The Watergate Scandal occurred in the 1970's when there was a break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Office complex in Washington D.C. To start off Richard Nixon was a man who kept secrets, did not take criticism well, and was involved in many deceitful acts. Nixon and his aides discussed ways to get revenge against his enemies and critics. These acts of deceit were more important to him in 1972. He was adamant on winning the next presidential election more comfortably than the 1968 election. Nixon's house aide Tom Huston brought up the concept of illegal break-ins, which Nixon approved. Even though Huston told Nixon that the idea would be burglary, Nixon proceeded with the idea. When Nixon wanted to continue with Huston's idea, the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover refused to join them. Hoover died in May of 1972 and was replaced by L. Patrick Gray. Nixon was especially angered when someone leaked the Pentagon papers to the press. Nixon soon after found that it was the military analyst Daniel Ellsberg was the source of the leak. Nixon told his White House Counsel Charles Colson to stop these leaks at any cost. Colson and another aide, John Erlichmann created a group with the sole purpose to stop any more leaks. This group was named the White House Plumbers. The plumbers attempted to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to obtain secret treatment records. However, the plot was unsuccessful for an unknown reason. In June of 1972 seven of Richard Nixon's men finalized their plot to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in one of the Watergate complex buildings. June 17, 1972 was the day that Frank Wills, a security guard of the building, called the police when he noticed tape covering several locks on stairway doors. The police came soon after and arrested the burglars. The five burglars were sent to a police station, where many of them gave fake names. E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA officer working with Nixon in the scandal, quickly hired a lawyer in an attempt to bail the men out, however he underestimated the bail amounts. Since Hunt could not bail the men out a simple fingerprint test was run, confirming that most of them gave fake names. With the true identities of the burglars revealed, The Washington Post revealed that one of the men was a security coordinator for the Nixon re-election committee. In August of 1972 a 25,000 dollar cashier's check was found in one of the burglars bank accounts. Upon further investigation it was discovered that several donations, totaling $89,000, were made by people who thought the money would go to help the Committee to Re-Elect the President, CREEP. These donations were sent through complicated transactions to Watergate burglar Bernard Barker's Miami bank account. On the back of the checks was the official endorsement of Hugh Sloan, the CREEP bookkeeper and treasurer. From these endorsements, a direct connection between the Watergate burglaries and CREEP was found. When Sloan was faced with the charge of federal bank fraud Sloan explained that he had given the checks to G. Gordon Liddy from the direction of the CREEP Deputy Director and the CREEP Finance Director. The media coverage in 1972 was very important since Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein found an inside source, nicknamed Deep Throat, who would give the reporters connections they needed. The identity of Deep Throat was much later revealed to be Mark Felt, the number two ranking official in the FBI. Soon after, a series of connections between the Watergate break-ins and Nixon were made. Multiple investigations were made, Nixon had claimed executive privilege to secret tapes of his conversations with the people linked to the Watergate burglaries. These tapes were useful, but the most useful was the "Smoking Gun Tape." This tape was a conversation between Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman. In the tape Nixon was ordering Haldeman to use the CIA to impede the FBI investigation of the Watergate burglaries. To avoid being impeached by the Supreme Court President Nixon resigned from office and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn into office, where he pardoned Nixon.