Watergate scandal. But president Richard Nixon wasnt one of them. The watergate grand jury considered president nixon to be a coconspirator but as a sitting president no federal prosecutor ever charged him with a crime. Thats why it was such a crucial touchstone moment in American History when nixon stepped down as president and his successor gerald ford immediately pardoned him. It was a remarkably controversial thing. The country was in uproar. People were mad at ford about it for years and decades thereafter. It was something specific and important about nixon and about what the criminal law means around president s. Because nixon leaving office as president , him resigning meant that as soon as he was no longer president he could have been charged. He could have been criminally indicted. He might have ended up in prison. It is the fact that gerald ford pardoned him as soon as he left office, that meant nixon never was charged. So we have never seen a president sent to the pokey. Th
President no federal prosecutor ever charged him with a crime. Thats why it was such a crucial touchstone moment in American History when nixon stepped down as president and his successor gerald ford immediately pardoned him. It was a remarkably controversial thing. The country was in uproar. People were mad at ford about it for years and decades thereafter. It was something specific and important about nixon and about what the criminal law means around president s. Because nixon leaving office as president , him resigning meant that as soon as he was no longer president he could have been charged. He could have been criminally indicted. He might have ended up in prison. It is the fact that gerald ford pardoned him as soon as he left office, that meant nixon never was charged. So we have never seen a president sent to the pokey. The iran contra scandal in the 1980s where there were a ton of criminal indictments. 14 Reagan Administration officials were criminally charged in the scandal