On September 8, 1974, The release of Richard Nixon by President Gerald Ford conferred Nixon, Ford's forerunner as president, full and absolute forgiveness for any violations he might have perpetrated upon the United States. After Ford departed from the White House in 1977, he confidentially defended his release of Nixon by taking in his pocket a piece of the handbook of Burdick v. the United States, that recommends that a discharge provides an accusation of weakness and that agreement offers a declaration of delinquency.