Talk:Pardon of Richard Nixon

New article
I just started this as a new article (stub). At the moment, it's simply a copy-and-paste from some other pertinent articles. So, it needs to get cleaned up a bit. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 07:30, 1 February 2016 (UTC)


 * All -- or at least, most -- of the info is there. It just needs to get reorganized, rearranged, edited, and cleaned up.  Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 07:42, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Reasons for pardon
I don't know where to put this because I am not quoting from a quotable source, altho I know that somewhere there are published opinions that agree with this. One big reason for the pardon of Nixon was that, as Nixon was leaving the White House in his last hours as President, several of Watergate conspirators were trying to phone him to get him to issue pardons for each of them - with the threat that if left unpardoned and prosecuted, each would try to shift all the blame to Nixon. Nixon issued no such pardons, but it was obvious to those who knew (which undoubtedly included Ford) that somehow Nixon would have all the blame piled upon him, even to an unfair degree. By pardoning Nixon, Ford blunted some of this if only slightly. Sussmanbern (talk) 19:15, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Woodward claim needed context - done
In the "Pardon" section, there is an uncorroborated extraordinary statement by Bob Woodward -- apparently published in the Washington Post upon former President Gerald Ford's death. and re-reported by the New York Times (in the cited article) -- in which Woodward claims that Ford had told Woodward, in a 2004 interview, that (in so many words, poorly summarized in this Wikipedia article) that Ford had pardoned Nixon because of their close friendship.

In my decades of studying the history of modern presidential administrations, and just about all the significant printed material on Watergate, I cannot recall any such statement attributed to Ford, by any other person.

A perfunctory Google check finds no corroboration of that extraordinary claim by Woodward (though there is no shortage of media blindly repeating Woodward's claim, without corroboration).

This is not the only such situation in which Woodward published a seemingly unlikely confession from a major public figure -- after their death. This seems reminiscent of the curious case of Woodward's alleged secret hospital deathbed interview of former Ronald Reagan crony and CIA Director William J. Casey, in which -- Woodward alleges -- famously tight-lipped Casey made an uncharacteristic serious confession of questionable actions.

While I'm not ready to call Woodward a "liar," I'm also certainly not in favor of Wikipedia casually repeating, without context, any uncorroborated claim by a journalist of an extraordinary and historic confession of a major public figure, which the journalist has apparently not published until after the person was dead, and unable to refute the claim.

I've left the strange claim in place, but framed it in a context that lets the reader understand the circumstances of it, and its unique, stark inconsistency with nearly all other evidence. It's a basic issue of honest and ethical journalism and historiography -- essential to the credibility of Wikipedia.
 * ~ Penlite (talk) 12:07, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

state and criminal prosecutions
There are no explanations of why he wasn't prosecuted at the state level or for criminal charges. I wasn't able to find reliable sources on this. --Espoo (talk) 19:20, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

Presumptive Pardon
As this was a presumptive pardon on Ford's part because Nixon hadn't been formally charged with a crime, can we elaborate on the legal implications of this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ckent1 (talk • contribs) 01:20, 9 January 2021 (UTC)


 * No, because President does not need court procedings to even start, not even talking about sentencing. He can just pardon. Unlike governors. Valery Zapolodov (talk) 18:32, 7 April 2022 (UTC)