Notes

Watergate scandal, following a burglary at the Democrat Party headquarters in the Watergate building complex in Washington, D.C.

The subpoena was designed to give Jaworski access to tapes and papers that concerned meetings between Nixon and people who had been indicted in connection with the burglary.

damaging to Nixon as well as the indicted people.

releasing edited versions of dozens of conversations and parts of 20 conversations that the subpoena had named. However, he asked the federal court to quash the subpoena based on lack of necessity and the President's executive privilege.

Nixon's attorney also attempted to argue that courts were not qualified to hear disputes regarding these communications within the executive branch. The federal district court denied the request to quash, while Jaworski sought complete compliance with the subpoena. Both parties appealed, and the Supreme Court expedited its review to hear arguments within a month.

They did find that a qualified privilege existed while the President is in office, but it could not extend to all circumstances and especially not to those in which serious wrongdoing was convincingly alleged.