Nixon White House tapes
Audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff surfaced during the Watergate scandal in 1973 and 1974, leading to Nixon's resignation.[1]
In February 1971, a sound-activated taping system was installed in the Oval Office, including in Nixon's Wilson desk, using Sony TC-800B open-reel tape recorders[2] to capture audio transmitted by telephone taps and concealed microphones.[3] The system was expanded to include other rooms within the White House and Camp David.[3] The system was turned off on July 18, 1973, two days after it became public knowledge as a result of the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee hearings.[3] Nixon was not the first president to record his White House conversations; President Franklin D. Roosevelt recorded Oval Office press conferences for a short period in 1940.[4]
The system was mentioned during the televised testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield before the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee in 1973.[5] Nixon's refusal to comply with a subpoena for the tapes was the basis for an article of impeachment against him, and led to his resignation on August 9, 1974.[6]
On August 19, 2013, the Nixon Library and the National Archives and Records Administration released the final 340 hours of the tapes that cover the period from April 9 through July 12, 1973.[7]
Post-presidency[edit]
After Nixon's resignation, the federal government took control of all of his presidential records, including the tapes, under the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974. From the time that the federal government seized his records until his death, Nixon was locked in frequent legal battles over control of the tapes. He argued that the 1974 act was unconstitutional because it violated the constitutional principles of separation of powers and executive privilege and infringed on his personal privacy rights and the First Amendment right of association.[46][47]
The legal disputes would continue for 25 years, past Nixon's death in 1994. He initially lost several cases,[48] but the courts ruled in 1998 that some 820 hours and 42 million pages of documents were his personal private property that must be returned to his estate.[49] However, as Nixon had been dead for four years at the time of the court ruling, it may have been a moot development after years of legal battles over the tapes.
On July 11, 2007, the National Archives was granted official control of the previously privately operated Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.[50] The facility now houses the tapes and periodically releases additional tapes to the public that are available online and in the public domain.[51][52]