The Watergate scandal was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s. It was the result a break on June 1972 at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The break in was noticed by a security guard who was doing his shift on June 17,1972. He saw a door that was closed by tape. He took off the tape and returned to work. Later, he noticed that there was more tape on the door. He alerted the police and five men were arrested. The men had been repairing wiretapping equipment and taking pictures of documents. One of the men was a security guard for the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP); to re-elect Republican Richard M. Nixon. Almost immediately, a cover-up was started by people associated with the president and his campaign. Jeb Magruder and others destroyed documents and lied to investigators. The current director of the FBI, L. Patrick Gray, received and destroyed documents from people who were associated with the President might be involved. President Nixon instructed Robert Haldeman, the White House Chief of Staff, to stop a possible FBI investigation. Nixon stated that the FBI investigation might interfere with a current CIA operation. Many people later tried to get the CIA to go along with the plan. Nixon declared that employed in his administration was involved in Watergate break in. On November 7, 1972, Nixon was re-elected president in one of the largest landslide victories in American history against Senator George McGovern. He lost only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Information obtained from the Democratic National Committee offices was used to help Nixon in his re-election campaign. In January 1973, five of seven men involved with the break in pleaded guilty, and several were charged of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping. The U.S. Senate voted to conduct an investigation after suspicions grew. Several of the people who pleaded guilty said that the witnesses had committed perjury and that he was pressured to plead guilty.
They cooperated with investigators to avoid a long sentence. Later, 40 government officials were charged. They also stated that the break in was linked to Richard Nixon. On July 16, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, a former White House official, testified that Nixon had taped his own conversations in the White House that included the Watergate cover-up. Archibald Cox, the head of the special prosecutor's office also testified. Nixon refused to release the tapes. The judge directed Nixon to let him hear the tapes. Nixon appealed the arguing that a president was exempt from judicial orders enforcing the submission of evidence and that under executive privilege; he could decide which conversation should be revealed. When the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Sirica, Nixon with a suggested that Senator John Stennis of Mississippi listen to the tapes and verify an edited version that Nixon would submit to the jury . The judge rejected the proposal. He also said that Nixon was to not make any attempts to keep the tapes. Nixon told Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson resigned instead. Nixon gave the same order to Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, who also refused. Nixon fired Ruckelshaus. General Robert Bork
then fired the Cox. Those actions became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre." It started the first serious moves to impeach Nixon. Nixon at last agreed to give the tapes to the judge. However, two of the conversations were fake and one of them contained an 18 minute gap. They were claimed to be an accident, but suspicions grew that evidence had been purposely destroyed. Evidence against Nixon was turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, which had begun its impeachment investigation. Later, more edited conversations were made public. After a Supreme Court vote, the tapes were revealed. Impeachment hearings were held and 3 of the 5 impeachment articles were approved. Facing certain impeachment, Nixon resigned from office.