On this day 51 years ago, the US supreme court dealt a serious blow to executive privilege when it ordered to hand over hours of tape recordings relating to the Watergate scandal. It’s interesting to wonder how Donald Trump would respond to such a demand today, says Eliot Wilson

Fifty-one years ago, Richard Nixon, President for more than five years, was embattled, and well on the way to being beleaguered. What had started in May 1972 with a break-in to the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex had spiralled out of control into “the Watergate Scandal”. Although Nixon had won a second term that November by a landslide, carrying 49 of 50 states, now his presidency was unravelling.

There is comic tragedy in the fact that Nixon had almost certainly not known about the break-in before it happened, much less ordered or approved it. And if ever a presidential campaign had needed no underhand assistance, it was Nixon’s re-election over Democrat George McGovern. The senator for South Dakota had been carried to the nomination at a chaotic convention by a coalition of left-wing activist groups, but his liberalism was too much for the electorate at large.

McGovern’s chances were not improved when his chosen running mate, Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, stood aside........

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