Word: coverups
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Washington in his 1954 Convair turboprop, he received a call from White House Chief of Staff General Alexander Haig. For the first time, Ford learned that tapes soon to be delivered to Judge John J. Sirica contained statements by Nixon that directly implicated the President in the Watergate coverup. At that moment, Gerald Ford must have become aware that his accession to the presidency had suddenly become nearly certain. Aboard the Convair, he drafted a statement to the effect that "the public interset is no longer served" by his continuing to speak out on impeachment...
With those words, Nixon authorized the coverup, a criminal obstruction of justice that was eventually to destroy his presidency. The transcripts show that Nixon ordered Haldeman to call in CIA Director Richard Helms and Deputy CIA Director Vernon Walters and get them to tell Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray "to lay off' his investigation of the Watergate burglary money. Nixon suggested that Haldeman could claim that "the President believes" that such an investigation would "open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again" (as a CIA agent, Hunt had helped organize the disastrous 1961 invasion of Cuba...
Nixon was now under a continuous barrage of public declarations by other influential members of Congress. Rhodes, long a Nixon loyalist, described the new tapes as "a cataclysmic affair" and declared that "coverup of criminal activity and misuse of federal agencies can neither be condoned nor tolerated." "Was there anything Nixon could do to salvage his situation?" a reporter asked Rhodes. He replied: "I suppose there might be, but I couldn't tell you what...
Before last Monday, it had seemed that if he wished, Nixon would be able to avoid at least his federal criminal liabilities by trading his office for immunity from prosecution. But with the revelation of hard evidence of his early knowledge of and involvement in the coverup, he no longer had "a hole card" to bargain with, as one New York City lawyer put it. Indeed he seems specifically to have rejected immunity, telling congressional leaders as he readied his decision, "I don't want to talk" about personal considerations...
Much of the painful pressure on Chairman Peter Rodino's committee had eased after it had irrevocably cast the die of impeachment on July 27 by approving Article I, which charged Nixon with obstruction of justice in the Watergate coverup. Yet there were spirited exchanges last week as the committee's deliberations resumed. The bipartisanship reached its peak as seven Republicans joined all 21 Democrats to approve Article II, which accused Nixon of abusing the powers of his office and failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Illinois Republican Robert McClory supported the article, adding...