices recorded everything. A week later the committee subpoenaed the tapes.
They were installed, of course, for historical purposes, to record the President's business and they were installed in his two offices, the Oval Office and the EOB office.
20 Oct 1973
Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox refused the President’s terms for the tapes. The Attorney General resigned rather than dismiss him. His deputy refused and was fired. The third in line did it. A court later ruled the dismissal illegal.
16 hoursHow long FBI agents held the Special Prosecutor's offices
For approximately 16 hours, from 9:05 p.m., on October 20, 1973, to 12:47 p.m. on October 21, 1973 — agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation occupied the offices of WSPF.
Nov 1973
One subpoenaed tape held a stretch of humming. The President’s secretary said she might have erased four or five minutes by accident. An expert panel found at least five separate erasures. Prosecutors could not find evidence enough to charge anyone.
concluded that the gap had been produced by at least five separate hand operations of the stop and record buttons of a Uher 5000 machine, the same model used by Woods in transcribing the tape.
24 Jul 1974
The President said the tapes were his to keep. On 24 July 1974 the Supreme Court ruled against him, with one justice taking no part. He had to hand them over.
The generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.
30 Jul 1974
Within days the House Judiciary Committee adopted three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice, 27 to 11; abuse of power, 28 to 10; defying its subpoenas, 21 to 17. Two more failed.
27 to 11The House committee's vote on Article I of impeachment
The Committee then adopted Article I, as amended, by a vote of 27 to 11.
5 Aug 1974
On 5 August the President released the conversation from six days after the break-in, and said himself that it did not match what he had told the country.
This process has made it clear that portions of the tapes of these June 23 conversations are at variance with certain of my previous statements.
8 Aug 1974
Three days later he told the country he no longer had the support in Congress to go on. Gerald Ford took the oath the next day.
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
8 Sep 1974
A month later Ford pardoned Nixon for all federal offenses he had committed or might have committed. Nixon was never tried.
Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it.
1 Jan 1975
On 1 January 1975 a jury convicted John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman in the cover-up; the appeal court upheld those verdicts. John Dean pleaded guilty. Every step of each case is on its page.
We deal in the instant appeals only with the convictions of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell.