All language subtitles for Enemies.The.President.Justice.and.The.FBI.S01E01.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-monkee

I am your voice!

Your voice...

I was going to fire Comey.

My decision.

This Russia thing

with Trump and Russia

is a made-up story.

The president responding,

"I have the absolute right

to do what I want to do
with the Justice Department."

That could be viewed
as an abuse of power

and obstruction of justice.

The only thing
that can destroy

the United States is us,

by allowing our Constitution
and the rule of law

to disintegrate.

Is the President
of the United States

above the law?

It is the FBI
that is sworn to uphold

the rule of law and protect
and defend the Constitution

against all enemies.

What is the FBI to do

when the president
breaks his own oath?

This is a--
is a way of undermining

our justice system.

Let's be clear.

That is something that
happens in a dictatorship.

That is not something
that happens in a democracy.

The Russia case
against the Trump White House

began with a break-in

at the Democratic National
Committee headquarters.

We have
seen this before.

Five men were arrested
early Saturday

while trying to install
eavesdropping equipment

at the Democratic
National Committee.

I, Ronald Reagan...

William Jefferson Clinton...

Do solemnly swear...

Do solemnly swear...

...and will,
to the best of my ability...

...preserve,
protect, and defend...

...the Constitution
of the United States.

And here it is,
13 minutes before 9:00.

We're going to have a variably
cloudy and hot day today,

with a chance
of late afternoon showers

and a high in the low 90s.

Helen Reddy at WMAL.

"You and Me
Against the World."

It's 18 now past eleven
o'clock in Washington, D.C...

It's June 17th, 1972.

I was taking a shower,
and I receive a phone call.

I had to get out,
I'm dripping wet,

with a towel around me,

and before I could dry off,

the clerk on duty
at the Washington field office

says to me over the phone,

"Five men
have been arrested

in the early morning hours

burglarizing the Democratic
national headquarters

at the Watergate Hotel."

I was awakened
by a phone call.

"Five men had been arrested,
and the SAC wants you

to go down there
and get the facts."

I, argued a little bit,

because my four sons

had baseball practice
that morning.

"You'll probably be home
in about two hours.

Your wife can take
the boys to practice."

One of the most
fascinating and exotic stories

ever to come out
of Washington, D.C.

Five men were arrested
early Saturday

at the Democratic
National Committee,

and it turns out

that one of them
has an office

in the headquarters
of the Committee

for the Re-Election
of the President.

G. Gordon Liddy,
a member

of the Committee
to Re-Elect the President...

When the Watergate
arrests occurred,

I happened to have been
in Manila.

I started getting
telephone calls.

"There's been some sort
of incident

at the--
at the Watergate complex,

and there's some concern

about White House involvement
in this thing."

I flew back.

As soon as I got
in the office,

I got a call
from the number two man

at the Committee
to Re-Elect the President.

He said, "This is all
Liddy's fault,"

and I said, "Well, why can't
you talk to him?"

And he said, "Well, I had
an incident at the elevator.

I put my arm
on Gordon's shoulder

in a very friendly way.

He said, 'If you ever
touch me again,

I'll rip your arm
out of your body

and beat you to death
with it.'"

And he said, "John, I think
he was actually serious."

And I realize it's not
a very smart move

to bring Liddy over here.

I intercept him before
he can get to my office

and suggest we walk
down 17th Street,

and Liddy confesses to me.

He says,
"This is all my fault.

Don't let anybody
take me out at my house.

I don't want
a drive-by shooting.

I've got kids

You just tell me
what street corner to be on

and what night to be there,

and you can take me out."

And I said, "Gordon."
I said, "That's crazy.

We just don't do
those sort of things."

He said, "Well, I just want you
to know where I'm coming from,

and I'm ready
to pay the price."

We go into

the Metropolitan Police
headquarters.

There are Cuban nationals.
Who are these guys?

I don't have to ask
the question.

All five gave false names
initially to the police.

Yeah, I interviewed
the Cuban burglars.

FBI experts
are trained to score hits

from any position.

J. Edgar Hoover was
the longest-serving director

of the FBI.

He really was the man
who built the FBI.

There are
three needs in America today

in law enforcement:

the elimination of politics

from law enforcement,

emphasis on efficiency,

and cooperation
between police agencies.

Hoover had
a very particular image

of the kind of man
that he wanted as an agent,

what we would think of today
as the kind of G-man,

or the government man.

The G-man,

when I was a boy,

was one of the coolest

persons you could be.

By interesting
the boy of today,

we hope to prevent

the criminal of tomorrow.

Well, Jack, what have you
got to say for yourself?

I'm so short, I'll have
to get up on the box.

All right, Jack-on-the-box.

Gee, Mr. Hoover.

Your G-men sure are good.

I'd like to be one
when I grow up.

Our appearance
under Mr. Hoover

was white shirt and tie, suit.

He would be a tall,
pretty trim,

clean-cut, good-looking,
white man...

Who has a last name

like Stevenson or Jones.

Nothing that is
too confusingly ethnic.

For the hands
and other parts of the body

are valuable personal weapons

for defense and counterattack.

A number of effective blows
can be aimed

at the region of the heart...

the stomach...

the groin.

It's really hard
to overstate

J. Edgar Hoover's influence.

For most
of his career,

he was one
of the most popular,

well-respected
federal officials

in all of government,

shaping American government,

shaping popular
political culture, too.

I'm making him sound
like such a nice man.

In 1947,

Hoover made a rare
appearance in testimony

before the House Un-American
Activities Committee.

Communism is a way of life,

an evil and malignant
way of life.

There was a young freshman,

newly elected,
from California,

Richard M. Nixon.

Hoover had been the face

of American anti-communism

for nearly 30 years.

From that day forward,
there would be two:

J. Edgar Hoover
and Richard M. Nixon.

I am holding
in my hand a microfilm

of very highly confidential,
secret documents

fed out of
the State Department

by communists
who were interested

in seeing that
these documents were sent

to the Soviet Union.

It's very clear
that they share

a kind of deep concern

about the communist question.

They both see
the political utility

of the communist question,

and in many ways,

it is the beginning of

a genuine,
if also highly political,

friendship that lasts
until Nixon is president.

Nixon would call Hoover

"My closest friend
in all of political life."

From the outset,

Nixon and Hoover's FBI
would work together

outside the law

through wiretapping

to protect and defend
Nixon's power,

and to crush anyone
who opposed him.

Other agencies
were involved in seeking

politically embarrassing
information on individuals

who were thought to be enemies
of the White House,

but there was also maintained
what was called

an enemies list
of the White House.

The White House intends

to cooperate fully
with the committee

so that the investigation
can go forward

in a proper atmosphere
of traditional fairness

and due process.

We returned
to the field office.

I started going through

and looking
at some of the evidence.

There was an AWOL bag.

Inside was 53 rolls

of 35-millimeter film,

two brand-new
35-millimeter cameras,

airline tickets,

and down in the bottom
of the bag

was a little black device

with wires
dangling from it,

and that's a microphone.

One detective
goes into a wall safe,

and he comes out with
all these glassine envelopes,

and he spreads them out
on--on the desk.

What I see are 34 $100 bills,

brand-new,

with consecutive
serial numbers.

Nobody burglarizes anything

with $3,400 in your possession.

You've absolutely no need.

This was not a burglary
for material gain.

This has entirely
other motivation.

These guys were probably

gonna bug the office.

This is an election year,

1972,

and this burglary
is taking place

in the Democratic
national headquarters.

I've handled hundreds
of burglaries,

and I have never had one

with these elements.

This is a fascinating,

unique opportunity

to do the ultimate

for what you signed up to do.

J. Edgar Hoover--
he wanted lawyers.

He wanted accountants.

He wanted to professionalize
the bureau.

Hoover was never
a detective.

He never solved a case.

He was a lawyer,

and he was an administrator.

It's under his watch that,
you know,

things like
the uniform crime reports

are developed, where,

the society actually starts
to get a gauge

for how much crime
of various types

happens in the United States.

Hoover's real strength
was his ability

to process and control
the flow of information.

They had files on everyone.

Those files were secret,

and you didn't know
what he knew,

and that, actually,

was the big source
of his power.

Hoover had made

congressmen, senators,

and even some presidents
live in fear

of the secret information
he wielded.

Hoover would say,

"Only I can protect you

from your enemies."

What we think of as

the modern surveillance state

begins with J. Edgar Hoover

and his unfettered power

to spy on Americans.

And the Bureau began

widespread bugs and wiretaps.

There were wiretap files
on Martin Luther King.

King was a pretty
fundamental threat

to Hoover's worldview.

Hoover was a man
who had come of age

as the United States

was really solidifying
segregation.

He really did believe

in a form of white supremacy.

That evolved into some
of the most

outrageous abuses
of civil liberties

that the FBI,
has ever committed.

Attempted to disrupt
Martin Luther King's home life

by sending audio tapes

of his extramarital trysts
to his wife.

Notes urging
Martin Luther King

to commit suicide.

"King, like all frauds,

your end is approaching.

You could have been
our greatest leader.

You, even at an early age,

have turned out
to be not a leader,

but a dissolute, abnormal,
moral imbecile.

King, there is only one thing
left for you to do.

You know what it is.
You better take it,

before your filthy,
abnormal, fraudulent self

is bared to the nation."

This is the government
of the United States

telling a citizen
of the United States

to kill themselves.

None of this
is constitutional.

None of this is legal.

All of it is possible

by the development

of a kind of unaccountable

surveillance infrastructure.

Nixon learned
everything he knew

about wiretapping and bugging

from J. Edgar Hoover.

My friends,
let me make one thing clear:

this is a nation of laws,

and as Abraham Lincoln
has said,

no one is above the law,
no one is below the law,

and we're going
to enforce the law,

and Americans
should remember that

if we're going to have
law and order.

Within weeks
of the inauguration,

Nixon has hired
his first in-house detective

to keep track
on his political opponents,

and then,
by the fall of 1969,

you see Nixon deciding that

there's absolutely
no political gain

in being a nice guy.

"The only way
that I'm going to survive

is to totally polarize
the American people,

make it us versus them,
right versus left."

But there wasn't
an enemy in Nixon's life

that he would ever forgive,

and he didn't plan
to forget them.

Nixon thought that the FBI

is something that could serve
the president,

that you should use it

to prosecute your enemies.

In June 1970,

President Nixon called
J. Edgar Hoover

and the other chiefs
of the American

intelligence communities

into the White House
and said,

"Our national security
is under threat."

All power to the people!

"I wanna take
the gloves off.

I want the powers
of the FBI and the CIA

to spy on the American people,
unlimited,

and I want a plan
on my desk

on how you're gonna do this."

And they look around

for a bright
young conservative

who will do
these kinds of things.

They come across a guy
named Tom Charles Huston.

He puts it all
down on paper,

including the fact that some
of these things are illegal.

Hoover looked
at this and said,

"Wait a minute.
We do break-ins.

We do wiretapping.

We do surveillance,"
and he objected,

not because of the illegality.

He objected because, gee,
this is FBI turf.

And Hoover
wouldn't sign it.

Nixon figures, "If Hoover
won't do my dirty work,

I'm gonna find
some people who will."

Nixon set up
his own little bucket shop

of ex-CIA and ex-FBI agents.

And these dangerous men

were known as
the White House Plumbers.

The Plumbers would carry out

political dirty tricks.

It was, in the end,
not a wise strategy.

Five men were arrested
early Saturday

at the Democratic
National Committee.

Mr. Hoover, did
the president-elect indicate

whether he'd like you
to continue on?

I feel fine.

I think hard work
is good for anybody.

I've been working hard
for many years.

How many more years
would you like to work hard?

As long as my health
would, sustain me.

I passed, 100%,
physical examination

last summer at this--

at the clinic
in La Jolla, California.

I thought he was getting old.

The White House
wanted him to be

much more aggressive
in dealing with leaks.

Nixon begins to talk
with his aides about this.

They come up with plans.

And then, Nixon pretty much
chickens out.

Nixon tells his staff,

"I'm gonna go in there,

I'm gonna tell him
that he has to leave,"

and instead, Hoover walks out
with a smile on his face,

and Nixon says,
"I couldn't do it."

It's kind of like,
I don't know,

firing your own grandfather,

or your own--
your own older uncle.

The face-to-face
meetings stopped

between Nixon and Hoover.

The phone calls dwindled down

to one every month or two.

New Year's Day, 1972.

Nixon invited Hoover down

to the Florida White House
of the day,

down in Key Biscayne.

They had
New Year's Eve together,

and New Year's Day
was Hoover's 77th birthday.

They had a cake
on Air Force One,

but it was a joyless affair.

These political players,

despite all their rivalries,

develop affections
and understandings

for each other, which,
in clumsy attempts,

sort of come to pass
for what, um,

they perceive as
friendships or respect.

Ladies and gentlemen,

it is with a profound sense
of personal loss

that I learned of the death
of J. Edgar Hoover.

America's pride

has always been its people,

and once in a long while,

of giants

who stand
head and shoulders

above their countrymen.

J. Edgar Hoover

was one of the giants.

When he hears
of Hoover's death,

Nixon's immediate reaction
was surprise,

but also, perhaps, delight,

in that this obstacle
had been removed

by the good Lord.

Hoover had amassed

an amazing amount
of confidential files.

Mark Felt was concerned
that Nixon would use them.

Mark Felt was,
under Hoover,

the number three man
at the FBI.

Mark Felt
is a true FBI person,

a Hoover loyalist,

somebody who believed
in kind of the Bureau first.

One of the first things

that Mark Felt thought about
when Hoover died

was to get rid of these files,
which were political dynamite.

Second thing is he hoped that

he would be appointed
Hoover's successor.

As in the case of other
venerable public figures,

speculation on who
will succeed J. Edgar Hoover

has long preceded his death.

Nixon saw this
as a great opportunity.

This was the moment that
Nixon had been waiting for.

What he decided to do
was not to appoint

an internal candidate.

He appointed an outsider,

a guy named L. Patrick Gray.

One of those guys who had

"RN" tattooed
on his posterior.

No one individual

could replace Mr. Hoover.

I will do my best

to follow Mr. Hoover
as acting director

of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.

Pat Gray was not
J. Edgar Hoover.

He was not the kind of man
to inspire loyalty.

And here is a--a man

who was appointed
by the president,

who wasn't investigated
as thoroughly as we were.

Our new boss
of the moment

is this obscure naval captain

with absolutely no hint
how the FBI runs.

The president
appointed L. Patrick Gray

for the sole reason
of trying to control him,

and he was controllable.

Nixon thought he was

in command and control
of the FBI.

...designating
Mr. L. Patrick Gray

as the active director
of the FBI.

I think that people
should support the president,

and I think it's really rotten,

the way they've been
talking about him.

I still feel that,

it was his aides
that, more or less,

must stand the blame for it.

How much do you think

that publicity
attending this case

is hurting President Nixon's
reelection campaign?

Not in the slightest.

I don't believe it'll hurt
in the slightest,

for the very simple reason
that neither

the president, obviously,
or anybody in the White House,

or anybody in authority
in any of the committees

working for the reelection
of the president

have any responsibility for it.

I'm not gonna answer
any specific questions

on anything relating
to this case,

I--other than to say

that--that I am
cooperating fully

with the investigating
agencies.

The five individuals
had been fingerprinted.

All five gave false names
initially to the police,

but we've identified
who they are.

Three are Cuban nationals.

One individual
with the last name Barker.

The fifth individual

is someone named
James McCord.

James McCord was
a former CIA agent.

In June, the break-in
had occurred.

Before, in May,

an individual who runs
a photography shop

was approached by Barker...

Well, they asked
for rush service.

I realized then
that there was something

a little bit shady going on.

...to develop
a photograph of a document

that said "Democratic National
Committee headquarters."

He could see the hands
of four individuals

wearing rubber gloves,

and the document was
photographed on a shaggy rug.

One of the agents
found a card.

E. Howard Hunt.

E. Howard Hunt
had a clandestine office

in Washington, D.C.

He was still shown

as a person who could have
access to the White House.

They apparently
never took away his badge.

It's gotta be CIA.

We have the money.

We're tracing this money.

E. Howard Hunt,
a CIA case manager.

It's gotta be CIA.

You have checks from Mexico,

a check from Boca Raton...

And then we found out
the Cubans

were CIA operatives.

You're talking over $100,000.

I think we stumbled into
a CIA operation.

So everything came back
CIA, CIA.

Pat Gray picks up
the scuttlebutt

that maybe this could be
a CIA operation.

Four days after the arrest
at the Watergate,

it's Mitchell who comes up
with the idea

of having the CIA

block the FBI's investigation.

They are to instruct
the FBI to back off,

because it's a matter
of national security.

The Republicans
got some bad news today.

The Washington Post
has discovered

that $25,000
in political contributions

to President Nixon's campaign

somehow turned up
in a Florida bank account.

This particular story
refers to a secret fund.

Mr. Dean informed me
that he was cleared,

and that there was
no secret fund.

We really didn't know

where the genesis
of this particular burglary

had come from.

The Committee
to Re-Elect the President

and the White House put
severe restrictions on the FBI

concerning how the interviews
could be conducted.

The interviews
had to be conducted

on their premises.

They had to be conducted

with a lawyer
representing the committee

or the White House present
during the entire interview.

I get a call
from the office,

saying I have this woman
on the line.

She got on the phone, and she
said, "Look, I couldn't talk.

The White House attorney
was there.

I have lots, lots,
to tell you."

She wants to meet with you
in Virginia

at the Marriott Hotel,

and she wants
to feel you out.

She wants to know
if she can trust you.

We met Judy Hoback,

and we sat there
for about 45 minutes,

engaging in small talk.

We put the question forward:
"Would--would you

be interviewed
concerning what you did?"

And she said she would.

When, the break-in

of the Watergate happened,

I, walked into
the, um, copy room

where the shredder was.

Gordon Liddy was in there,

and he was at the shredder,

and he said,
"Judy, I don't think

you want to be in here
right now."

I knew that I had
compromising material,

and I went over
and shredded everything,

including 13 consecutively
serialized $100 bills,

which I put between...

two pieces of paper
so that the people

wouldn't see that I was
shredding $100 bills

and thinking
I'd lost my mind.

We had cash funds
in our safe.

Gordon Liddy got money,
Jeb Magruder got money,

fellow by the name
of Porter got money.

At one point, I,
was coming home from work

and felt like I
was being followed.

And I called Paul and John,

and they told me that I had

every reason
to be concerned.

My phone might very well
be tapped.

I was fearful
for my daughter.

Well, we went
to her house in Maryland,

and we interviewed her
from about

nine o'clock in the evening

to about four o'clock
in the morning.

That interview
was a huge break in the case.

It established
that the individuals

were, in fact,
funded--funded

by the Committee
to Re-Elect the President,

so it shifted the spotlight

from the CIA

to the presidential
apparatus itself.

...Anything to do, or knew
about, the Watergate break

I have no information on that.

Coming back for more
questioning, Mr. Hunt?

E. Howard Hunt, Jr.,
former CIA agent,

White House consultant,
and novelist,

whose name was listed
in suspects' address books,

fled a chase through
the Washington streets,

trying to get back undercover.

I guess
you really don't want

to answer any questions
right now.

I can't.

At some time,
do you think you will?

I doubt it.

On March 19th of 1973,

Hunt sends a message
directly to me

that he wants
$122,000 yesterday,

or he's gonna have
seamy things to say

about the president.

That's when
I become concerned.

I realized
this isn't gonna go away.

We're being,
extorted today,

and it's gonna go on forever.

There's only one way to--
to deal with it,

and that's end the cover-up.

I pulled out of thin air,
at the time,

what I thought
was a hefty number.

I tried to shock him.

I don't respect
the type of journalism,

the shabby journalism,
that is being practiced

by The Washington Post,

and I use the term

"shoddy journalism,"
"shabby journalism,"

and I've used the term
"character assassination."

Carl Bernstein and I

were working on Watergate
at The Washington Post,

and a secret man

called "Deep Throat"
was saying,

"Hey, look,
there's something big here.

There is an overall
giant operation."

He wanted to assist.

Deep Throat set up
an arrangement.

We would meet in a parking
garage over in Virginia.

If I wanted to talk to him,

I would move a flowerpot
on my balcony,

and if he wanted to meet,
he would circle

page 20 of my New York Times.

He made it clear Howard Hunt
was a chief suspect.

It's my view that
this, matter has reached

the level of
unbelievable absurdity.

Deep Throat was worried

about what the Nixon
White House was doing.

It's just gone too far.

He didn't like
the criminality.

There was nothing
borderline illegal

about what Nixon
and his people did.

It was flatly illegal.

I refer to it as

the Saturday morning massacre.

L. Patrick Gray was convinced

it was agents
of the Washington field office

had leaked this information.

And I got a--a call,

"L. Patrick Gray wants
to see you in his office."

And we're
in J. Edgar Hoover's old

formal office now,

and there's
this huge oval table.

12 agents on one side,
12 on the other.

He grabs the rostrum
with both hands.

He became enraged.

And he begins

the out-of-control rant.

His face was flush.

He said,
"I know that the leak came

from an agent or agents
in this room."

"So I want that agent

to step forward,
and I want you

to put your credentials
on the table,

because you're fired."

"I will get
to the bottom of this!"

Everybody looked around,
and says, ""

Nobody in the room
leaked information,

so nobody stepped forward.

"You will not fool me!"

I was so angry that had
I seen him on the street,

I would've spat in his face.

"I will find out."

The leak didn't come from us.

We don't know where
the leak came from.

You denied,
a number of times,

being Deep Throat,
the source that--

that Bob Woodward
and, Carl Bernstein

credited for many
of their Watergate disclosures,

and what I'm wondering
is that

whether you want
to take credit at this time

for helping unmask
any of the Watergate cover-up.

No, no, I'm--
I'm not Deep Throat.

One time,
I was sent over

to the White House,

and was sitting
next to a man who was

this,
clear authority figure.

He represented that powerful
secret side of government.

I introduced myself,

and he said
he was Mark Felt.

I got his phone number

and called him
a couple of times,

almost making him
a career counselor.

I don't think Nixon had

any intention
of naming Mark Felt

director of the FBI,
but I think,

Mark Felt thought that
he was the logical successor.

Mark Felt
was quite upset about this,

and he set out to both

protect the FBI from
the Nixon administration,

and, to some degree,

wreak some revenge.

Mark Felt decided
from the outset

that he had to leak
information in Watergate,

to make sure that
the investigation didn't get

shut down right away.

Mark Felt
was not an ethical man.

A hero?
Mark Felt was a bum.

He took the same oath
that FBI agents took

and violated that oath.

I think whoever helped
Woodward helped the country,

no question about it.

It would be 33 years

before the identity
of Deep Throat

was revealed to the public,

but Nixon had Washington
well enough wired

so that he knew ten days

after the first stories
were printed.

And Nixon says,
"Well, what are we

gonna do about this?"

Can't fire Felt.

He knows everything that's
been going on in the FBI--

not only wiretapping, bugging,

break-ins, burglaries,

but poison pen letters,

efforts to destroy
a person in the press,

Hoover's long, long campaign

to destroy
Martin Luther King.

And worse for Nixon,
he knows everything

about the Kissinger wiretaps.

The Kissinger wiretaps,

they are of White House aides,

Kissinger's staff,

and two journalists:

people that
Nixon, suspected

were leaking to the press.

There were leaks
that exposed,

like, the secret
Cambodia bombing,

which showed lie
after lie,

deception after deception.

The leaks fingered
exactly the people

who had done all these
illegal activities.

That's what Nixon
was fighting.

"My God.
We can't let the people know

how and why
we're conducting this war."

Those wiretaps were conducted

by the FBI.

The transcripts
of these tapes

were political dynamite.

This political dynamite

was in Felt's control.

Nixon's running.

All the polls show
he's gonna win,

and we're saying this is
a massive criminal conspiracy

run by him and his people.

I give him
the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think a man
in his position

would resort
to something like that.

Get off the Watergate

and on to something
more important.

You know, we're working
against the grain here.

Nixon won reelection
in a landslide.

This may be one of the great

political victories
of all time.

In terms of votes,
that may be true,

but in terms of what
a victory really is,

a huge landslide margin

means nothing at all

unless it is a victory
for America.

- It will be a...
Nixon spends

that election night
in total misery,

because having achieved that,

he still has not

healed the wound
within him.

There is an outlook
called the loss frame,

and when you're in
the loss frame,

you tend to make irrational

and not really
clear-thinking decisions.

I had no
prior knowledge

of the Watergate break-in.

I neither took part in,
nor knew about

any of the subsequent
cover-up activities.

I found it
particularly telling

for how many bad decisions
were made during Watergate.

Dean is very young

and wet behind the ears,

but he quickly

adopts the tough-talking,

run-over-your-own-grandmother,

anything-for-Nixon approach,

and he does see
that what's happening here

is enough to send them all
to prison,

the president included.

President Nixon
is today accepting

the resignation of two
of his closest friends

and most trusted assistants
in the White House,

H.R. Haldeman
and John Ehrlichman.

I've also been asked
to announce that the president

has today
requested and accepted

the resignation
of John Dean.

John Dean
is willing to be

the prosecution's
star witness

in the investigation
of the Watergate scandal.

He will talk,
and presumably name names,

and provide even more details,

only if he himself is granted

total immunity
from prosecution.

And with
his cooperation,

the FBI has a foot
in the Oval Office.

Some of the things that were

being discussed
in these meetings

I didn't want
to make records of, Senator.

Why, sir?

I thought they were
very incriminating

to the President
of the United States.

Dean joins 14 others
who have gone to jail

because of
the Watergate scandal.

He will be moved
to a minimum-security prison

in California for the duration

of his one-
to four-year sentence.

As my lawyer said,
if you kick the king,

you better kill him.

You're fully aware,
Mr. Dean,

of the gravity
of the charges you have made

under oath,
against the highest official

of our land, the President
of the United States?

Yes, I am.

It's a beautiful

April Friday
in Washington, D.C.

On order
of the attorney general,

there will be
a dozen FBI agents.

No raid jackets.

Just these credentials that
said "FBI" in blue across.

They will be entering

"Hey, FBI! FBI!"

They will be securing
and locking down

the West Wing
of the White House.

All business offices
of the White House

including the president's.

I was rather amused by

some very
well-intentioned people

who thought that
perhaps the burdens

of the office--that
I might get so tired that,

I would consider either
slowing down or...

...or even,
some suggested, resigning.

Well, now, just so
we set that to rest,

I'm gonna use a phrase

that my Ohio father
used to use.

That's just plain poppycock.

We're gonna stay on this job
till we get the job done.

People in the
Senate Watergate Committee

started saying "Okay, who are
the satellite witnesses?"

It was Mark Felt who said,

"Somebody in the White House

named Alexander Butterfield

is a guy
who might know something."

Where you want it to go.

If it had
anything to do

with the president
or the Oval Office,

I was that point
of contact

with the Secret Service,
the FBI,

the military aides' office.

I heard that the president
wants a taping system put in,

and it's very, very classified.

Subcommittee
will come to order.

Mr. Butterfield,
are you aware

of the installation
of any listening devices

in the Oval Office
of the president?

I was aware
of listening devices, yes, sir.

An unheralded
former White House aide

named Alexander Butterfield
drops a bombshell.

The president
has secretly taped

all of his White House
conversations,

including those
involving Watergate.

Turn your hand over
and let it go out.

Turn your hand over
and let it go out.

Now jerk it back.

I'll-I'll stay here
and try to

learn how to use the yo-yo.

You go out
and be president, Roy.

As the walls closed in,

Nixon was almost flailing,

looking for political support
around the country,

and one of his final bases

was in the American South.

The country tonight
is in the midst

of what may be
the most serious

constitutional crisis
in its history.

At 8:15, Friday night,

the president announced

that he would not obey
a court order

to surrender
the Watergate tapes.

The Supreme Court has
just ruled on the tapes...

Newly-released tapes
show that he approved

the whole Watergate cover-up

just six days
after the break-in.

I had
no prior knowledge

of the Watergate break-in.

I neither
took part in,

nor knew about,
any of the subsequent

cover-up activities.

Washington Post
ran a story.

It was wrong.

It is based on hearsay.

This is the first time
that a president has ever

left office voluntarily.

As we watch
President Nixon

fly away from Washington
for the last time.

By the time he arrives
in San Clemente,

he will be
private citizen Nixon.

When he gets off the plane

in southern California
after leaving Washington,

for--for a final
few hours,

he goes through the motions,
and you can see him

acting presidential,
acting as if he's got it all,

um, still together,

and then they get
in that car, and--

and he loses it,

to the extent that

at one point that summer,

his kids are begging
President Ford

to pardon their dad,

because they fear that

through natural causes,

or possibly by just walking

out into the ocean one day,

Nixon's life is gonna be

cut short from the price

that he's paying
for Watergate.

What happened in Watergate

and the ultimate result
of Watergate

and the FBI playing
this key role--

I think it established

that the FBI does have
this responsibility.

Was not until
Watergate that we saw

that the domestic enemy
of our Constitution

could be the President
of the United States himself.

The FBI wasn't gonna be

pushed around
by the Nixon administration.

They were investigators
who were gonna find out

what happened
at a moment when

the White House itself
very much wants this

to be shut down.

Well, it's a shame

what's happened with the FBI.

When everybody--
the level of anger

at what
they've been witnessing

with respect to the FBI--
it's certainly very sad.

The FBI is so American.

If it didn't exist now,

we'd have to reinvent it,

because it's embedded
in law and rules,

but it has its own culture

and it is independent.

You see this now

with the firing
of James Comey.

Comey is the embodiment
of this kind of,

"Hey, we're the FBI.

We're G-men,

we're gonna do it our way.

Yeah, there are rules,
but you know what?

I'm not playing by 'em."

There's never
been a full public accounting

of FBI domestic
intelligence operations.

Therefore, this committee
has undertaken

such an investigation.

In 1975 and 1976,

the skeletons
came tumbling out

of the FBI's closet.

30 years
of systemically violating

the civil rights of Americans.

What you've described

is a series of illegal actions

intended squarely to deny

First Amendment rights
to some Americans.

For a very brief moment,

Watergate sort of pulled
the cover off

of all the other
dirty tricks that

other presidents
had been countenancing,

um, throughout the Cold War,

and so you had some immediate
well-intentioned efforts

on Capitol Hill.

But lessons learned
in Washington

are usually lessons learned
very briefly.

Mr. President,
you have stated flatly

that you did not trade
weapons for hostages.