According to Congress, a president can obstruct justice. Just as long as that president is a member of the opposite political party. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
On Aug. 5, 1974, shortly after losing a case at the Supreme Court, the administration of Richard Nixon released an Oval Office recording that it had kept secret to that point. In the tape, Nixon and his aides discussed how to cover up the administration’s involvement in the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, determining that former CIA deputy director Vernon Walters could call acting FBI director Pat Gray and tell the FBI to back off any further investigations.
The release of the tape was definitive proof that Nixon himself was involved in an effort to coverup the break-in and block investigations. The House Judiciary Committee had already voted to advance articles of impeachment against Nixon to the full House, including one focused on obstruction of justice and Nixon’s having “engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation” into the Watergate incident. Nixon’s position was untenable and he resigned, preventing any impeachment from happening.
A few decades later, there was a president impeached for obstruction of justice: Bill Clinton. Clinton at one point faced four articles of impeachment, two centered on perjury (including lying under oath when offering testimony for an affidavit) and one on obstruction related to his efforts to prevent information about his affair with Monica Lewinsky from coming to light — including encouraging her to give false testimony.
View the complete January 18 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.