Saturday Night Massacre - Impact and Legacy

Impact and Legacy

Nixon was compelled to allow Bork to appoint a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski to continue the investigation. There was a question whether Jaworski would limit the investigation to only the Watergate burglary itself or follow Cox's lead and also look at broader corrupt activities such as the "White House Plumbers." As it turned out, Jaworski also looked at broader corrupt activities.

While Nixon continued to refuse to turn over actual tapes, he agreed to release transcripts of a large number of them. Nixon cited the fact that any audio pertinent to national security information would have to be redacted from the released tapes. There was further controversy on December 7, when an 18 1/2 minute portion of one tape was found to have been erased. Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, said she had accidentally erased the tape by pushing the wrong foot pedal on her tape player while answering the phone. Later forensic analysis determined that the tape had been erased in several segments — at least five, and perhaps as many as nine.

Nixon's presidency would later succumb to mounting pressure resulting from the Watergate scandal and its cover-up. In the face of a certain threat of removal from office through impeachment and conviction, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. The Independent Counsel Act of 1978 was a direct result of the Saturday Night Massacre.

Bork's role in the Saturday Night Massacre would later play a role in his rejection for a Supreme Court associate judgeship in 1987.