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Three articles of impeachment were voted on by the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives against President Nixon at the end of July, 1974. The articles were:

• obstruction of justice

• abuse of power

• contempt of Congress

The reasons for each article is lengthy, but the entire text of each can be found online on many different sites. The genuine fear on the part of lawmakers, pundits, and the media was that the high crimes and misdemeanors laid out by the Judiciary Committee might go unpunished. President Nixon might continue to push back against his critics, and continue to subvert the Constitution, and might leave office in January 1977 having managed to hang on. That seems unlikely. White House staff members had resigned, been ordered to resign or had gone to prison. This did not go unnoticed by those covering the White House, who wondered how deep the story went. Those former employees only knew part of the story. The release of the unexpurgated tapes made it all clear.

After it was all over it was common to hear people say, "the system worked;" in other words, the Constitution worked. It provides for a means to lawfully remove a president from office, and the first of those measures had been enacted. President Nixon had not been able to prevent the House Judiciary committee from doing its job. Rather than see it take its articles to the floor of the House, Nixon resigned. Somewhat ironically, his last act as president was entirely in keeping with the Constitution. (Article 2, Section 1.)

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10y ago
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9y ago

The constitutional question came up when a Congressional investigator demanded access to privileged White House documents and tape recordings made of meetings held in the President's private office. It brought up the issue of Congress insisting on privileged White House documents being turned over to them.

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12y ago

It didn't. A Constitutional Crisis is when the country's constitution is in dispute, such as when the Civil War broke out.

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Q: Why was Watergate a constitutional crisis?
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