Watergate scandal

=== Legal action against Nixon administration members ===
On March 1, 1974, a [[grand jury]] in Washington, D.C., indicted several former aides of Nixon, who became known as the "[[Watergate Seven]]"—[[H. R. Haldeman]], [[John Ehrlichman]], [[John N. Mitchell]], [[Charles Colson]], [[Gordon C. Strachan]], [[Robert Mardian]], and [[Kenneth Parkinson]]—for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. The grand jury secretly named Nixon as an [[unindicted co-conspirator]]. The special prosecutor dissuaded them from an indictment of Nixon, arguing that a president can be indicted only after he leaves office.<ref name="TimeLegal">{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942980,00.html |title=The Legal Aftermath Citizen Nixon and the Law |date=August 19, 1974 |magazine=Time |access-date=July 24, 2011 |archive-date=December 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111221055507/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942980,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> John Dean, [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]], and other figures had already pleaded guilty. On April 5, 1974, [[Dwight Chapin]], the former Nixon appointments secretary, was convicted of lying to the grand jury. Two days later, the same grand jury indicted [[Ed Reinecke]], the Republican [[Lieutenant Governor of California]], on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.