March 2, 1974: The Watergate Seven: fifty pages of new info - and what it means for today.

[sharedvalues]

Let's turn our eyes back to 1974. Specifically, early March 1974.

The Saturday Night Massacre had happened in October, 1973, 5 months before. In that five month interval, Washington simmered. People knew Nixon was likely guilty of criminal activity, and people knew that American democracy was at risk. Nixon had engaged in corruption: taking money from corporations to pay off his pals, dirty political dealings like burglaries and fabricated letters, obstruction of justice, and colluding with a foreign power, Vietnam. (Though the known crimes of the current administration were far worse: active conspiracy with a foreign power to sell out America for money.) Americans knew only parts of those crimes at the time. But the feeling in the country was that Nixon was corrupt and bad for America – what was unknown was what facts would come out, what crimes could be proven, and whether, and when, Republicans would turn on their party leader.

On March 2, 1974, the Watergate prosecutors released a 50 page federal indictment. Much of it contained information the country had not known.

There were thirteen counts. Seven were indicted (the Watergate Seven). Those were, with their high-profile jobs:

- Charles Colson: White House counsel. Head of the President's PAC (in modern terms; then called CReeP).
- John Erlichman: White House head of domestic (political) affairs.
- H.R. "Bob" Haldeman: White House chief of staff.
- John N. Mitchell: Attorney General.
- Robert Mardian: Top DOJ aide, top aide to President's PAC.
- Kenneth Parkinson: Counsel for President's PAC.
- Gordon Strachan: Top White House aide.

These were big, big names, who held top jobs.

And much of what we knew about their crimes didn't come out till a day in March, 1974.

Nixon resigned five months later, in August 1974.




https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/02/archives/federal-grand-jury-indicts-7-nixon-aides-on-charges-of-conspiracy.html



Edit: We also now know that at the same time, the grand jury also delivered a document saying they had enough evidence to indict the president. Here's that draft indictment. March 2, 1974.

https://www.newsweek.com/grand-jury-indict-richard-nixon-watergate-1195613

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I'm re-reading the Woodward-Bernstein book "The Final Days,"

which is about the time just before the Saturday Night Massacre and after that, up to Nixon's resignation. It's fascinating how many similarities there are between the Watergate situation and what's going on now, and even between Nixon and Trump. Like the fact that when Nixon invited members of Congress to dinner he'd serve them $6 wine (which wasn't actually terrible in 1974) while having the steward serve him a $30 Chateau Margaux ($200+ these days), wrapped in a towel - sounds like Trump's two scoops of ice cream while guests were served only one. And Nixon's son-in-law David Eisenhower acted as a WH adviser, like Jared Kushner. And the fact that by the time Nixon resigned he had become completely isolated and incoherent. History doesn't necessarily repeat itself but there are a lot of echoes.

[MaryMagdaline]

2. Just finished watching Watergate BBC documentary -the best one I think

Similar, but can’t envision trump stepping down unless he makes money out of it.

[3Hotdogs]

3. --- and fuckin' Ford pardoned the bastid before knowing all that he did or might have done.