Democratic senators open probe
On January 8, 1973 the trial of the Watergate burglars opens in the face of public indifference.
On February 7, the Democratic majority in the Senate sets up a committee charged with investigating the 1972 electoral campaign. Broadcast live on television, the hearings end up transfixing Americans.
McCord soon admits to having lied before the court due to pressure from the White House.
On April 30, attorney general Richard Kleindienst and two of the president’s aides, Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resign. A third aide, John Dean, is fired.
On June 25, Dean tells the committee that the president was aware from September 15, 1972, of a cover-up of the burglary.
He says Nixon was ready to spend nearly a million dollars to buy the burglars’ silence.
He thus becomes the first witness to directly implicate the head of state.
(Photograph:AFP)
