Watergate (2018) - full transcript

[dramatic music]

- I know the truth
is my ally in this,

and I think, ultimately, the
truth is going to come out.

- The President's office,

the President's phone
are all bugged.

- What would be the best
way to reconstruct

those conversations?
- Obtain the tape and play it.

- Special Prosecutor
Archibald Cox arrived

to tell the grand jury
that the President

had declined to
turn over the tapes.

- The President wants you
to fire Archibald Cox,



and I said, well, I've thought
about it, and I can't do it.

[dramatic music]

- This is Nelson Benton
at the White House.

President Nixon has
discharged Archibald Cox

as Watergate special prosecutor,

and has abolished the
Special Prosecution office.

Elliot Richardson has resigned
his post as Attorney General,

and when Deputy Attorney
General William Ruckelshaus

refused to carry out orders
from the President,

he was discharged as
Deputy Attorney General.

- The FBI, acting upon orders
from the President,

sealed off the Special
Prosecutor's office.

- Six FBI agents present.

- No one is allowed in the room.



- I, along with my colleagues,

went down to the
office on K Street.

[clamoring]

There was press
gathered outside.

Cameras everywhere.

Raw force had supplanted law.

It was the closest thing
to a coup d'état

that our country
ever experienced.

- I mean, I thought
it was possible

that some of us
would be arrested.

I mean, the President
had mounted a coup.

What happens in a coup?
I mean, you arrest people.

Right?

male narrator: Locked out
of their own offices,

the prosecutors went
upstairs to the library.

- Are you planning on continuing

with the investigation?

- I must say, I suppose that
human emotions take over,

uh, in this kind of occasion,

because one thinks
that in a democracy,

maybe this would not happen.

narrator: But when Richard
Nixon fired Archibald Cox,

he disastrously misjudged
reaction from the public,

the courts, the media,
and Congress.

Not to mention the special
prosecutors themselves,

who were not about to
roll over and play dead.

- We talked about what
we were gonna do,

and some people...

Very few, actually, said,
well, we ought to resign.

- And Archie said,
"No, you should not.

"If you haven't been
fired, you should do

everything you can
to pursue this case."

- The President hadn't
fired us, he'd fired Archie.

Nobody knew of our
existence, really.

We were staff.

If in an oversight, Nixon
had forgotten to fire us,

then we're here.

Uh, let's make him fire us.

- Uh, the White House
announced last night

that you were abolished.

Now, when did you begin to

get word that you
weren't abolished?

- You know, the White House
announced we were abolished,

but if they announce
the sky is green,

and then, you look up,
and the sky is blue...

Um, a couple of weeks ago, I
got word from the civil service

that I was a permanent
employee of the government,

and that I had rights.
We are gonna try like hell.

And that's the message I
want to get across today.

We are here, and
we are going to try.

We are a criminal
prosecution force.

We have reason to
believe there's been

some serious crime, and
we want to prosecute it.

- It's no more Mr. Nice Guy.

We're gonna show
that we've got teeth,

and the legal system is
not to be trifled with.

narrator: The media and the
public exploded immediately,

and in a way never before
seen in American history.

And that, in turn,
affected Congress.

- The President began hearing
the clamor to resign

on the editorial pages of
his friendliest publishers.

In Denver, in
Atlanta, in Detroit.

- The New Orleans State's
Item said the country faces

the gravest constitutional
crisis in its history,

that the President
is a dictator.

Only 16% of those polled

approved of the
President's firing

of the special
Watergate prosecutor.

An overwhelming 75% disapprove.

- Telegrams flooded into
Washington, so did calls.

Western Union and the
Capitol switchboard

both hired extra help.

- Well, we've had about
90,000 for impeachment,

and 2,700 against impeachment.

I would say, simply for me,
as a personal experience,

it has been very reassuring
that the American people

are watching what's
going on in Washington.

narrator: And so, for the
first time in over a century,

Congress started thinking
about impeachment for real.

- The President is gambling.

Gambling that the Congress

doesn't have the
courage to impeach.

I think the President
will lose that gamble,

because I think the people,
in their anger and outrage,

will insist upon impeachment.

- The increasing
reports that Mr. Cox

was hot on the
White House trail,

I think, has raised
some of the most

important and
gravest of questions

that the Congress
and the American people

should understand and pursue.

- Right after the
Saturday Night Massacre,

the outpouring was enormous.
Enormous.

And I can't tell you how
much that changed things.

- Judge Sirica asked
you to come see him?

- He ordered a hearing
within a day or two.

He was trying to protect us.

The guy who'd been in charge
of running his grand jury

had been fired, and of course,
he was looking to normalize us.

- Judge Sirica called
in the grand jury.

We lawyers showed up.
Nobody invited us.

But nobody said we couldn't go.

And we sat there,
at counsel table,

while Judge Sirica
instructed the grand jury

that despite the firing
of Archie Cox,

they would continue their
work as a grand jury.

Oh, and the Watergate
special prosecution lawyers

will continue to advise you.

narrator: Judge Sirica
wasn't the only official

who felt that way.

Three days after he resigned,

Elliot Richardson returned
to the Justice Department

for a farewell speech
and press conference,

and here's what happened.

[applause]

- An astonishing thing
is happening here.

He is getting an applause.

Not necessarily
from the reporters,

but from the Justice
Department employees

who are, as you see,
lining the balcony.

This is unusual.

[tense music]

- Given my role in
guaranteeing the independence

of the special prosecutor,
as well as my belief

in the public interest
embodied in that role,

felt equally clear that
I could not discharge him.

And so, I resigned.

- Mr. Richardson?
- Yes.

- Mr. Richardson, do you
believe the President

should be impeached?

- The question of
any ultimate judgment

to be made on these
facts is in my view

a question for the
American people.

- If you were in
Cox's shoes then,

would you have done the same
thing he would have done,

or something different?

- I would have done
what he had done.

narrator: Richardson's
appearance, televised live,

was the final event
that broke Nixon's will.

Later that day, Nixon started
a panicked retreat.

- There were gasps from
the back of the courtroom.

Several reporters
jumped for telephones.

- President Nixon has agreed
to turn over the tapes

which he was commanded to
do by the Court of Appeals.

- I've just informed
Judge Sirica

that President Nixon will
comply in all respects

with the order of this court,

as modified by the
Court of Appeals.

This President does
not defy the law.

narrator: But only
two days after Nixon

started his retreat, with
the vice presidency vacant

and the Mideast still at war,
yet another crisis erupted.

A nuclear crisis, created
by intelligence reports

of Russia moving nuclear
weapons into the Mideast.

- The world's two
nuclear giants,

the United States, and Russia,
appeared on the threshold

of military confrontation.

It began suddenly
and mysteriously.

- Nixon goes to DefCon III.

[tense music]

♪

- Thousands of fighting
men were sent packing,

warships hoisted anchor,
and big B-52 bombers

some carrying nuclear
warheads, were ready.

- Henry Kissinger has had a
conversation with him that day

on the telephone in which Nixon
is talking out of his head

about how the press
and the prosecutors

were out to physically kill me.

"They're gonna
kill me, Henry."

narrator: But given the
timing, many suspected

that Nixon was faking a crisis

to divert attention
from Watergate.

- We are attempting
to preserve the peace

in very difficult circumstances.

There has to be a
minimum of confidence

that the senior officials
of the American government

are not playing with the lives
of the American people.

narrator: Shortly afterwards,

Nixon held his press conference.

He tried to focus
on Mideast peace.

- Ladies and gentleman,
before going to your questions,

I have a statement with
regard to the Mideast

which I think will anticipate
some of the questions.

We obtained information
which led us to believe

that the Soviet Union
was planning to send

a very substantial
force in the Mideast...

a military force.

Some thought that it was

simply a blown up exercise.

There wasn't a real crisis.
I wish it had been that.

It was a real crisis.

It was the most difficult
crisis we've had

since the Cuban
confrontation of 1962.

narrator: At the same
press conference,

Nixon continued
his Watergate retreat.

- Turning now to the subject

of our attempts to get a
ceasefire on the home front.

[laughs]

That's a bit more difficult.

We have decided that next week,

the acting Attorney General,
Mr. Bork, will appoint

a new special prosecutor

for what is called
the Watergate matter.

Uh, the special prosecutor
will have independence.

He will have total cooperation
from the executive branch.

narrator:
But Nixon's announcement

didn't impress the media.

- What is it about the
television coverage of you

in these past weeks and months
that has so aroused your anger?

- Don't get the impression
that you arouse my anger.

[laughter]

- I'm very sorry,
but I have that impression.

- One can only be angry
with those he respects.

[clamoring]

- Mr. President, Mr. President?
- Mr. Rather.

- I wonder if you could
share with us your thoughts.

Tell us what goes
through your mind

when you hear of people
who love this country

and people who believe
in you say reluctantly

that perhaps you should
resign or be impeached.

[cameras clicking]

- Well, I'm glad we don't take

the vote of this
room, let me say.

narrator: The new
special prosecutor

was Texas attorney
Leon Jaworski.

Jaworski had actually
been offered the job

before Archibald Cox,
but had turned it down

because he had
feared, correctly,

that he wouldn't have
enough independence.

This time, he thought he would.

- Uh, I have always
responded where I thought

that I could render
a particular service.

Some special service...
Uh, to my country.

Uh, this was a call to duty.

narrator: But many feared
that anyone acceptable

to Richard Nixon wouldn't
really do the job.

- Oh, no, indeed not.

Um, as I've indicated before,

Ms. Holtzman,
the discussion was

that there would be no
restraint on me to seek

whatever I believed
was appropriate.

- Jaworski, a prominent
lawyer from Texas,

who had served this country as
being a Nuremberg prosecutor,

and having been involved
in civil rights cases

on the right side also

was a Nixon supporter
in the last election.

- We all were suspicious.

Who was this man?
Why would he take the position?

Why was he replacing Archie?

If he was really
gonna do the job,

why not just bring back Archie?

- Jaworski was
extremely suspicious

of all of these
Kennedy democrats

who had been prosecuting,

you know, pushing
this investigation

of the President.

But he didn't bring a
whole crew of people in,

which was a smart and somewhat
courageous thing to do.

If I had been in his shoes,

I probably would have
brought a few people with me.

narrator: Jaworski
and the prosecutors

expected Nixon's tapes any day.

But once again, Richard Nixon
had some surprises for them.

- We were waiting for the tapes,

expecting them momentarily,
when Fred Buzhardt,

who was then the special counsel

to the President for Watergate,

went to court and said,
"Well, you can't have the nine

you subpoenaed, because
three of them are missing."

- When did you discover, sir,
that the tapes were missing?

- This... this'll come out in
the court, in due process.

- Do you think the public
will believe this story?

Is it a recent discovery?
- I don't know.

- The White House's
handling of the tapes

and its recordkeeping
was so sloppy

that there was no way to prove

the tapes hadn't been destroyed.

Records were kept
on scraps of paper

torn from shopping bags.

- Last night, I read
a thing on the air

about the tapes vanishing,

and the audience thought
it was a sick joke.

- I wouldn't live in
any other time than now.

I have to have my Watergate fix

every single morning
in the paper.

[audience laughs]

Every day, he does
something that interest...

It's sort of like
a rat going around.

You keep trying to kill
it, and he gets away.

[laughter]

- We get a call to
come over to court,

and he says, there's a
problem with another tape.

- An 18-and-a-half minute gap
was found in a talk

between the President
and H.R. Haldeman

three days after the
Watergate break-in.

- When did the President
learn that this tone

was on the tape, sir?
- I don't know precisely.

- Well, why didn't he,
for instance, say so

at his news conference
the other day?

- I don't think he
understood that it was...

at that time, that it was on
a subpoenaed conversation.

- Or when he said...
- We did.

- Or when yesterday, when
he said that there were

no further bombshells to come,
why didn't the President say...

- Oh, I don't think
this is a bombshell.

- We have an explanation
that the tape was the result

of an error made by

the President's personal
secretary, Rose Mary Woods.

- Rose Mary Woods
started working for him

when he was a young Congressman.

She was called "aunt"
by his two daughters.

She and his wife, Pat,
exchanged clothes.

She was definitely
a family member,

and she was now a
very major witness.

She was a suspect for a crime.

- This is the kind of Uher
tape recorder Ms. Woods used.

It's designed so a secretary
transcribing dictation

can start and stop it
by pressing

or releasing a foot pedal.

- During my cross-examination
of her, she said

"I must have accidentally
hit record

instead of stop
when the phone rang."

And so I asked her, "Okay,
so you hit the wrong button.

"Your foot was on the pedal
to make it revolve.

If you had taken your foot off,
it would have stopped."

- Ms. Woods testified that
she put the telephone

behind her ear, took notes
throughout her conversation,

but she said she
apparently kept her foot

on the foot pedal throughout.

- I said, let's demonstrate.
So we plug in the machine.

[static hisses]

I can see the tape's rolling.

I then say, so what
did you do next?

She said, "Well, I had
my foot on the pedal."

What did you do then?
"Well, the phone rang,

"and the first thing I had to do

was I had to take
off the headphones."

And she points.
She's not moving.

She just delicately points
to the headphones.

And with that slight movement,
her foot came off the pedal.

The tapes stopped.

- Prosecutor Jill Volner
now almost shouted

at what she noticed.

"You also just took your
foot off the pedal."

And she said "Well, it's
different in my office.

It's different here.
I-I did it in my office."

So I said, well, Your Honor,

maybe we should adjourn
to her office.

The next thing I knew,
I was in a taxi cab

heading to the White House.

- Demonstrating what has
come to be known as

the Rose Mary Stretch.

- She was physically able to
keep her foot on the pedal

and roll to get the phone,

but there's no way
that any human being

would have done that.

- Secretary Rose Mary Woods,

and quite an acrobat
in her own right.

[laughter]

"Oh, yes, sir, I was
just typing as usual,

"then the phone rang,
my hand went here,

"and my foot went here...

"Well, I know it is a
15-foot spread, Your Honor,

but I am from a circus family,
and, uh..."

- Under Judge Sirica's
supervision,

the White House and we
selected a panel of experts.

- The 18-minute gap in a
subpoenaed White House tape

did not result from
any single accident,

but from repeated erasure
and re-recording.

- The story that Rose Mary
Woods has told was baloney.

- I have told the same story.

I have told only the truth
all the way through,

and I will repeat it to
everybody in the world.

- Gobsmacked, we're
calling witnesses.

Starting from the bowels
of the White House,

up to and including
Alexander Haig,

the Chief of Staff,
a four-star general.

- General Alexander Haig
returned to court today

to advance what he
called a "devil theory"

to explain the mystery.

Perhaps some sinister
force had come in,

and taken care of the
information on that tape.

- And on what do you
base that belief?

- Just my own knowledge
of the situation,

and a degree of confidence

that that will be confirmed
by the technicians,

and let's wait and see.

- Al Haig was part
of the cover-up.

It's not about
suspecting that he was.

Al Haig was an enabler.

- Who do you think did it?

- Well, someone who had
access and motive,

and that would pretty much
be President Nixon,

or Rose Mary Woods.

- After months of dispute,
the White House

turned over the
subpoenaed Watergate tapes

to federal Judge Sirica.

Presidential counsel
J. Fred Buzhardt

carried them to the courthouse
in a small metal box,

the lock sealed with red wax.

narrator: By now, Congress,
the special prosecutor,

and the media were
investigating every aspect

of Richard Nixon's life,
and it turned out

there was a lot to investigate.

- On March 12, 1971,
then Agriculture Secretary

Clifford Hardin refused to
increase milk price supports.

On March 22nd, one of
the largest dairy co-ops

donated $10,000 to
the Nixon campaign.

And on March 25th,
Secretary Hardin announced

an increase in
milk price supports.

- The Nixon administration today

released a new and
significantly higher figure

of how much public money
has been spent

on the President's homes.

- Nearly $10 million has
been spent at San Clemente,

Key Biscayne, and other

presidential vacation retreats.

- Phone call from President
Nixon to Richard Kleindienst.

The President is said
to have told him bluntly

not to press an antitrust
action against ITT.

- There have been allegations
that ITT offered funds

for the Republican convention
to quash an antitrust case.

- President Nixon
paid less than $1,700

in federal income taxes.

narrator: In response, Nixon
tried a charm offensive,

touring the nation to meet

with journalists and supporters,

but it didn't go very well.

- Well, since you haven't
raised some of these subjects,

I'll raise them myself. ITT.

How do we raise
the price of milk?

I wish somebody'd
ask me that one.

Uh, and who else
wanted it raised?

What about the situation
with regard to, uh,

the $1 million secret stock
portfolio that you have?

A few of those things.

I think all of those things
need to be answered,

and answered effectively.
Let me just say this.

And I want to say this to
the television audience.

I have never obstructed justice,

and I think, too,
that I can say that

in my years of public life,

that I welcome this
kind of examination.

Because people have got to know

whether or not their
President is a crook.

Well, I am not a crook.

I've earned everything I've got.

- So you didn't think,
by this time,

that Nixon was deeply
himself involved in...

- Well, obviously,
he was involved, look.

I had written... helped write
a 6,000-word paper

on Watergate, for
heaven's sakes.

The whole White House
was consumed.

There was no doubt that
he had talked to Dean,

and Haldeman and
Ehrlichman were fired,

and all the rest of it.

The questions were simply
did the President

commit an impeachable act,
and was the Congress

of the United States
going to impeach him?

- What we knew
about Richard Nixon

is he had this
fierce determination

that no matter how many times
he got knocked down,

no matter how many times
he was beaten,

that he was always going
to, in the end, prevail.

- I can assure you that
you don't need to worry

about my getting seasick
or jumping ship.

I'm gonna stay in that helm
until we bring it into port.

[applause]

narrator: America hadn't
had a Vice President

since Spiro Agnew's forced
resignation in October.

But finally, in December,
Congressman Gerald Ford

was confirmed by both houses
of Congress and sworn in.

- That I will well and
faithfully discharge.

- The duties of the office...
- The duties of the office...

- On which I am about to enter.

- Uh...

Of the office on which
I am about to enter.

- So help me God.
- So help me God.

[applause]

narrator: Ford, like
most Republicans,

strongly defended Nixon.

But despite Republican
opposition,

the House of Representatives,
which has the sole power

to impeach the President,

started an impeachment inquiry.

If the House votes to impeach,

the President must
stand trial in the Senate

with the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court presiding

and the Senate acting as jury.

Conviction requires
a two-thirds vote.

If convicted, the President
is removed from office.

In the Watergate case, the
House Judiciary Committee

would first hold hearings,

and draft articles
of impeachment.

And so, the impeachment
inquiry was managed

by the Chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee,

Peter Rodino.

Rodino came from a
poor immigrant family,

had been a hero of World War II,

later attending
law school at night,

supporting himself
through menial labor,

and then entering
Congress in 1949.

- Congress must deal with
the crisis in confidence

now undermining
the administration,

and the threat
to our institutions

that has caused this crisis.

Narrator: Elizabeth Holtzman
was the Committee's

youngest and newest member.

- I was elected to
office in 1972,

and took office in January '73.

And here I am, a young woman,
given the opportunity

to sit in judgment of the
President of the United States.

I mean, where else could
this happen in the world?

narrator: Pete McCloskey
entered Congress

to oppose the Vietnam War.

He was a Korean War
hero who had become

an environmental lawyer, and was

a personal friend
of John Ehrlichman.

But he was also
the first Republican

to call for Nixon's impeachment.

- The public is going to
demand that we impeach.

Congress, in this
kind of a case,

is representative of
the American people.

We will react to the
American people's demand.

You know, that was
a period of time

when the public didn't
think much of the Congress.

But Peter Rodino was
the hero of Watergate.

- Peter Rodino was
brilliant and wise.

I think they
understood the stakes.

Peter Rodino knew that
impeachment would never work

if it were seen to be partisan.

So Rodino looked very
hard and far and wide

to find a Republican to
be the Chief of Staff

of the House Judiciary
Committee's

impeachment inquiry.

And he found a Republican,
John Doar.

That was the first signal
of how serious this was.

- I worked on the
House Judiciary inquiry

into the impeachment of
President Nixon with John Doar.

John had a reputation for
being a great trial lawyer.

Not being a flashy lawyer.

Being the opposite
of a flashy lawyer.

He was successful
in trying those cases

before somewhat hostile
judges and hostile juries.

narrator: As Assistant
Attorney General

for civil rights in 1961,

John Doar had walked
with James Meredith

to integrate the
University of Mississippi.

Later, he successfully
prosecuted several

white supremacists for murdering

civil rights workers
in the South.

- Chairman Rodino
has offered to me,

and I have accepted the
position of Special Counsel

to the Judiciary
Committee's inquiry

in the possible
impeachment charges

against the President
of the United States.

To me, success is seeing
that justice is done.

That the Constitution
is preserved.

narrator: Doar ordered
his staff to assemble

all the evidence
related to Watergate.

But meanwhile,
the special prosecutors

were getting their first look
at the White House tapes.

- As soon as we got the tapes,
we began listening to them.

- We had tape machines,
we put on headphones,

and we listened.

- The dynamite tape was
the March 21 conversation.

- It's growing daily.
It compounds itself.

It is basically because one,
we're being blackmailed.

Two, people are going to
start perjuring themselves

very quickly to
protect other people.

- Here was Dean,
telling the President

that the President needed
to save the presidency

by firing those who had engaged
in this obstruction of justice,

and that these people,
including himself,

John Dean, would
have to go to jail.

And Nixon saying, wait a minute.

That's a little bit rash.

Don't you have to continue
the payment of hush money

to the burglars?

Don't you need to
keep this going?

- Two years.

- We could get that.

You could get a million dollars,

and you could get it in cash.

I know where it could be gotten.

[dramatic music]

- And then, you listen,
and not only

is the President just
a man, he's a criminal.

- The next payment to Howard
Hunt, one of the burglars,

was made within a day.

The March 21 conversation
was everything

that Dean had testified
to, and more.

- I began by telling
the President

that there was a cancer
growing on the presidency.

- The tapes show that
the Watergate cover-up

completely dominated
their discussions.

Never, never was there
any discussion

of obeying the law.

[dramatic music]

- It's devastating to listen to.

Even though you're
expecting to hear

what John Dean had
said had happened,

actually hearing the President
of the United States

engaged in criminal
conduct is disturbing.

- As soon as we listened
to that tape,

we said, Leon has
to listen to it.

So we brought Jaworski in,

and I watched him closely
as he listened.

He had a poker face,
but I could read it.

It seemed to me
that at that point,

he knew that Nixon would not be
able to survive as President.

- The Constitution says that
a person can be impeached

for treason, bribery, or other
high crimes and misdemeanors.

A high crime or
misdemeanor meant

really, a serious
abuse of power,

and one that could
threaten the liberties

of the American people.

- No sitting President
had ever been

indicted for a crime.

This was not a subject
that Leon Jaworski

wanted to entertain.

He did not want that
800-pound gorilla on his back.

That gorilla was the property
of the impeachment committee.

And in Leon's words, he did not
want to adopt the gorilla.

I said, but you're
going to have to.

The grand jury had formed
their own opinion about Nixon.

- The grand jury
wanted to indict him

when the indictments
first came down,

while he was still President.

- The grand jury might
on its own indict Nixon.

I said, here's what we can do.

Let's have the grand jury vote

on a list of unindicted
co-conspirators

who they believe participated
in this obstruction of justice.

And he agreed, so long as we
did not publicize that list.

And the grand jury voted...

Some with two hands up,

when the name of Richard Nixon
was put to them for a vote.

This was kept secret.

Another incredible,

explosive secret.

- Your staff has been
studying for some time

the question of whether a
President still in office

can be indicted in
the criminal courts.

Has it reached a conclusion?
- There is a great question.

A very, very strong question
as to whether or not

a sitting President
is indictable.

- By that, do you mean there are

strong reservations
in your mind?

- What I mean is that
it is far from settled,

that that can be done.

narrator: Jaworski didn't
want to indict Nixon,

but he indicted
Nixon's closest aides,

and named 18 more as
unindicted co-conspirators.

- John Mitchell, Bob Haldeman,

John Ehrlichman, Chuck Colson.

These four men were indicted
by the Watergate grand jury

on charges ranging from
perjury to conspiracy.

- I have no comment whatsoever
on what happened in Washington.

- I know that in the end, my
innocence will be established,

and I put complete faith in God,

and I believe in my country.

narrator: And while Nixon
was safe from indictment,

he wasn't safe from impeachment,

or from Dan Rather.

- As we all know, you are
an experienced student

of the Constitution,
and I think people

would be interested to know
what you consider to be

an impeachable offense
for a President.

- Well, Mr. Rather,
you don't have to be

a constitutional lawyer to
know that the Constitution

is very precise in defining
what is an impeachable defense.

A... a... a, an impeachable offense.

A criminal offense on the
part of the President

is the requirement
for impeachment.

[applause]

- Thank you, Mr. President.
Dan Rather with CBS News.

[cheers and applause]

Mr. President, Mr. President.

- Are you running for something?

[laughter]

[applause]

- No, sir, Mr. President.
Are you?

[laughter]

narrator: The House
Judiciary Committee

was systematically gathering
evidence and holding hearings.

- It was behind closed
doors at this time,

because Rodino did not
want any grandstanding

and he didn't want
any disturbances.

And he wanted members
of the committee

to pay attention.

It was really more like a trial.

The way it worked was
we had black books.

Notebooks, three-ring notebooks.

And they had statements of fact.

And behind the statements
of fact were proofs,

evidence that supported
the statements of fact.

At that point, every
member of the Committee

had a right to attack the facts.

To attack the Committee
Staff reasoning.

To attack the statement of fact,

and say, no, that's not right.

So it was a very fair
and deliberative process.

- John insisted that we
read these statements.

I was the reader.

The first days, which
were Watergate facts,

I read the statements.

So John told me
I had to read them

in a very monotone, flat voice.

- And then, of course,
there were hearings,

at which witnesses were called.

- John Dean appeared
as a witness before

the House Judiciary Committee
today, and testified.

narrator: But Watergate
revealed a serious flaw

in the impeachment process.

The constitutional
separation of powers

as interpreted by
the federal courts

means that Congress usually

cannot subpoena
presidential documents.

So if the White House
controls the evidence,

Congress might never see it.

But in the Watergate case,
the special prosecutors

understood this, and
they had the evidence.

So they took action.

- Our view was, we don't
indict the President

because the appropriate place

is to take care of this
in a political process.

That's through an
impeachment hearing.

Then those people ought to have
the evidence that we have.

The House Impeachment
Committee needed those tapes,

and probably would never have
any other way to get them.

But we needed Judge Sirica's
approval to do that.

- We asked permission to
turn over what we called

a road map to impeachment
to the Impeachment Committee.

It was basically, you know.

Here's... here are the
criminal acts we're alleging.

Here's the evidence
that supports them.

Here are the tapes
that show this happened.

Here's the grand jury testimony.

- What the press referred
to as a bulging briefcase

of evidence that showed
that Richard Nixon

was an active participant in a
conspiracy to obstruct justice.

- Judge Sirica orders
the Watergate grand jury's

sealed report on President Nixon

turned over to the
House Judiciary Committee.

- Judge Sirica's willingness
to send the tapes

and a report to the
impeachment committee

was a critical decision.

Without these tapes,

the House Impeachment Committee

might not have nearly
as convincing a case

as he knew existed
and we knew existed.

narrator: Some people
thought the evidence

in that briefcase
alone constituted

sufficient grounds
for impeachment.

But not John Doar
or Peter Rodino.

- I think the special prosecutor

when they sent over
the black briefcase said,

"We're thinking this
is enough. This is it.

This is the... this will do it."

And that's not the way
John thought about it.

What was in the black
briefcase was an airtight case

from a prosecutor's
point of view

around the payment of the money.

The Hunt situation.

Hunt wants money.
We're gonna get it.

It's not a good
conversation at all,

but it doesn't quite get

to using the power
of the presidency.

High crimes, misdemeanors,
bribery, treason.

It wasn't, either,
the smoking gun,

or it shouldn't have
been the smoking gun.

narrator: Doar and Rodino
wanted Nixon impeached,

but they wanted an airtight case

proving that Nixon had
abused presidential power,

so the House Judiciary Committee

subpoenaed more tapes.
Nixon, of course, resisted.

- Has the White House
complied with the subpoena?

- No, the White House has not
complied with the subpoena.

We made a request,

which hasn't been
specifically complied with.

narrator: And then, Evan
Davis got a phone call

from Supreme Court Justice
Potter Stewart

for whom he had once worked.

- I got a call from
Justice Stewart,

who wanted to have lunch.

At one point, he let drop that
the committee should not count

on the Supreme Court to enforce
a Congressional subpoena.

[tense music]

But that was a very different
thing than a criminal subpoena.

narrator: This was a
potentially fatal problem.

In fact, the federal
courts ruled against

the Senate Watergate
Committee's subpoenas,

but by now, the prosecutors
fully understood

the importance of the
tapes for impeachment,

and they had a way to get them.

And so, five days after the
House Judiciary Committee

issued its subpoena, the
prosecutors issued theirs.

- We have the indictment.
We're preparing for trial.

We are pursuing a
second tranche of tapes

as part of a trial subpoena.

The first was a
grand jury subpoena.

This is now a trial subpoena.

- A subpoena signed today
by Jaworski seeks to obtain

evidence to be used in the trial

of seven former
White House aides

and Nixon re-election officials.

All 64 subpoenaed conversations

involved President Nixon.

- The White House opposes.

- President Nixon,
during this period of time,

has to make very
difficult decisions.

He can't always make
the popular decision.

narrator: Once again,
Nixon tried to avoid

surrendering the tapes by
offering a compromise.

This time, he
released what he said

were complete,
accurate transcripts.

But once again, he badly
misjudged public reaction.

- In these folders that you
see over here on my left

are more than 1,200
pages of transcripts

of private conversations
I participated in

with my principal aides
and associates

with regard to Watergate.

Everything that is
relevant is included.

The rough, as well
as the smooth.

- Maybe, just maybe if I
give them a little bit of it,

that that'll be enough.

- Washington found itself
with a new best-seller

on its hands today.

- 1,308 pages.
5 pounds, 8 ounces.

$12.25.

It is one of the most
fascinating documents

ever published by the
government printing office

which had sold all available
copies before noon today.

narrator: But while Nixon
provided the transcripts,

he was still furiously resisting

release of the tapes themselves.

- I have furnished not
only to the Congress,

but to the American people,

all of the relevant evidence
with regard to an issue

that has been of
very great interest

to the American people.

And I simply say this tonight.

The time has come to get
Watergate behind us,

and get on with the
business of America.

[cheers and applause]

narrator: Within days,
publishers printed and sold

millions of paperback copies.

The television networks
staged readings.

- The President.
- How much money do you need?

- Dean.
- I would say these people

are going to cost
a million dollars

over the next two years.

- That night, according to
court records, Hunt's lawyer

received another secret
$75,000 payment.

- Racial and ethnic slurs.
I was surprised.

- That Howard Baker
is a "smoothy."

That Patrick Gray
is "not very smart."

Even with the tapes, and
the unverified transcripts,

a good deal is still missing.

For instance,
in just nine minutes,

the words of Mr. Nixon and
Haldeman and Ehrlichman

are said to be
unintelligible 54 times.

- My very first reaction is,

in terms of
the Nixon presidency...

[tense music]

Possibly fatal.

narrator: And for those who
had heard the few tapes

that Nixon had
already surrendered,

there was another problem.

As bad as the transcripts
showed Nixon to be,

they were still too nice to him

because the transcripts
were inaccurate.

Very inaccurate.

- It was clear to us
from the fact that we had

a bunch of the tapes
that they weren't

very accurate transcripts
of the ones we had.

So presumably, they weren't
accurate transcripts

of the ones we didn't have.

narrator: In fact,
the inaccuracies

strengthened the case
for impeachment,

and intensified the
committee's demands

for the actual tapes.

- The transcripts didn't match

what was said on the tape.

That is what, you know,
people talk about

is a very bad fact.

The President had, I think,
publicly stated his role

in helping review the tapes
for these transcripts.

And they didn't match.

So that was another fact
implicating him directly.

- I don't see why
the White House...

if they're willing to give
us edited transcripts,

why they wouldn't also be
willing to give us tapes,

so that we could listen
to the tapes,

those of us that wanted to.

- The tone of the President's
voice is crucial.

The complete record of
what he said is crucial.

Verifying the authenticity of
the tape itself is crucial.

And that can only be done
by receiving the tapes,

and by having
the President comply

with the House Judiciary
Committee subpoena in full.

narrator: Nixon could
probably defeat

the Judiciary Committee's
subpoena in court,

but the special prosecutors
were another matter,

and they moved aggressively
to enforce their subpoena.

- Judge Sirica enforces
the subpoena.

The White House refuses to
honor Judge Sirica's order.

- I am following the precedent
that every President,

Democrat and Republican,
since the time of Washington

has followed, and
that is of defending

the confidentiality of
presidential conversations

and communications.

- Press Secretary
Ronald Ziegler today

attacked the special
prosecutor for attempting

"excessive encroachment into
the office of the Presidency."

- Really, the President's
not just defying

the special prosecutor.

He is defying the
judicial process.

- So we appealed
from Sirica's order,

and directly to
the Supreme Court

over the Court of Appeals.

Even though we had won,
we took an appeal.

We had to have some resolution.

Clearly gonna go to
the Supreme Court.

- The U.S. Supreme Court,

acting as swiftly
as it ever has,

today announced it will review
the special Watergate

prosecutor's complaint
against President Nixon.

It was just one week ago today

when Leon Jaworski
asked the court to rule

on the President's
defiance of a subpoena

for more White House tapes.

It was yesterday when
the President's lawyer

asked the court not
to rush to judgment,

and allow the case to be heard
in the Court of Appeals.

But this afternoon, the
court said it would hear

oral arguments in
about five weeks,

which set the stage for
a possible confrontation

between the President
and the high court

on the issue of
executive privilege.

- For the first time in
its 185-year history,

the Supreme Court agreed
to extend its term

beyond June and into July
for a hearing on the 8th.

The official reason for the
extraordinary consideration

given this appeal is that the
tapes are needed as evidence

in the Watergate cover-up trial,

which is scheduled to
begin in September.

But today's actions could have
a far more important impact

in the impeachment proceedings
across the street in Congress.

If the case had been handled
in the normal way,

the Supreme Court's decision
would probably not

have come until next year.

Too late to have an impact
on impeachment.

But now, President Nixon
could be confronted

with an adverse decision
from the Supreme Court

just as the House
of Representatives

prepares to vote on
impeachment this summer.