1974 (Congressional Terms: 93)
Document Cases: RJL 7/1-2
On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C., for breaking and entering. Two others, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt were later taken into custody. During February, 1973, the United States Senate voted to establish a Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities.
In late May, 1973, the televised Senate Watergate hearings began. On July 27-30, 1973, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted (27-11) to recommend that President Richard Nixon be impeached. On August 5, 1974, the House impeachment subcommittee obtained an Oval Office tape regarding a June 23, 1972 meeting between President Nixon and his assistant, Robert Haldeman, during which President Nixon asked Haldeman to obstruct justice in the Watergate investigation. On August 9, 1974, President Nixon resigned, rather than face impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.
As a member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Lagomarsino was a part of the House investigative hearing, a broad information-gathering technique, which is conducted when there is suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of public officials in governmental operations. The Watergate records in the Lagomarsino Collection consist of reports on the events leading up to and following the Watergate break-in, the White House staff and its re-election campaign, White House surveillance activities, and the Department of Justice's ITT litigation.
The papers also include a legal brief submitted on behalf of President Nixon and a recorded transcript of presidential conversations.
For more information about the Robert J. Lagomarsino Collection Federal papers, please contact University Archivist, Evelyn Taylor.