Hoover and Watergate

Not sure if this has been discussed somewhere but I was wondering what would have been the effect on the Watergate scandal if J. Edgar Hoover had lived longer. In OTL he died in May 1972, before the scandal recieved massive news coverage. Would Hoover been able to make the whole thing go away, possibly as a way to control Nixon, to have another trump card in those secret files of his? Or was it too big for even him?
 

Flubber

Banned
Not sure if this has been discussed somewhere but I was wondering what would have been the effect on the Watergate scandal if J. Edgar Hoover had lived longer. In OTL he died in May 1972, before the scandal recieved massive news coverage. Would Hoover been able to make the whole thing go away, possibly as a way to control Nixon, to have another trump card in those secret files of his? Or was it too big for even him?


If he chose to do so, Hoover could have stalled or significantly slowed the entire investigation because the information Felt/Deep Throat used to minutely guide the Washington Post's reporting was material gathered by the FBI's long running domestic intelligence program, COINTELPRO.

Whether Hoover would want to save Nixon as a person is questionable, but Hoover would most certainly want to avoid any damage to the presidency itself.

What Hoover might want in return is a fascinating question.
 
Hoover could not have prevented the tape from being released. Once the tapes
became public knowledge, the special prosecutor wants to listen to them.
 

Flubber

Banned
Hoover could not have prevented the tape from being released.


True, but...

Once the tapes became public knowledge...

... that is what Hoover could have prevented.

Thanks to Felt's careful feeding of COINTELPRO material to the press, the Congressional subcommittee knew just what questions to ask and who to ask those questions of. The congressional investigators knew what was on the tape, Nixon conspiring to obstruct justice three days after the break-in, even before the tape was finally released and they knew it despite the missing 18 minutes too.

Felt isn't going to leak shit with Hoover still alive because leaks from the FBI only came from Hoover. Hoover would have also advised Nixon to destroy all the tapes as soon as someone mentioned the White House taping system presidents had used since FDR.
 
Also, I think Hoover would have stonewalled any grand jury-Congressional committee investigating Watergate by withholding files-information on the Watergate burglars and COINTELPRO along with advising Nixon to destroy the tapes.
Some people may not know about this but Nixon did try to fire Hoover TWICE the previous year only to back down because of cold feet and/or Hoover's threats of any files on Nixon himself. Comments?
 
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