Historical Context- President Richard M. Nixon was being charged of trying to cover up the Watergate incident. Watergate was and still is the headquarters for the Democratic Party. Some of Nixon's men broke into the complex and tried to wire tap the telephones. However, the bread in went bad. So, they went in the second time but this time they were caught by a security guard. They were taken to prison. The reason why the men wanted to wire tap the phone was so that they can try and find some dirt about the Democratic candidate running against Nixon for the Presidency. When the men were taken down to jail, they were being asked why were they wire tapping the phones, they did not talk. Because Nixon was paying them to keep quiet. But, they eventually they started talking. They told everyone that President Nixon was involved with the crime. Even though Nixon was not in charge of sending these men to the Watergate Complex, his Chief of Staff was. This gave the idea that he was some how tied in to the crime.
The wire-tapping was not a very large crime, all Nixon had to say was that he did not do it. He wouldn't have been lying. However, Nixon did not say this. Instead of confessing it to the public
Justice Warren E. Burger wrote, "Nowhere in the Constitution ... is there any explicit reference to a privilege of Confidentiality," he also said, "yet to the extent this interest relates to the effective discharge of a President's powers, it is constitutionally based." (The Supreme Court A to Z.)
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