Twenty-seven members of the House Judiciary Committee voted yes. Eleven voted no. The first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, for obstruction of justice, passed on July 27, 1974. The vote was not along strict party lines; six Republicans joined twenty-one Democrats in favor. The committee would approve two more articles in the following days, but the first was the cornerstone. It charged the President with personally engaging in a conspiracy to cover up the Watergate break-in.
The vote mattered because it was the product of methodical, televised deliberation. For weeks, Americans watched committee members, like Republican William Cohen of Maine, wrestle with the evidence. The so-called "smoking gun" tape, which would prove Nixon ordered the FBI to halt its investigation, was still secret. The committee acted on the evidence it had, primarily the detailed report from Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski. Their vote transformed impeachment from a partisan threat into a constitutional certainty.
A common misunderstanding is that the vote itself forced Nixon out. It did not. The full House still needed to vote, and a Senate trial would follow. The committee's action created overwhelming political momentum, but the decisive blow landed ten days later. On August 5, the White House released the subpoenaed tape from June 23, 1972, which contained the explicit order to obstruct. This confirmed the committee's judgment and obliterated Nixon's remaining support. He resigned four days after that.