history that a president was impeached. Not wanted to make .

             that kind of history, Nixon resigned the presidency on .

             August 9,1974. He complained profusely of a lack of support .

             from Congress. .

             In the following months, several of his assistants were .

             convicted of various crimes connected with Watergate. Nixon .

             himself was never indicted, and was pardoned by his .

             successor, President Gerald Ford. In September of 1972, the .

             burglars, commonly called Plumbers, and two paid co- .

             plotters, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, were indicted .

             on charges of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping .

             (Geocities, 1999). .

             Four months later, these men were convicted by District .

             Court Judge John J. Sirica. Each was sentenced to a term .

             in prison. Judge Sirica was convinced that significant .

             details, which were pertinent to the case, had not been .

             exposed during the trial and so the judge was willing to .

             make an offer of leniency in exchange for more information .

             from these men. .

             The information these made offered the judge and other .

             legal representatives, made it increasingly evident that .

             the Watergate burglars were tied closely to the Central .

             Intelligence Agency and the Committee to Re-elect the .

             President. .

             At this point even some of Nixon"s aides began talking to .

             federal prosecutors. The defection of aides such as Jeb .

             Stuart Magruder, assistant to John N. Mitchell, the .

             director of the Committee to Reelect the President, quickly .

             implicated others in Nixon"s inner circle. In February of .

             1973, Sen. Sam Ervin, Jr., headed an investigative .

             committee established by the Senate to research the events .

             of the growing scandal (Geocities, 1999). .

             As disclosures of White House involvement in the Watergate .

             rolled out into the public knowledge, Nixon announced the .

             dismissal of his counsel John W. Dean III and the .

             resignations of John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman, two of .

             his closest advisors. .

             These three men were close enough to the president himself, .