“The Watergate cover-up resembled an ordinary organized-crime case,” Ben-Veniste and Frampton recalled. “Serious offenses had been committed: obstruction of justice, tampering with witnesses, payoffs, misuse of investigative information, perjury. All of the defendants had some knowledge of what was going on. They met and discussed the problems that the federal criminal investigation posed for them.” The only thing that was remarkable was that the defendants were meeting in the Oval Office.
