On July 23, 1973, President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over his secret audio recordings to the Senate Watergate Committee and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, citing executive privilege. His refusal kickeds off a legal battle that culminateds in the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling one year later that Nixon must hand over the tapes.
Between February 16, 1971, and July 18, 1973, Nixon secretly recorded some 3,700 hours of meetings and telephone conversations in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, his office in the Executive Office Building, the Lincoln Sitting Room and the Aspen Lodge at Camp David. Presidential aide Alexander Butterfield helped the Secret Service install the recording system at Nixon’s request, and Butterfield was one of the few people who knew about it.
