Reborn in America: Starting as a California Resident

In particular, the committee's vice chairman, Republican Senator Howard H. Baker, posed a pointed question: "What does the president know, and when does he know?"

This question became a signature question during the hearing.

What shocked and disgusted senators from both parties in particular was that Nick's subordinates testified that senior White House officials generally held the political philosophy that "ends-justifies-the-means".

In practice, this concept manifests itself in a series of unethical and even illegal behaviors.

For example, on June 27, 1973, Dean testified at a hearing of the Irwin Commission that Nick had a “political blacklist” (Enemy List) containing individuals or organizations considered enemies.

On December 20 of the same year, Dean further disclosed the second part of the blacklist at a hearing held by the Joint Committee on Taxation of Congress.

In addition, Donald C. Alexander, the IRS commissioner appointed by Nick Kinney, also revealed in his congressional testimony that he had received a similar political blacklist and that Kinney had instructed him to conduct tax audits of the people on the list.

However, Alexander refused to carry out the order, adhering to his professional ethics.

Of all the witnesses, White House Counsel John Dean gave the most detailed testimony, which lasted nearly seven hours and was followed by five days of cross-examination.

Dean's testimony revealed that Nick Fury was not only an insider of Watergate, but also the mastermind behind its subsequent cover-up.

However, Dean's credibility has been widely questioned because he was once Nick's close aide and his testimony contained many statements that were detrimental to himself.

This put the American public in a dilemma, to decide whether to believe Dean or Nick.

To bolster the credibility of his testimony, Dean described a conversation he had with Nixon in the Oval Office on April 15 at a hearing, and offered a startling revelation: he suspected that his conversation with Nixon might have been secretly recorded.

This speculation was confirmed on July 16 when the Irving Commission subpoenaed White House aide Alexander Butterfield, who confirmed that Nixon's office did indeed have a secret recording system that recorded all of Nixon's conversations.

Upon learning of this, Special Counsel Archibald Cox and the Irwin Commission quickly requested access to audiotapes of several key conversations.

However, Nick refused to hand over the tapes, citing executive privilege and national security concerns.

Subsequently, Federal Judge John J. Sirica ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes.

Nixon appealed the decision, but in October, the federal appeals court upheld Judge Sirica's ruling.

Nick immediately offered to provide only a transcript of the relevant audio tapes and refused to provide any other documents.

Special Prosecutor Cox rejected the offer and insisted that Nick hand over the original tapes.

Meanwhile, in August 1973, federal prosecutors announced an investigation into Vice President Spiro Agnew, accusing him of multiple crimes, including conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and tax fraud.

The investigation found that Agnew accepted bribes from contractors during his tenure as Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland, and that this practice continued into his time as Vice President.

After months of denials, Agnew reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to not contest a felony tax evasion charge and resigned as vice president.

Federal prosecutors released a detailed 40-page report outlining Agnew's various misconducts.

To fill the vice presidency vacancy, Nixon quickly nominated House Republican Leader Gerald Ford to take the position.

On Saturday night, October 20, 1973, an enraged Nick Ellison ordered newly appointed Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox after Cox insisted on subpoenaing the White House tapes.

However, Richardson stood firm on his principles, refused to carry out the order, and protested by resigning.

Nick then issued the same order to Deputy Secretary William Ruckelshaus, who, also upholding justice, resigned in protest against the president's order.

In this unprecedented political crisis, Nick finally found someone willing to carry out orders—Robert Bork, then deputy attorney general, who dismissed Cox on the president's instructions.

This series of events, later known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," marked an extraordinary moment in American history, with many believing that Nick Vujicic had launched a strongman coup that defied the law and subverted the spirit of the Constitution.

The continuous large-scale public protests finally led Nick to agree on October 23 to hand over the nine tapes requested by Federal Judge John J. Sirica.

Facing mounting public scrutiny, Nick Fury, speaking to hundreds of reporters on November 17, insisted, "I am not a crook," and continued to defend his innocence in the Firegate scandal.

However, by this time the public no longer believed his explanations.

As more and more testimonies and evidence surfaced, the House Judiciary Committee formally launched a formal impeachment inquiry against Nixon in May 1974.

On May 20, Judge Sirica ordered Nick to hand over more tapes for use by the new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski.

Faced with Nick's repeated refusal, Jawsky appealed the case directly to the Supreme Court, requesting a swift ruling.

1974年7月24日，最高法院以一致裁决（8-0）驳回了尼克紧关于行政特权的主张，并裁定尼克紧必须交出所有录音带。