Some perspective on Nixon impeachment hearings

[StarfishSaver]

The Nixon impeachment hearings have often been brought up as an example of how the current Democratic House leadership should proceed with impeaching Trump. However, a lot of the discussion is based on incorrect information about the timing and nature of the hearings, so I thought it would be helpful to lay out what happened back in 1973 and 1974.

June 17, 1972 Watergate break-in

May 17, 1973 Senate Select Committee on Watergate hearings opened

May 19, 1973 Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox appointed

June 3-6, 1973 John Dean testifies before the Watergate Committee

June 13, 1973 Alexander Butterfield testimony reveals existence of White House taping system

July 23, 1973 Nixon refuses to turn over tapes to the Watergate Committee or Special Prosecutor

October 10, 1973 Vice President Spiro Agnew is convicted of bribery and resigns

October 20, 1973 Nixon orders Attorney General Eliot Richardson to fire the Special Prosecutor. He refuses and resigns. When the Deputy Attorney General also refuses, Nixon fires him. Solicitor General Robert Bork fires the Special Prosecutor (Saturday Night Massacre)

February 6, 1974 By a vote of 407-6, the House of Representatives authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to open an impeachment inquiry

May 9, 1974 House Judiciary Committee opens impeachment hearings. The first few moments of the hearing are open to the public. Then the chairman closed the hearings to the public. No further open hearings were conducted until July

July 24, 1974 The US Supreme Court unanimously rules that Nixon must turn over the WH tapes to the Special Prosecutor in the trial of the Watergate burglars

July 27-30, 1974 The House Judiciary Committee votes to recommend Articles of Impeachment to the full House.

August 9, 1974 Nixon resigns

It's interesting to see that an impeachment inquiry wasn't authorized until eight months after John Dean's and Alex Butterfield's explosive testimony and four months after the Saturday Night Massacre, the first impeachment hearings didn't occur until three months after the House authorization, and thereafter, the hearings were conducted almost entirely in secret. I assume - but don't know for sure - that the long gap between authorization of the inquiry and the opening of the hearings was for the purpose of the House Judiciary Committee preparing for the hearings. (One can only imagine how people would react today if this House authorized hearings and they didn't begin until several months afterward!) But it's important to know that impeachment in Watergate didn't move as quickly as (or in the sequence) some people now assume.

I hope this is helpful.

[enough]

1. Also, the Watergate break-in was June 17, 1972. NT

[StarfishSaver]

2. Good point. I'll edit to add it.

Thanks!

[wryter2000]

3. K&R

Also, let's note that Nixon was never impeached. A lot of people think he was. Also, the huge bulk of the hearings were not "impeachment hearings."

Bookmarked for later. Thanks for your usual dose of reality.

[StarfishSaver]

4. Exactly!

Thanks! I appreciate your kind words.

[wryter2000]

5. You're welcome

[uponit7771]

6. When did the SC end its investigation into WG break in? That's where we're at right now, Mueller's

... investigation is done.

[StarfishSaver]

7. The Watergate Prosecution Force continued for years after Nixon resigned - until June 1977

The Special Prosecutors didn't do the same kind of investigation that Mueller did. They were prosecutors, not independent counsels, appointed under a different statute that no longer exists. There were four special prosecutors between 1973 and 1977: Archibald Cox, Leon Jaworski, Henry Ruth, and Charles Ruff

[uponit7771]

8. When did WG investigations end?

[StarfishSaver]

9. Do you mean the Special Prosecutor's investigation or Congress'?

[uponit7771]

10. Deans, which I'm finding out didn't mean a damn thing. Nixon was a bastard man ...

... I think Red Don is more of a bastard because he openly worked with the Russians to get elected president of the US.

Here's the timeline from history.com I'm reading

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/watergate-scandal-timeline-nixon

[StarfishSaver]

11. I don't understand your post

[uponit7771]

12. Looks like Nixon sent Dean to investigate Watergate break in and Dean, of course, found no White ...

... House involvement.

That's the investigation I was thinking about that ended but it wasn't a real investigation, it was more of a cover up.

Sounds like the house and senate investigations went further into 73 ...

8 months from time McCord confess's to impeachment inquiry votes 407 - 6 in house.

Hmmmm, no wonder Benedict Donald wants to hold up Mueller's testimony

[StarfishSaver]

13. That's not what happened

You're right that Dean didn't conduct an actual "investigation" and that he participated, at least initially, in a coverup. He had no law enforcement or investigative powers. He was the White House Counsel whom Nixon asked to check on whether there was any White House involvement in the break-in. Dean told him there was deep involvement and warned him that there was a "cancer on the presidency." Nixon, Haldeman and Ehrlichman pressured Dean to cover up and threaten witnesses. Dean refused and was fired. He became a leading witness at the Senate Watergate hearings.

But you're over-simplifying the timeline of what happened and the involvement of various participants. It was more than Dean and McCord.

The House and Senate investigations continued through 1974. The Special Prosecutor's investigation - which included trials of the Watergate burglars, the former attorney general, deputy attorney general, Dean and others - continued until 1977.