Watergate

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…Rather than face almost assured impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, the first U.S. president to do so. A month later his successor, Gerald Ford pardoned him for all crimes he might have committed while in office; Nixon was then immune from fedral prosecution. President Nixon and his cabinet members failed to realize that the constitutional system of checks and balances would work to prevent abuses as it was intended to by the Founding Fathers.