On August 8, 1974, 51 years ago today, the President of the United States of America, Richard Nixon, announced in a televised address from the Oval Office his resignation from office, preempting the impeachment process. He was the first president in that country’s history to take that step, and the reason was the scandal known as Watergate—the famous case of political espionage that brought to the fore the workings of what was supposed to be a democracy and shook the foundations of the American system.
It all began in the early morning of June 17, 1972, when five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. These individuals, linked to Nixon’s re-election committee, were attempting to install listening devices and steal documents. The journalistic investigation, led by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post, uncovered a far broader plot that included a program of espionage and sabotage against political opponents, as well as a subsequent cover-up orchestrated from the White House.
Crucial information came through an anonymous informant, nicknamed Deep Throat, later revealed to be the FBI’s deputy director. His leaks made it possible to connect the dots and demonstrate the direct involvement of Nixon’s close associates, the existence of illegal funds to finance the operations, as well as the president’s obstruction of judicial investigations. Nixon lost political support and, facing the impeachment process, decided to step ahead and resign. The incoming president after him decided to grant him an absolute pardon, so he was neither tried nor convicted for the facts, in a clear example of political impunity.
This case is not the only one in which information obtained illicitly was used to influence political processes, revealing the structural impunity of those who embody power: more recent examples can be seen in Hondurasgate, with the current hybrid of disinformation operations and U.S. interference we recently discussed; or Cambridge Analytica, with the systematic exploitation of personal data to manipulate public opinion, without accountability.
Watergate is a paradigmatic example from which to learn about the need to guarantee transparency mechanisms, also to be exercised from the citizenry, such as anonymous leaks. Together with other cases, it shows that political impunity is structural and functional to power, and that fighting it and standing up to it is a democratic duty.