What a Watergate Expert Thinks of the Mueller Report

The release on Thursday of a redacted version of Robert Mueller's full report on the Russia probe represents a major moment in the history of special counsels in the United States — but no use of that office looms as large in the American imagination as the investigation into Watergate.

That outsize influence makes sense: President Richard Nixon's resignation amid that probe remains the only instance of a U.S. President stepping down.

The release on Thursday of a redacted version of Robert Mueller's full report on the Russia probe represents a major moment in the history of special counsels in the United States — but no use of that office looms as large in the American imagination as the investigation into Watergate. That outsize influence makes sense: President Richard Nixon's resignation amid that probe remains the only instance of a U.S. President stepping down.