On June 17, 1972,.
The Washington Post published a small story in which the reporters stated that five men had been arrested breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The democratic headquarters was located in a Washington, D.C. building complex called Watergate. The alleged men were caught carrying equipment to "wiretap" telephones and take pictures of documents.
Two news reporters from the Washington Post were investigating on this matter.
The Watergate investigation eventually exposed a long series of illegal activities in the.
Nixon Administration. For years Nixon was carrying on the crimes and they weren't noticed until 1972. .
Alexander Butterfield, a former White House official, testified in July 1973 that Nixon had taped conversations in his office. Prosecutor Cox subpoenaed tapes relevant to the investigation. Nixon refused to release them. Judge Sirica directed Nixon to let him hear the tapes. Nixon appealed the order, arguing that a president was immune from judicial orders enforcing subpoenas and that under the concept of executive privilege only he could decide which communications could be disclosed.
One shocking disclosure followed another. The White House said that two subpoenaed conversations had never been taped. One tape contained an 18-minute gap. White House officials and Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, gave confusing testimony on how the gap might have occurred. Six court-appointed electronics experts said that at least five separate erasures had caused the gap. Many persons concluded that someone had deliberately destroyed evidence.
In late July the House committee approved three articles of impeachment. Shortly thereafter James St. Clair, the president's lawyer, learned that one of the 64 tapes that Nixon had been compelled to surrender was the June 23, 1972, conversation with Haldeman in which Nixon sought to thwart the FBI investigation. He insisted that Nixon publish the tape.
