R. Haldeman.
Televised hearings later followed and the whole dirt was brought out. John Dean, the former White House counsel, stated in court that members of the Nixon administration, notably Attorney General John Mitchell, had known of the burglary. The hearings also revealed the Nixon had previously taped conversations in the Oval Office, and when the special prosecutor Archibald Cox requested these tapes, Nixon fired him. Cox made great strides in uncovering major evidence of a political espionage by the Nixon administration. He uncovered evidence of bribery for corporate contributions to Nixon in return for political favors, and illegal wiretapping of citizens. The uncovering of the corporate contributions led to the passing of the Election Reform Act, which limits a candidate to spending 20 million dollars on a bid for election or re-election. It also regulated the amount an individual may contribute to campaign funds to 1,000 dollars.
During the investigation, the testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield really created a light for the prosecution. Butterfield told the committee that Nixon had ordered that a taping system to be installed in the White House to record all conversations. These are the events that led to Cox's dismissal. After Butterfield's testimony, Cox demanded eight relevant tapes in which Nixon refused to hand over. His excuse was that the tapes were vital to national security. Nixon then told Attorney General Elliot Richardson to dismiss Cox, but Richardson refused and resigned, as did Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Cox's successor, Leon Jaworski was appointed by Nixon and was given the tapes, and Jaworski gave the tapes to Judge Sirica. Some of the tapes were missing and one of the tapes had a "mysterious- 18 ½-minute gap. The gap was part of five separate erasures.
Although the tapes, the break-in, and the cover up were a large part of the Watergate affair, they were not all of it.