What actually happened at the Watergate hotel and what did it have to do with Nixon?
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During the presidential election campaign the Democratic party rented temporary office spaces at the Watergate Hotel and Conference center to serve as their headquarters. The Republican party used offices at the White House for the same purpose. The Republican election campaign, lead by Nixon, hired professional burglars to break into the offices at Watergate and copy secret documents from the Democratic campaign. This was only partially successful as they did not get into the most secret areas and they were spotted by security guards. The police managed to track them down after some time as well as some of their contacts within the Republican campaign. The police then managed to uncover even more illegal activities related to the election campaign. Eventually a number of people were sent to prison for this.
As for Nixon the police managed to uncover that he had secretly taped conversations and phone calls at the oval office. And these did include conversations about how Nixon’s first reactions to hearing about the brake inn at Watergate was to plot against the police and try to stop them from finding the culprits. These tapes themselves were first withheld from the courts, something which is also illegal. In the end Nixon stepped down as president and was immediately pardoned.
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