1974
Nixon Charged With First Of Three Articles Of
Impeachment
On this day in 1974, the House of
Representatives charges President Richard M. Nixon with the first of three
articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice after he refused to release
White House tape recordings that contained crucial information regarding the
Watergate scandal.
In June 1972, five men connected with Nixon’s
reelection committee, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), had been
caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. A subsequent investigation exposed illegal
activities perpetrated by CREEP and authorized by senior members of Nixon’s
administration. It also raised questions about what the president knew about
those activities. In May 1973, the Senate convened an investigation into the
Watergate scandal amid public cries for Nixon’s impeachment. Nixon vigorously
denied involvement in the burglary cover-up, most famously in November 1973
when he declared, “I am not a crook.” Although Nixon released some of the tapes
requested by the Senate in April 1974, he withheld the most damning of them,
claiming executive privilege. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court rejected
Nixon’s claim of executive privilege and ordered him to turn over the remaining
tapes. When he refused to do so, the House of Representatives passed the first
article of impeachment against Nixon for obstruction of justice. On August 5,
with the impeachment process already underway, Nixon reluctantly released the
remaining tapes.
On August 8, 1974, Nixon avoided a Senate
trial and likely conviction by becoming the first president to resign.