RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE, 1974 THE FALL ( Part 3 ) Figuring Out Impeachment

The Richard Nixon Experience

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In this episode we listen as the House Judiciary Committee sets up shop to start their look into the impeachment of Richard Nixon. You will hear from Bernard Nussbaum as he talks about the decision by John Doar not to aggressively investigate the facts of the case instead deciding they would collate the evidence already gathered by the Senate Watergate Committee and the Special Prosecutor's office. A decision that Nussbaum violently opposed at the time but in these interviews tries to put the best face on for the oral history he is providing. He even goes so far as to say it was most likely the biggest factor in getting to the result that eventually happened.
You will hear Hillary Rodham Clinton discuss the system for organizing material they came up with based on how Doar ran his law practice. The three areas that they all worked on included just trying to figure out how an impeachment would work, what were the grounds for determining a high crime and misdemeanor, and just what exactly were the facts as they knew them. It is a fascinating look at how the committee was run and you will hear how the congressmen were babysat through the process, with little black books, kept under lock and key, that staffers would go through the evidence with the congressmen, given to them by the WSPF, let them ask questions and go through books only under the direct supervision of staff with all the materials going safely back into custody after they were done researching it all for the current session.
It was all a very controlled environment, for secrecy's sake, or at least that is what we have been led to believe.
Then we go through the scenario that led to the request by the Special Prosecutor's office for 64 more taped conversations. The President refused to hand them over, deciding instead to give edited transcripts, to be released simultaneously, to the Prosecutors, the House Committee and the public, all at the same time. That decision would eventually lead to the legal fight in the Supreme Court known as the United States vs Richard Nixon.
Then the President addressed the nation.
If ever a case of being caught telling the truth has existed then this speech by President Nixon is it. We just did not have any way of knowing it then, but we do now. If you go back to our first four tape series episodes and listen to the "Cancer on the Presidency" conversation with
John Dean, the White House Counsel, ( episode 137 - Tape series part 1) or the conversations with Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen ( episode 139 - Tape series part 3) every single assertion in his defense made by President Nixon in this April 1974 speech turned out to be true.
Go listen to it all for yourself.