The Abuse of Governmental Power (AOGP) conversations tapes consist of excerpted portions of conversations that documented evidence of abuses of governmental power. These excerpted portions were recorded between February 1971 and July 1973.

These conversations, released on November 18, 1996 under the provisions of the 1996 Tapes Settlement Agreement, comprise the second of three releases.

Participants

In addition to President Nixon, participants include:

• members of his White House staff
• other governmental officials
• Congressional leaders
• members of the press

Topics

The main topics include:

• misuse of Federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency
• the selling of ambassadorships and other illegal fundraising activities
• deceptive and/or illegal campaign activities, the ITT investigation and the various "Watergate" investigations
• the administration's efforts to influence the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (see the 1973 conversations)

Release History

This group of recordings consist of all identified segments of conversations relating to abuses of governmental power except those previously released as part of the:

• Watergate Trial tapes
• Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF) tapes
• May - June 1972 AOGP tapes (released May 17, 1993)

About the Tapes  [See Also:  AOGP Conversations Subject Logs]

There are no transcripts for these conversations.

• spans February 1971 - April 1972 and July 1972 - July 1973
• totals 201 hours
• consists of approximately 2,064 conversation segments
• conversation recorded in various locations
• released on November 18, 1996
• available on 309 reference cassettes (E-147 - E-190, E-197 - E-461)