Fifty years ago, the break-in at the Watergate began a chain reaction that started with a cover-up and unraveled Nixon's presidency. John Dean, former White House Counsel to the President, reveals the real story behind the beginning of the cover-up, giving color to the narrative that this wasn't a two-bit bungled endeavor but rather one of many strategic operations orchestrated by Nixon's inner circle.
Former White House Counsel to President Nixon, John Dean, is pulled deeper into the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Becoming too much to bear, Dean realizes he must convince Nixon to put an end to the lying and decides to take the President through problems that can only be solved by the truth. Dean's efforts are unsuccessful and his superiors plan to make him the scapegoat for their actions, but they will soon learn they have selected the wrong fall guy. As Bob Woodward would later describe it, "Dean was willing to blow himself up to end the cover-up." Dean makes plans to go public, providing information from which the Nixon administration could never recover.
As the Nixon Administration sinks deeper into the Watergate scandal, former White House Counsel, John Dean, plays a multi-dimensional game of chess to appease the White House, the Senate Watergate investigators, and a new wife. The heart-pumping back and forth illuminates new importance of Dean's fateful April 15 conversation with Nixon, which begins to unravel the cover-up plot and culminates in Dean's infamous testimony in front of the Senate and the world.
With the bombshell revelation of Nixon's White House recording system, a battle begins for the audiotapes that will eventually lead to the collapse of the Nixon presidency. The Supreme Court rules unanimously that claims of executive privilege over the tapes were void and the House moves forward with impeachment proceedings. Would the abuses of power end with Watergate or would we see the same abuses in politics today?