How Did Watergate Improved The Practice Of Law In The United States

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Watergate began as a botched burglary that didn’t really involve the President, but ended up revealing impeachable abuses of power throughout Nixon’s presidency. Shockingly, over twenty lawyers were found to be operating outside of the law, and in response, Watergate forever changed the practice of law in the United States. Watergate produced various new laws like the “Independent Counsel Act,” which enabled the investigation of the President, Vice President, and other officials. Additional acts which were created as a result of the Watergate fallout were the “Freedom of Information Act,” this law gives the public disclosure to previously unreleased documents, records, and information within the federal government, and the “Federal Election …show more content…

While Watergate was an important part of United States history, and a cautionary tale for current day politicians, it would seem that many have already forgotten that anonymous money corrupts political campaigns. Nixon kept numerous illegal donations hidden; he didn't just cover up a burglary, his re-election campaign staff received millions of dollars in secret contributions from prominent American companies, much like today’s politicians. For example, Hillary Clinton took a large contribution from the fossil fuels industry which ultimately devalued her statement about a “commitment to moving away from fossil fuels, and towards renewable energy.” Freedom of Information was also a recurring topic in the recent election, and was brought up in relation to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. Clinton was found to have a private server upon which there was tens of thousands of private emails. Many people questioned why they could not view the non classified documents Hillary sent and received, and cited that it was against the Freedom of Information Act. Nixon’s former speech writer said “This is like the Nixon tapes in a sense…everybody wanted

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