Watergate

Iran-Contra

Whitewater/Lewinsky

The Crime

 

 

·      Secret investigation unit activities

·      bugging Democratic National HQ

·      Selling weapons to Iran

·      Providing aid to the Contras in defiance of legislation

·      Alleged financial scandal concerning Clinton investments while Arkansas Governor

·      President’s affair with White House intern

The Cover-up

·      Using CIA to quash FBI investigation

·      preparing to pay hush money to members of secret investigation unit

·      Lying to US Senators

·      lying to Cabinet officers

·      withholding evidence

·      Documents missing

·      Lying in Civil Suit and in Grand Jury Testimony about an affair with a White House Intern

Investigations

·      Congressional committees

·      Grand Jury

·      Special Prosecutor

·      Congressional committees

·      Special Prosecutor

·      Tower Commission

·      Congressional Committees

·      Independent Counsels

·      Several Grand Juries

Investigation Focus

·      Activities of Plumbers, White House, and President

·      Focused on President very quickly

·      Activities of NSC Staff, CIA, and presidential management

·      Focus on President as potentially guilty of crimes avoided by Congressional committees

·      Activities of White House staff, President, First Lady, and private business people and governmental officials in Arkansas

“Smoking Gun”

·      White House tapes

·      Crash of Contra supply plane

·      News articles about NSC staff trips to Iran

·      Tapes of Lewinsky describing affair

·      testimony of Lewinsky

·      gifts to Lewinsky, including a dress

Partisanship

·      Bipartisan investigations

·      Bipartisan investigations

·      Republican-led investigations

Relationship to President’s Management Style

·      Secretive and paranoid Nixon surrounded by loyalists

·      Staff fed paranoia; no one would say “No” to president

·      Staff felt their job was to protect the president

·      Reagan inattentiveness allowed NSC staff to freelance

·      Lack of any oversight on NSC staff by senior staffers allowed them to freelance

·      Ideological commitment convinced many that if they feel something is right, laws are irrelevant

·      Undisciplined President given too much leeway

·      Lack of strong staff system meant that one had the job of saying “No” to the president

·      Loyal staff felt their job was to protect the president

·      Inexperienced staff did not work to prevent huge staff and presidential mistakes

Big Implications

·      President has team of secret investigators sabotaging Democratic campaign

·      uses US government to cover-up illegal activities by his campaign

·      Administration ignores and violates laws it does not agree with

·      President, in effect, has decided that Congress should have no role in foreign policy

·      President lied to investigators repeatedly about a consensual affair with a government intern

Legal Action

·      Resignations, indictments, convictions, jail time

·      Resignations, indictments, convictions, some jail time, some convictions overturned (based on immunity gained in congress), pardons

·      Resignations, indictments and convictions of several peripheral figures for crimes unrelated to, but uncovered during the investigations

Congressional Action

·      House Judiciary Committee votes to impeach

·      Full House does not get a chance to vote

·      None

·      House impeaches president

·      Senate does not convict

Presidential Fate

·      Resignation when faced with near certain removal from office

·      President’s image tarnished very slightly

·      President’s image tarnished

·      Segment of population sees him as one of the worst presidents