The following article by James Pindell was released by the Boston Globe in their Ground Game email May 10, 2017:
In the aftermath of President Trump firing FBI director James Comey, one word seemed to circulate on Washington’s lips and among the country’s political class: Watergate.
Watergate, the scandal that forced President Nixon to resign as he faced impeachment, became a trending topic on Twitter, and it dominated the discussion for much of Tuesday night on at least two cable news channels.
On MSNBC, for example, longtime NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, told viewers, “The one thing I learned during Watergate: Everybody take a deep breath.”
Brokaw offers strong advice. So with a deep breath let’s consider the ways this current situation with Trump and the investigation into Russia’s ties to his campaign are — and are not — comparable to Watergate.
Similar: the president fired the official conducting an investigation into something that may involve him
Trump, in his letter firing Comey, reminded the country that the now former FBI chief had told him three times that they were not investigating the president personally. But Comey had told Congress that the FBI was actively looking into whether former or current Trump campaign aides had coordinated with Russia. So when Trump fired Comey, he was dismissing the chief investigator looking into his associates and his campaign.
There’s really only one parallel in US history to this: when Nixon fired a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who was investigating Watergate and had subpoenaed the president’s recorded meetings in the Oval Office. In the process, the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned in protest in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. (Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, supported Comey’s firing, citing his handling of Hillary Clinton’s email investigation as the primary reason).
There’s only one other time in history that an FBI director has been fired. It was during the Clinton administration, and it followed a long internal investigation that suggested the director had abused his office. And unlike Comey, it was hardly a shock when it happened.
Similar: Trump might have crossed a similar line
At the risk of being dramatic, the first article of impeachment drawn up again Nixon included a reference to his interference with the FBI and the investigation into himself (to be clear, again, the FBI has not said they are investigating Trump).
But check out this paragraph from the articles of impeachment that were approved by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974: “Interfering or endeavoring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and Congressional Committees.”
To be clear, no official is publicly drafting a similar statute for Trump. None of them are publicly talking about impeaching Trump. The point is that there are emerging parallels.
Similar: Like Nixon, Trump’s administration is focused on leaks
The nation’s 37th president was also concerned with how some classified information was given to the press. After the New York Times and the Washington Post began publishing the Pentagon Papers, Nixon created a White House “plumbers” unit to find and stop the leaks. Part of their assignment was to break into a psychiatrist’s office to dig up dirt on the man the administration believed leaked those papers.
This year Trump has called on Capitol Hill Republicans to ask people under oath, including former acting attorney general Sally Yates, whether she had ever leaked information to the press. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the White House has strained its relationship with the FBIover the president’s insistence that the agency do more to investigate leaks.
Not similar: Nixon fired the special prosecutor and essentially stopped the investigation. The FBI investigation remains open.
There’s a major difference in how Watergate moved forward and what could happen next in the Trump administration.There is still an investigation into the ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. In fact, no matter what the FBI does under new leadership, there are two additional Congressional investigations on the matter.
What’s more, some Republicans, including US Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, who are publicly inquiring about an independent investigation into Comey’s firing.
Not similar: There’s no clear-cut crime connected to the president
There’s another key difference between Watergate and what happened with Comey, and it’s the kind of distinction that could make or break a presidency.
In Watergate, a crime occurred (the break-in), and it was traced back to the president via campaign funds. So far there is only evidence that Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, may have given false statements about his ties to Russia.