On this day, Oct. 20, 1973, President Richard Nixon fired U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refused to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.
Recommended Stories
The affair became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”
Eight months earlier, Cox had been appointed special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate investigation.
But when Cox insisted on obtaining secret tapes that the president had recorded in the Oval Office, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire him.
Instead, Richardson and Ruckelshaus resigned.
Cox was finally fired by U.S. Solicitor General Robert Bork.
The president also abolished the office of the special prosecutor and turned over the investigation and prosecution to the Justice Department.
The “Saturday Night Massacre” led to the creation of the Office of the Independent Counsel in 1978.
-Scott McCabe
