On July 24th, 1974, the final blow of Richard Nixon’s presidency took hold when the Supreme Court called for the release of the Watergate tapes. after their ruling in the case of United States versus Nixon.
A grand jury had returned indictments against seven Nixon aides, including former Attorney General John Mitchell, as part of the Watergate investigation. Leon Jaworski, a special prosecutor appointed by President Nixon, and the seven defendants wanted access to audio tapes of conversations recorded by President Nixon in the White House.
Nixon argued that the concept of executive privilege gave him the power to withhold sensitive information, such as the tapes, from other government branches in order to maintain confidential communications within the executive branch and to secure the national interest.
On July 24, 1974, a unanimous Court (with Justice Rehnquist not taking part due to a prior role in the Nixon administration) ruled against the President. Chief Justice Warren Burger said that the President didn’t have an absolute, unqualified privilege to withhold information.
This is when the Supreme Court functioned like a separate branch federal government.
Now we have Epstein Files instead of Watergate tapes.
Open thread.
