The Watergate Scandal Video. This is the Water Gate Complex today. Built in 1967 in Northwest Washington D.C., the super block of hotel offices and apartments became notorious around the globe in 1972 when it gave its name to one of America’s most significant political scandals. On the 17th of June, five men were arrested for breaking into the complexes headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. A few months later, along with the masterminds of the breaking, E. Howard Hunts Junior and G. Gordon Liddy, the five were indicted for conspiracy, burglary and violation of Federal wire tapping laws, but when one of the men James W. McCord, wrote to the judge claiming a cover up of the burglary, the flood gates were opened and the affair sniveled into a massive political scandal that reached all the way to the White House. Richard Nixon on the Watergate Affair - Part 1 (1973) Watergate Scandal. Before the summer of 1972, the word "Watergate" meant nothing more than an office and luxurious apartment complex in Washington, D.C.
As a result of a "third-rate burglary" on June 17 of that year, it came to be associated with the greatest political scandal of that century and would change the lives of the many people involved u0097 especially President Richard M. Nixon. While doing his rounds at the Watergate Hotel in the early morning of June 17, 1972, security guard Frank Wills found a door, located between the basement stairwell and the parking garage, that was being prevented from latching by a piece of tape. He removed the tape and continued his rounds. Returning to the same spot later, he discovered that someone had re-taped the door. The five burglars were later identified as Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W.
It later appeared that Hunt and G. When the U.S. Meanwhile, Jaworski asked Sirica to subpoena 64 tapes and documents. *W. What Was Watergate? Watergate.info - The Scandal That Destroyed President Richard Nixon. Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement.
The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included "dirty tricks" such as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the FBI, CIA, and the Internal Revenue Service. The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. Wiretapping of the Democratic Party's headquarters[edit] Money trail[edit]