12 Facts About Watergate tapes

Nixon White House tapes are audio recordings of conversations between US President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff, produced between 1971 and 1973.

Nixon's refusal of a congressional subpoena to release the Watergate tapes was the basis for an article of impeachment against Nixon, and led to his subsequent resignation on August 9,1974.

Special Counsel Archibald Cox, a former United States Solicitor General under President John F Kennedy, asked District Court Judge John Sirica to subpoena nine relevant tapes to confirm the testimony of White House Counsel John Dean.

President Nixon initially refused to release the Watergate tapes, putting two reasons forward: first, that the Constitutional principle of executive privilege extends to the Watergate tapes and citing the separation of powers and checks and balances within the Constitution, and second, claiming they were vital to national security.

Watergate tapes later insisted that she was not responsible for the remaining 13 minutes of buzz.

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White House lawyers first heard of the gap on the evening of November 14,1973, and Judge Sirica, who had issued the subpoenas for the Watergate tapes, was not told until November 21, after the president's attorneys had decided that there was "no innocent explanation" they could offer.

Watergate tapes claimed that it was an intensive investigation but came up empty.

The Watergate tapes are now preserved in a climate-controlled vault in case future technology allows for restoration of the missing audio.

Later that month, Nixon released more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the subpoenaed Watergate tapes, but refused to surrender the actual Watergate tapes, claiming executive privilege once more.

Watergate tapes lacked substantial support in the Senate as well; Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott estimated that no more than 15 senators were willing to even consider acquittal.

Watergate tapes argued that the 1974 act was unconstitutional because it violated the constitutional principles of separation of powers and executive privilege and infringed on his personal privacy rights and the First Amendment right of association.

Watergate tapes initially lost several cases, but the courts ruled in 1998 that some 820 hours and 42 million pages of documents were his personal private property that must be returned to his estate.