b. issued a presidential pardon to former President Nixon
Whatever hopes Ford might have had to divest himself of the Watergate legacy were extinguished when he issued a presidential pardon to former president Nixon for crimes committed in office. Ford hoped to steer the nation past the scandal and avoid the divisive
spectacle of a protracted court trial, but most Americans wondered whether Nixon and Ford had struck a deal. Seven high-ranking
Nixon aides served prison time for their role in Watergate, including former attorney general John Mitchell, White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman, and Charles Colson, the leading architect of the Republicans' blue-collar strategy. Nixon himself, however, was now immune from prosecution.