Watergate Burglaries

The Watergate burglaries, which took place May 28 and June 17, 1972, were the focus of the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation two years later. Five men who were apprehended inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building during the second burglary implicated themselves on other counts and charges by voluntarily telling investigators about having committed a "first break-in".

Physical evidence that might have corroborated the testimony was destroyed by a number of people involved in and peripheral to the first burglary, including G. Gordon Liddy, Jeb Magruder, John Dean, and the acting head of the FBI at the time, L. Patrick Gray, who resigned after his admission of destruction of evidence that had been taken from the safe of E. Howard Hunt.