THE NIXON PARDON

Benton Becker

DESCRIPTION: Professor Becker’s one-time lecture will include first-hand information about inside-the-White-House discussions, considerations and the ultimate decision to pardon President Nixon. August 8, 1974, was the last day of the Nixon presidency. On the prior evening, President Nixon executed a voluntary resignation of the Office, effective at noon August 8, 1974. That morning was filled with sad (often disjointed) good-byes to White House aides and staff. The official White House schedule of events called for the President and Mrs. Nixon to leave the White House at 11:00 a.m., to walk to a helicopter parked on the South Lawn, and to depart for Andrews Air Force Base in nearby Virginia. The couple would then board Air Force One and proceed to the Nixon home in San Clemente, California. At noon on August 8, 1974, Vice-President Gerald Ford would be sworn in as the nation’s 36th President. Everything went forward as anticipated and planned. Or did it? Two lingering issues from the Nixon presidency remained in Washington and became issues for the Ford presidency. They were: the records, papers and tape recordings of the Nixon presidency (which Nixon would shortly claim was his personal property), and the Watergate Grand Jury’s pending indictment of Nixon.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Professor Benton Becker began his legal career as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In private practice, Professor Becker represented the U.S. Congress and served as Special Counsel to President Ford throughout the pardon negotiations of former President Nixon. Professor Becker recently retired as a Professor of Constitutional Law from St. Thomas University Law School. He has given several series on constitutional law at the Lifelong Learning Society (FAU).