October 20, 1973 is a date to remember in the history of the United States: in the midst of Watergate, the scandal that overwhelmed Republican President Richard Nixon the previous year, exactly 46 years ago what has been called the "Saturday massacre" took place. evening". Nobody died, mind you, but the episode caused a massacre at the top of the US judiciary. What exactly happened? A few months earlier, on July 13, during the investigations it was discovered that all conversations were automatically recorded in the famous Oval Office of the White House: Nixon's involvement could thus be quickly proven more than a year after the discovery of some illegal interceptions carried out at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, by men connected to the Republican Party.
But the president blatantly refused to release the tapes to prosecutors, using the principle of executive privilege, and ordered Special Counsel Archibald Cox, through Attorney General Elliot Lee Richardson, to drop his subpoena. It was Cox's refusal to lead to the so-called "massacre": Nixon forced Attorney General Richardson to resign and his deputy William Ruckelshaus, looking for someone at the Justice Department to fire Cox. This search ended up with Attorney General Robert Bork, who did as he was asked and fired Special Counsel Cox. Allegations of government malfunction prompted Nixon to famously quote, "I'm not a crook" (I'm not a crook), on November 17 in front of 400 Associated Press editors gathered at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
But the troubles for President Nixon did not end there: he was obviously forced to accept the settlement of a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, who continued the investigation, which reached its turning point in the following year: on July 24, 1974 the court affirmed unanimously that Nixon's request to use executive privilege on the tapes was inadmissible, and ordered him to turn them over to Jaworski. On July 30, Nixon carried out the order and released the offending tapes. Soon after, the court charged the president with two other charges, "abuse of power" and "obstructing Congress." In particular publication of the tape known as "the smoking gun" (smoking gun) brought with it the prospect of a sure impeachment for the president, who in fact resigned a few days later, on 8 August.
