te voted to set up a special committee to investigate Watergate. On March 21, John Dean, a White House lawyer, told Nixon that "a cancer is growing on the presidency" because of Watergate.( What Was Watergate? by: Pamela Kilian )Judge Sirica received a letter, on March 23, from James McCord, one of the Watergate burglars, that said that not everyone involved in the Watergate burglary was identified and that some witnesses lied during the trial. Five days after Judge Sirica received the letter, James McCord testified in a secret session of the Senate Watergate Committee that John Mitchell, John Dean, Charles Colson, and Jeb Magruder (a top aid to Mitchell) knew about the Watergate break-in before it occurred.On April 14, Jeb Magruder told the Watergate prosecutors that he was involved in the Watergate cover-up. Sixteen days after Magruder confessed, Nixon announced the resignations of John Dean, John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst.On May 17, the Senate Watergate hearings open. During the trial, Alexander Butterfield, a White House aide, revealed that Nixon had tape-recorded all of his White House conversations since 1970. The head of the Senate Watergate Committee, Senator Sam Ervin, sent Nixon a letter asking to see any tapes that contain Watergate-related conversations.Nixon refused to turn over any tapes to anyone. The Senate issued a subpoena for the tapes. Judge Sirica ordered Nixon to give him the tapes. Sirica said that he would listen to them and decide if the Watergate grand jury should hear them. On October 23, the White House announced that Nixon would obey Sirica's order and turn over the tapes that he requested. In the House of Representatives, forty-four Watergate-related bills were introduced. Twenty-two of the bills called for impeachment of the president or for the House to a least look into the idea. Twelve of the bills called for a new special prosecutor. Eight im...
