bob haldeman and john ehrlichman.been my privilege to know. >> when he gets rid of haldeman and ehrlichman, he's also planning his defense. >> the watergate scandal broke wide open today. the two closest men to the president, h.r. haldeman and john ehrlichman, have resigned. >> he thinks this will protect him and he will claim he had known nothing about a cover up. until i told him on march 21st. he is sorting this all out until the end of the month when he decides he's just got to let everybody go. and then of course he fires me. >> on may 17th the senate held its first public hearing. one by one, the president's men were summoned to the senate chamber. under cross-examination each was asked, had the president of the united states broken the law? >> what did the president know and when did he know it? >> i don't think there's ever been a moment in american nonfiction television history that is as riveting as the watergate hearings were. >> i did not grow up with the memory of having seen it, obviously. but it was thi

john ehrlichman, bob haldeman, john dean and 16 others went to jail. >>, you know, to this day i'm not the conspiracy to obstruct justice. that's one of the things i'm actually trying to figure out. when did i cross the line? when did i enter that illegal conspiracy? no question i went across it. >> there was a real major breakdown in personal integrity as well as organizational integrity on the part of us that were given those assignments. >> not quite sure exactly where i'm going to be for the next few months, but i'm going to miss you all. >> it also requires you to ask the ethical questions. is this right? is it respectful? is it responsible? is it fair? we didn't ask any of those questions. and we should have started with is it legal. we were so caught up in trying to serve the president's needs or desires that we did not ask those questions. >> i, gerald r. ford, do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto richard nixon for all offenses against the united states which he -- >> president ford's pardon of richard nixon stunned the nation. nixon's legal problems were now over. >

john ehrlichman never knew about the tapes. >> two people told me about it before it was public. i called bradley on a saturday night i believe and said nixon taped himself. what should we do? and ben said, oh, i wouldn't bust one on it. and it's kind of a b-plus story. okay. the boss says b-plus. i won't work on it. monday they called butterfield and i remember ben came by and knocked on my desk and said, okay, it's better than a b-plus. >> from that point on, of course, it's a fight for the tapes because they answer the questions. am i telling the truth? is the president telling the truth? what else happened? the prosecutors immediately subpoena the tapes. the senate subpoenas them. so nixon is early advised to destroy the tapes. somehow we always leave packing to the last minute. guys, i have a couple of things to wash we got this. even on quick cycle, tide pods cleans great 6x the cleaning power, even in the quick cycle it's got to be tide >>> the discovery of the nixon tapes would ignite a new battle ground in the watergate drama. it went something like this. nixon's attorne

person who others below me report and i in turn report up to haldeman and ehrlichman. >> any further developments on watergate? >> johnn almost full-time basis and reporting to ehrlichman and me on a continuing basis. and no one else. there's no one else in the white house that has any knowledge at all. >> so they're deeply involved. it is a classic criminal conspiracy. >> as woodward and bernstein had suspected, the first clue to that conspiracy would be found at the republican committee to re-elect the president. the treasurer was hugh sloan. >> we'd raised $60 million, which was the most successful fund-raising to that point in history of any presidential campaign. >> but some of the committee's practices were starting to make sloan uneasy. >> hugh sloan, he was right out of republican central casting. clean cut, seemed to always have a shirt and tie on. but he was troubled. because he was the one who was giving out the money. >> i was fine with everything up to the point i was directed to give cash to specific individuals. >> sloan would soon learn that some of the campaign money raised by the re-election committe

we know what john ehrlichman has said. today know they were lying?horse they know they're lying about black people and drug involvement he said, but have so demonized it that we don't even want to talk about it will stop and whole communities, meanwhile, are targeted under the guise of keeping children safe. they're actually making children less day. it is been the reason -- in any case you look at. in trayvon martin's case, the first in the lawyer says, "oh, yeah marijuana in a system" as if that was justification. they say the same thing about sandra bland. eric garner was selling loose cigarettes, they claim. so all of these drug products are used as a justification to kill people, to roll tanks into ferguson. that comes from drug war dollars. what they talk about a people dying of drug use, but what is actually more harmful is the drug war. bookit is clear in this that nothing in patrisse's life would indicate who she would become. i am saying "she" but she is right here, but i'm talking to you, asha. prisoner's wife" about your husband who was i

john meechum. this is not entirely new in washington, d.c. you had robert mcnamara lie about the war for years. until he finally woke up late in the johnson administration, obviously lbj, nixon lied about vietnam. ehrlichman and halderman and agnew and others lying about what was going on in watergate. but in watergate there were at least a few howard bakers, there were barry goldwaters, that would step forward and speak truth to power. doesn't it seem to you over the past several months that even the senator from your state, bob corker, that i've got great respect for. he seemed to go a bit mute on this as james fellows at the "atlantic" always brings up, floor speeches are great, but two republican votes needed in the senate. just two republicans with a conscience are needed to say no to this madness. where are two? >> and of course, what creates the courage to do that is either not running for office, or perhaps being sick. and as much as we appreciate their service, that's an interesting point. nobody who is really in the arena right now, who might face voters again, is stepping up to play sam irvin or on the republican side, a goldwater or a hugh scott or howard. it seems to me that something happene