Velvet #14

Velvet: The Man Who Stole the World, Issue #14 begins with a CIA agent attempting to track Velvet Templeton and Damian Lake, who had a gunfight in the previous issue.  Rachel Tanner is in the mix, but she has fled the country with dyed hair and a fake passport.  Everyone's in the wind, or so he tells the Senator.  Max is dead.  It's August 7, 1974, according to a newspaper that says, "Nixon Won't Resign."  Yup, it's definitely a Watergate story, which piqued my interest.

For those younger people, who didn't live through the time - I did, but as a toddler - it's hard to think of a President of the United States being held accountable for a minor crime such as the break-in of a room to plant listening devices, but that's what happened.  On June 17, 1972, five agents broke into the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex.  They were caught.  One of the five burglars claimed to be a former CIA agent, and another was a GOP security aide.  A $25,000 check from the Nixon Campaign was discovered in the bank account of one of the burglars.

Despite this being in all the newspapers, Nixon won the November 11, 1972 election by a landslide, earning a whopping 60% of the popular vote, beating Senator George McGovern of South Dakota.  What followed was a groundbreaking series of events culminating in one of the greatest journalistic investigations in history.  On January 30, 1973, several high-ranking Nixon aides were convicted of burglary.  After a Supreme Court case, Nixon was forced to hand over tapes that implicated him in the Watergate scandal.  On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee passed the first article of impeachment against Nixon.  Two more were to follow.  Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974.

To impeach a president, he needs to commit a crime, and Nixon did.  He was never convicted of that crime because after he resigned, President Gerald Ford pardoned him.  I read this issue with my jaw dropped open.  I don't want to give away too much, but of course, it involves the Watergate break-in, and of course... it's to be continued in the next issue, which I assume will be the final issue.