A secretly recorded conversation on June 23, 1972 between President Richard Nixon and his aide H.R. Haldeman revealed the president’s involvement in the Watergate break-ins and the cover-up.
- In 1974, a secret 1972 tape recording of White House conversations between President Nixon and his aides revealed to the nation President Nixon’s involvement in the cover-up during the June 17, 1972 Watergate break-ins.
When the Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox subpoenaed the tapes, President Nixon, citing “Executive Privilege”, refused to hand them over. Additionally, President Nixon ordered then-attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Rather than obeying Nixon’s order, in protest, Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned. - Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Special Prosecutor Cox.
Rather than fire the Special Prosecutor, Ruckelshaus also resigned. - Nixon’s search for someone in the Justice Department willing to fire Cox ended when the Solicitor General fired Archibald Cox, the Watergate Special Prosecutor.
Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.
On January 6, 2021, a mob of President Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters, invaded the United States Capitol. The objective of the invasion was to stop the peaceful constitutionally mandated counting by the Vice President of the state(s) electoral votes. Ostensibly, the violent mob’s goal was to “Stop the Steal” of what they considered a fraudulent election.
Consequently, The United States House of Representatives investigated the insurgency which resulted in finding that:
- President Trump’s Department of Justice, at the direction of Attorney General William Barr, after an intensive investigation, could not find evidence of electoral-fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.
- Following the resignation of Attorney General William Barr, President Donald J. Trump then sought to replace Barr’s replacement Jeffrey Rosen, the Acting Attorney General, with Jeffrey Clark, the Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources.
- Upon hearing of the President’s plan to replace the Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donohue, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel, and a vast number of the DOJ’s senior leadership threatened to resign en masse.
Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.
Marvin V. Blake
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