“It is almost always the cover up rather than the event that causes trouble,” once remarked the late US senator Howard Baker. Having served as a member of the US Senate’s special committee investigating the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in 1972, he knew what he was talking about.
Baker had seen closely how Richard Nixon’s obstruction of the Watergate investigation had effectively ended his presidency. His words may have some resonance today, as investigators try to determine whether Donald Trump tried to hinder the federal probe into reported Russian interference during the 2016 US presidential election.
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