(Las Vegas, NV) –  June 17 is the anniversary of the crime that became a political scandal, and ultimately led to the fall of the Nixon administration.  The Watergate break-in has been described as a third-rate burglary, but it led to a constitutional crisis. Historians and political scientists consider it one of the most important events in American political history, and the questions have never been entirely answered.

KXNT explored the Nevada connections to Watergate.

Former Governor Robert List, who was the state’s attorney general at the time, may have seen the first small indication that something was amiss in Washington, but he didn’t connect the dots until later.

Other big Nevada names come up when Watergate and the Nixon administration are discussed. Notably, Howard Hughes, Hank Greenspun Paul Laxalt, Howard Cannon, and Bill Raggio.  Only Hughes has alleged  financial links to the Watergate incident itself. The others were indirectly affected by the political fallout, as KXNT’s Trevor Smith reports in the piece below.

Click on the player below to hear the stories.

File #1- Did Howard Hughes help pay for Watergate? And where did the political chips fall for other big-name Nevadans?

(2 minutes long)

File # 2- The day Richard Kleindienst came to Nevada, and the Watergate burglary hit the news: (1 minute long)