Is the President Above the Law? | United States v. Nixon

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In episode 64 of Supreme Court Briefs, the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, doesn't want to release some secret recordings that might implicate him in the Watergate scandal.

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Washington, D.C.
June 17, 1972
Five men break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Office Building. They tried to set up a wiretap and photograph confidential Democratic Party documents. However, the police caught them in the act and arrested them. Little did most know, these men were connected with the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, or CRP, or CREEP (hee hee), the organization directly tied to President Richard Nixon in order to help him get re-elected.

Flash forward to May 1973, and thanks to multiple ongoing investigations, now more and more Americans are thinking the Nixon administration was directly linked to the Watergate break-in.
The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee began public hearings, and the Nixon administration appointed Archibald Cox to lead a separate, independent investigation. Flash forward again to July 1973, and Americans found out that there is a new system in the White House that automatically records everything in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. In other words, if Nixon was in on the Watergate break-in or even if he just knew about it and was trying to cover it up, there could be evidence of it in the recordings. Cox, as well as the Senate, immediately subpoenaed the White House recordings, or required that they be submitted to court as evidence. However, Nixon refused to release them, citing his “executive privilege” as the president. He even ordered Cox to drop his subpoena, and after Cox refused, Nixon had him fired. Not a good look there, Nixon.

But the investigations only picked up. In what eventually became known as The Watergate Scandal, a total of 69 people were indicted and 48 people convicted for either participating in, aiding in, or covering up information about the Watergate break-in. MANY of these folks were top Nixon administration officials. By early 1974, it seemed pretty clear that President Nixon had at least known about the Watergate break-in and tried to cover it up. However, there was little solid evidence, and Nixon had still refused to give up the recordings.