Smoking Gun Tape: Nixon Orders CIA to Block FBI Watergate Investigation

Just six days after the Watergate break-in, President Richard Nixon met with his Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office from 10:04am to 11:39am to discuss damage control. During this conversation—secretly recorded by Nixon’s own voice-activated taping system—the President ordered Haldeman to direct Deputy CIA Director Vernon Walters to interfere with FBI Acting Director Pat Gray’s investigation. Nixon intended to mislead the FBI into believing that the Watergate break-in involved national security and CIA operations, not politics. The President instructed Haldeman to tell the CIA to request that the FBI call off its investigation, actively plotting to use one federal agency to obstruct another’s criminal probe.

This tape, which would not be revealed until July 1973 and not released until August 1974 under Supreme Court order, earned the moniker “smoking gun” because it provided irrefutable evidence of Nixon’s direct involvement in a cover-up of the Watergate break-in. The recording directly contradicted two years of public denials by the President, showing him personally orchestrating the obstruction of justice at the highest levels of government. The conversation demonstrated that Nixon was not merely aware of the cover-up but was its architect, directing the abuse of intelligence agencies for political purposes and criminal ends.

When the Supreme Court ordered the tape’s release on July 24, 1974, and Nixon finally complied on August 5, the political consequences were immediate and devastating. The eleven Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee who had voted against impeachment charges announced they would change their votes. Even Nixon’s staunchest defenders recognized that the evidence was incontrovertible. It became clear that Nixon would be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Three days after releasing the tape, Nixon announced his resignation. Haldeman, who participated in the conspiracy, was later convicted of perjury, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice, serving 18 months in prison—while Nixon himself would escape prosecution through Gerald Ford’s pardon.