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Richard Nixon's culpability is not yet clear, although the president of almost anything else would have been quickly forced to resign by a scandal infecting so much of his organization. Moreover, the strange oscillations in White House attitudes toward the various investigations raised grave doubts about Nixon's innocence. First there were blanket denials, lavish claims of Executive privilege and invocations of national security. Then came repeated clarifications, previous statements declared "inoperative," and multiple promises of full disclosure. Subpoenas were resisted. The persistent Special Prosecutor was fired. Next a sudden yielding to the courts, followed by an Operation Candor that was far from candid, claims that crucial tapes were "nonexistent" and the revelation of a mysterious flaw in one recording. Observes TIME Washington Bureau Chief Hugh Sidey: "It all falls into place, it all makes sense, if one makes a very simple assumption: Nixon is guilty—he knew what his men were doing and, indeed, directed them." Otherwise, it was all irrational behavior —and that, too, would be frightening in a President. As a result, Nixon, who began the year as the most decisively re-elected President in U.S. history, ended it facing demands for his resignation and an impeachment inquiry by the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives.
As 1973 began, the Watergate wiretapping was widely regarded as a mysterious political operation, its origins unknown and its seriousness unappreciated. Candidate George McGovern had been unable to stir much interest in it as a campaign issue. Except for dogged digging by a small segment of the U.S. press, most notably the Washington Post and TIME, the entire matter might have faded from public view.
While the news stories traced some links between the White House and the electronic eavesdropping on the Democrats, the Justice Department prepared to handle the case routinely. Henry Petersen, head of the department's criminal division, assigned a team of bright but junior prosecutors, including Earl J. Silbert, Seymour Glanzer and Donald Campbell, to the task. At Petersen's direction, they showed little zeal for tracing the source of the funds used by the men arrested at the Watergate or determining who had authorized the politically motivated crime.
The case of the seven original defendants did not look all that ordinary to Judge Sirica, who had been reading the newspapers and later told some reporters: "I was only asking myself the same questions you were." As chief judge of the District Court, he had the duty to assign the case to one of 15