Obit Butterfield
FILE - Alexander Butterfield, testifies, July 16, 1973 before the Senate Watergate Committee. Butterfield, the White House aide who inadvertently hastened Richard Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal when he revealed that the president had bugged the Oval Office and Cabinet Room and routinely recorded his conversations, has died. He was 99. (AP Photo/File)
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The White House aide who revealed that Richard Nixon had secretly recorded his conversations as president has died. Alexander Butterfield was 99. His death was confirmed to The Associated Press by his wife, Kim, and John Dean, who served with Butterfield during the Watergate scandal. Butterfield was a deputy assistant to Nixon from 1969 to 1973. He oversaw the taping system connected to voice-activated listening devices that had been secretly placed in four locations, including the Oval Office. Butterfield revealed its existence in 1973 when asked about possible recordings by Senate officials investigating the Watergate break-in. The tapes would reveal Nixon’s role in the cover-up that followed the burglary in 1972 at the Democratic Party headquarters and hasten his resignation.
