Waterate Scandal

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Watergate Scandal

The Watergate Scandal is one of the most crucial and controversial moments in United States history , proving to be extremely influential in both constitutional and political concerns . What began as a seemingly simple burglary turned out to be a revelation of the abuse of power of the Chief Executive and the violations of the rights of the citizens It eventually resulted in the first resignation of an American president

The name Watergate is the term designated to collectively identify the

br scandal and controversy that surrounded the Nixon administration (Patterson 64 Watergate . The scandal began with the burglary which occurred on June 17 , 1972 , as five men forced entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC . The DNC office was situated at the Watergate building in Washington , D .C . In the beginning , the burglary was not highly publicized . However , there were two reporters from the Washington Post that persistently followed the story they were Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (Washington Post Watergate . Woodward soon learned that the burglars were from Miami they used surgical gloves in the burglary and left with a significant sum of money (Washington Post

Bernstein and Woodward soon worked on other reports which began to reveal more about the nature of the burglary (Washington Post . It was later revealed that one of the burglars was James McCord he was involved in the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP (Patterson 64 Washington Post . Afterwards , President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff H .R . Haldeman began planning ways in which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ) can persuade the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI ) to discontinue the investigation regarding the burglary (Washington Post

Some weeks after , the two reporters discovered that the grand jury responsible for the burglary investigation had tried to obtain the testimony of two officials that previously worked in the Nixon White House (Washington Post . These men were E . Howard Hunt , who used to work for the CIA , and G . Gordon Liddy , who used to work for the FBI Hunt and Liddy participated in the burglary through the use of walkie-talkies situated in one of the hotel rooms across the building they used the said device to guide the burglars . In September 1972 Hunt , Liddy , McCord and the four other burglars were charged with burglary , conspiracy and wiretapping (Patterson 64 . District Court Judge John J . Sirica was the presiding judge for the case , and he convicted all seven men who received prison term sentences (Patterson 64

The Washington Post reporters continued their thorough inquiry into the burglary issue . Bernstein proceeded to Miami , wherein he discovered that a check worth 25 ,000 that was intended for the reelection campaign of Nixon was deposited in one of the burglars ' bank account (Washington Post . According to the report , the check was received by Maurice Stans he was the former Secretary of Commerce which also became the chief fundraiser for Nixon . This is the first time that a direct link...