US Presidency
1974

It turned out that they were connected with my reelection committee, and the Watergate break in became a major issue in the campaign. The full resources of the FBI and the Justice Department were used to investigate the incident thoroughly. I instructed my staff and campaign aides to cooperate fully with the investigation. The FBI conducted nearly 1,500 interviews. For 9 months, until March 1973, I was assured by those charged with conducting and monitoring the investigations that no one in the White House was involved. Nevertheless, for more than a year, there have been allegations and insinuations that I knew about the planning of the Watergate break in and that I was involved in an extensive plot to cover it up. The House Judiciary Committee is now investigating these charges. On March 6, I ordered all materials that I had previously furnished to the Special Prosecutor turned over to the committee. These included tape recordings of 19 Presidential conversations and more than 700 documents from private White House files.