Saturday Night Massacre

In response to special prosecutor Archibald Cox’s subpoena of the taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office, Nixon orders Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refuses and resigns in protest. The deputy attorney general, William Ruckelshaus, is then ordered to fire Cox. He, too, refuses and resigns. Solicitor General Robert H. Bork by law becomes attorney general and carries out President Nixon’s instructions to fire Cox. The president also abolishes the office of special prosecutor. This series of events becomes known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”²⁴