504 ChaPter^10
at the end of the month, several of Nixon’s aides resigned in an effort to
reduce the political heat, including key advisors H.R. Haldeman and John
Ehrlichman, Counsel Dean, and Attorney General Richard Kleindeinst. But get-
ting rid of the old group did not make things better. The new Attorney
General Elliot Richardson appointed a special prosecutor to take over the case,
and Archibald Cox began to vigorously investigate the break-in and, more
importantly, the cover-up. The Senate also began hearings where the entire
scandal began to unravel. John Dean memorably told Congress that Nixon
was directing the cover-up and another staff member told the senate that the
president had secretly tape-recorded conversations in the White House. One
senator, Howard Baker of Tennessee, asked what would become the enduring
question of the scandal: “What did the president know, and when did he know
it?” The senators asked Nixon for the tapes; he refused, but the Supreme
Court in October 1973 told him to turn them over. Nixon still refused and
told the Attorney General to fire Cox, the special prosecutor. Richardson
refused to do that, so Nixon fired him and others in what became called “TheFIGuRE 10-3 President Nixon, with edited transcripts of Nixon White
House Tape conversations during broadcast of his address to the Nation,
April 29, 1974