Were any criminal charges filed against Nixon after he resigned?
Executive summary
Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 facing near-certain impeachment after the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment; he never faced criminal prosecution because his successor, President Gerald Ford, granted him a full pardon on September 8, 1974 [1] [2]. Most Watergate prosecutions targeted aides and conspirators—69 people were charged in connection with Watergate—and several high‑ranking officials were convicted, but Nixon himself was spared courtroom proceedings by the pardon [1] [3].
1. The immediate legal posture when Nixon quit: impeachment was imminent
By early August 1974 the House Judiciary Committee had adopted articles of impeachment and the evidence from White House tapes made conviction in the Senate highly likely; Nixon chose to resign rather than be removed from office [1] [4]. The political and legal machinery at that point was oriented toward charging and trying a president in the constitutional sense of impeachment, not necessarily a criminal indictment—but the impeachment process made a criminal trial conceivable [1] [5].
2. The pardon that stopped federal criminal exposure
Less than a month after Nixon left office, President Gerald Ford issued “a full, free, and absolute pardon” for any federal offenses Nixon “has committed or may have committed” from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974, which precluded federal prosecution for Watergate‑related acts during that period [2]. Historians and contemporaries have noted that Ford’s pardon short‑circuited the possibility of criminal trials and prison time for Nixon [6] [2].
3. Who was prosecuted instead: the sweep of Watergate convictions
While Nixon himself was pardoned, the Watergate probe resulted in a large number of prosecutions of his associates: sources report about 69 people were charged in Watergate‑related matters and many pleaded guilty or were convicted, including Cabinet‑level figures and senior aides [1] [3]. Special prosecutors and grand juries pursued obstruction, conspiracy and related crimes against officials and campaign operatives even as the presidency changed hands [3].
4. The role of the courts in exposing presidential records
A pivotal legal development was United States v. Nixon (the Supreme Court’s July 1974 unanimous decision) requiring Nixon to produce White House tapes to the special prosecutor; that judicial intervention provided the evidentiary basis that made impeachment and potential criminal exposure credible [7]. The tapes directly altered the legal calculus that led to resignation and later informed prosecutorial decisions against aides [7].
5. Two parallel tracks: impeachment vs. criminal indictment
Contemporary accounts and legal commentary emphasize that impeachment is a political remedy carried out by Congress under Article II, while criminal charges would be handled by the Justice Department and the federal courts [5]. The House Judiciary Committee’s adoption of articles of impeachment accelerated the constitutional process; the later presidential pardon addressed the separate criminal track by removing federal prosecutorial options for Nixon for acts during his administration [1] [2].
6. Competing viewpoints and lingering debates
Some commentators and historians argue Ford’s pardon was a necessary closure that spared the country prolonged turmoil; others say it denied accountability and deprived the public of a criminal reckoning—both perspectives appear in the historical record and scholarly reflections [6] [2]. Sources note the pardon may have cost Ford politically even as it ended legal uncertainty for Nixon [6] [2].
7. What the available sources do not say
Available sources do not mention any state‑level criminal charges brought against Nixon after the pardon, nor do they describe any later federal prosecution of him—primary reporting and historical summaries in the provided set focus on the federal pardon and the prosecutions of his aides (not found in current reporting). Sources provided here also do not detail any sealed grand jury materials that might suggest otherwise (available sources do not mention sealed grand jury materials).
8. Bottom line for your question
No federal criminal charges were pursued against Richard Nixon after he resigned because President Gerald Ford granted him a broad pre‑emptive pardon on September 8, 1974, which foreclosed federal prosecution for offenses committed during his presidency; the criminal exposure instead fell on dozens of associates, many of whom were charged and convicted [2] [1] [3].