Leon Jaworski Appointed as Special Prosecutor to Replace Fired Archibald Cox

On November 1, 1973, just twelve days after the Saturday Night Massacre, Solicitor General Robert Bork announced he had selected, and President Nixon approved, Leonidas “Leon” Jaworski to serve as the second special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. Jaworski, a prominent Texas attorney and law professor born September 19, 1905, stepped into a role that had been violently disrupted when Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox on October 20. The appointment came amid a political firestorm, with over 50,000 citizens sending telegrams demanding accountability and impeachment resolutions being introduced in Congress. Nixon had little choice but to accept the appointment of a new prosecutor given the overwhelming public backlash to the Saturday Night Massacre.

The political and public reactions to Nixon’s firing of Cox had been so negative and damaging that the impeachment process against Nixon began just ten days later, on October 30, 1973. On November 14, 1973, United States District Judge Gerhard Gesell ruled that Cox’s dismissal had been illegal, providing legal vindication for the position taken by former Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, who had resigned rather than carry out Nixon’s order. Jaworski took office understanding that his appointment was meant to demonstrate the independence of the investigation, though he also knew the President had tried to eliminate his predecessor for pursuing evidence too aggressively.

Jaworski proved to be as tenacious as Cox, subsequently subpoenaing sixty-four taped conversations that Nixon wanted to keep secret. When Nixon resisted, Jaworski pursued the case all the way to the Supreme Court. On July 24, 1974, in United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that the Special Prosecutor had the right to sue the President and that Nixon’s “generalized assertion of [executive] privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.” This landmark ruling forced Nixon to release the tapes, including the “smoking gun” recording that proved his involvement in obstruction of justice from the beginning. Jaworski’s successful prosecution demonstrated that institutional mechanisms could still function even after a president attempted to destroy them, though it also showed how much depended on individual officials willing to resist executive pressure and public mobilization to support them.