Facts of the Case
- Prior to President Nixon's re-election, seven men broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters. It was suspected that the Nixon administration was involved in this breach.
- After President Nixon's re-election, the Senate began investigating this incident. Witnesses testified that Nixon and other high-ranking officials were aware of the plan to break-in to the DNC headquarters and the subsequent cover-ups. When it was discovered that Nixon had a secret audio taping system in his office, prosecutors insisted for the tapes to be turned over to the investigators. Hesitant to do so, the President chose instead to fire the special prosecutor and hire another. The new prosecutor continued to pursue the tapes.
- Nixon provided the Senate with heavily-edited tapes, citing the idea of executive privilege which allows a president to withhold information from Congress, the Courts, and the public.
Issues
- In this particular case, the issue was whether the Senate could force President Nixon to give them his secret audio tapes that may contain incriminating information pertaining to the DNC break-in.
- …show more content…
The powers of the executive branch are spelled out very loosely in Article II of the Constitution. The power of executive privilege is not expressly given anywhere. It is a power that has been derived from Constitutional foundations such as the idea of separation of powers among the three branches, but the scope of this power is very unclear. Prosecutors argued that the Founding Father's did not want a president who was above the law, while the President argued that executive privilege was necessary in order to have a functioning executive branch, and thus a functioning
- Prior to President Nixon's re-election, seven men broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters. It was suspected that the Nixon administration was involved in this breach.
- After President Nixon's re-election, the Senate began investigating this incident. Witnesses testified that Nixon and other high-ranking officials were aware of the plan to break-in to the DNC headquarters and the subsequent cover-ups. When it was discovered that Nixon had a secret audio taping system in his office, prosecutors insisted for the tapes to be turned over to the investigators. Hesitant to do so, the President chose instead to fire the special prosecutor and hire another. The new prosecutor continued to pursue the tapes.
- Nixon provided the Senate with heavily-edited tapes, citing the idea of executive privilege which allows a president to withhold information from Congress, the Courts, and the public.
Issues
- In this particular case, the issue was whether the Senate could force President Nixon to give them his secret audio tapes that may contain incriminating information pertaining to the DNC break-in.
- …show more content…
The powers of the executive branch are spelled out very loosely in Article II of the Constitution. The power of executive privilege is not expressly given anywhere. It is a power that has been derived from Constitutional foundations such as the idea of separation of powers among the three branches, but the scope of this power is very unclear. Prosecutors argued that the Founding Father's did not want a president who was above the law, while the President argued that executive privilege was necessary in order to have a functioning executive branch, and thus a functioning