Watergate Scandal Timeline

Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward first met Mark Felt in 1970, and Felt became a key anonymous source on the scandal. No one else at the Post knew his identity; editor Howard Simons dubbed him 'Deep Throat', referencing both his deep background status and the 1972 pornographic film of the same name.

In August 1972, the Government Accountability Office released an audit of Nixon's re-election campaign, referring $350,000 in questionable transactions to the Department of Justice for prosecution—an early sign of financial irregularities tied to the break-in.

Tipped off by Dean, Senator Lowell Weicker and investigators uncovered likely tax fraud: Nixon had claimed deductions for an illegally backdated document donation to the National Archives—a loophole outlawed in 1969 after President Johnson exploited it.

On February 7, 1973, the Senate voted 77–0 to establish a select committee to investigate Watergate, naming Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina as chairman. The televised hearings that followed exposed the scandal to the American public.

Image source: United States Senate Watergate Committee

On October 30, 1973, White House lawyer Fred Buzhardt informed Judge Sirica that two of the nine subpoenaed tapes—a June 20, 1972 Nixon-Mitchell call and an April 15, 1973 Nixon–Dean meeting—were 'missing', fueling suspicions of a cover-up.

On November 21, 1973, Buzhardt told special prosecutor Archibald Cox's successor Leon Jaworski that an 18-minute, 15-second segment was missing from a June 20, 1972 tape: a Nixon-Haldeman conversation thought to be Nixon's first discussion of Watergate after the break-in.

Image source: Nixon White House tapes

In January 1974, an expert panel appointed by Judge Sirica concluded that the erased segment had been wiped in five to nine separate passes using the recorder's hand keys—not the foot pedal—suggesting deliberate erasure rather than accident.

In January 1974, according to Colson, Nixon nearly removed CIA director William Colby over suspicions of CIA complicity in Watergate; that June, Senator Howard Baker released an inconclusive report on the matter. Helms deemed related notes 'incoherent', and Senate investigators suspected they referred to the then-secret CIA assassination attempts on Castro.

In April 1974, Archibald Cox's replacement Leon Jaworski reissued the subpoena for the White House tapes, but Nixon provided only redacted transcripts, refusing to hand over the actual recordings.

Image source: Leon Jaworski

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-to-11 to recommend the first article of impeachment: obstruction of justice, marking the formal beginning of the end for Nixon's presidency.

Image source: Impeachment process against Richard Nixon

Howard Hunt, who had helped arrange the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, joined Liddy in a burglary of journalist Hank Greenspun's Las Vegas office seeking Howard Hughes-related files. Although the burglary was reportedly abandoned after Hughes would not provide a getaway plane, evidence of forced entry was found, and Ehrlichman later told Nixon that Hunt and Liddy 'flew out [to Las Vegas], broke his safe, got something out'.

On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex—the event that launched the scandal.

The cover-up initially worked, helping Nixon win a landslide re-election over George McGovern in November 1972, before revelations from the burglars' trial led to a Senate investigation.

Image source: 1972 United States presidential election

Dean personally destroyed two of Howard Hunt's notebooks and an address book, and acting FBI director L. Patrick Gray burned the surrendered files around Christmas 1972, destroying key evidence of the administration's involvement.

On January 6, 1973, John Dean promised G. Gordon Liddy $30,000 annually, legal fees, and a 1975 pardon if he stayed silent; as early as January 8, Nixon discussed 'Goddamn hush money' with Charles Colson, deepening the obstruction of justice.

Concerns emerging from the burglaries and wiretappings resulted in the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which limited the ability of federal agencies to collect, maintain, and share information on Americans.

Image source: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

The paranoia of the 'Watergate era' inspired a subgenre of 1970s conspiracy thrillers such as The Conversation (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977). Woodward and Bernstein's 1974 book All the President's Men was adapted into a 1976 film by Alan J. Pakula; other depictions include Oliver Stone's Nixon (1996) and Frost/Nixon (2008), adapted from a Tony-winning play.

Image source: All the President's Men (film)

On August 7, 1974, House minority leader John Rhodes, Senate minority leader Hugh Scott, and Senator Barry Goldwater—a respected Republican statesman—visited Nixon in the Oval Office and, although not explicitly urging resignation, informed him that he did not have enough support in Congress to survive impeachment.

Facing impeachment, on August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign from office, ending more than two years of crisis triggered by the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

Image source: Presidency of Richard Nixon

The scandal tarnished Nixon's legacy and brought heavy Republican losses in the November 1974 midterm elections. New Democratic legislators known as 'Watergate Babies' swept into Congress and drove major governmental reforms.

Image source: Watergate Babies

In June 1975, Nixon gave secret testimony to a federal grand jury, one of the few times a former president has testified before a grand jury, addressing questions arising from the Watergate investigations.

President Ford's pardon of Nixon effectively caused his loss to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election; seven percent of voters decided against Ford explicitly due to the pardon, demonstrating the lasting electoral ramifications of Watergate.

Image source: Pardon of Richard Nixon

In 1977, Nixon—financially distressed and hoping to improve his legacy—accepted $600,000 for a series of interviews with British journalist David Frost, which drew massive audiences and became iconic television moments.

Image source: David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon

In 1978, former FBI directors L. Patrick Gray and Mark Felt and FBI Domestic Intelligence head Edward Miller were indicted for their approval of 'surreptitious entries'. Nixon voluntarily testified in their defense in 1980, his only appearance in any Watergate-related trial.