Former Nixon Aide Who Exposed Watergate Tapes Dies at 99

Alexander Butterfield, the White House official whose testimony about secret recordings helped bring down President Nixon, has passed away at age 99. His revelation of the Oval Office taping system in 1973 provided crucial evidence that led to Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal.

Alexander Butterfield, the former White House official whose bombshell testimony about secret recordings helped topple President Richard Nixon during the Watergate crisis, has passed away at 99 years old.

Butterfield’s wife Kim and former Nixon White House counsel John Dean confirmed his death to news outlets. Dean praised Butterfield’s courage in revealing classified information.

“He had the heavy responsibility of revealing something he was sworn to secrecy on, which is the installation of the Nixon taping system,” Dean said. “He stood up and told the truth.”

Working as a deputy assistant to Nixon, Butterfield supervised a covert recording system linked to voice-activated devices installed in four separate locations, including Nixon’s Executive Office Building workspace and the Camp David presidential retreat.

According to Butterfield’s later statements, only a small circle knew about the recording equipment: himself, Nixon, Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, one of Haldeman’s assistants, and several Secret Service personnel.

“Everything was taped … as long as the president was in attendance,” Butterfield testified when questioned by Watergate investigators during a sworn preliminary interview.

These recordings ultimately revealed Nixon’s involvement in covering up the 1972 break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex. Rather than face House impeachment proceedings, Nixon stepped down on August 9, 1974, less than 30 days after the Supreme Court ordered him to turn over relevant recordings to prosecutors.

Butterfield acknowledged his role in the president’s downfall. “I didn’t like to be the cause of that, but I felt that I was, in a lot of ways,” he reflected in a 2008 interview for the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

A UCLA classmate of Haldeman’s, Butterfield had reached out to his friend seeking opportunities in the incoming Nixon White House. From 1969 to 1973, he worked under Haldeman as deputy assistant, serving as Cabinet secretary and helping manage White House operations.

The Air Force veteran had already departed the White House to lead the Federal Aviation Administration when Senate investigators privately interviewed him on July 13, 1973, during their Watergate probe. A standard inquiry about potential recording systems arose from John Dean’s earlier testimony suggesting his Nixon conversation might have been captured.

After Butterfield confirmed the taping system’s existence, he appeared before a public Senate Select Committee hearing. His July 16, 1973 revelation of comprehensive presidential recording capabilities shocked both Nixon supporters and critics, promising investigators valuable evidence about the break-in knowledge.

Investigators’ efforts to obtain the recordings triggered a year-long court battle that concluded in July 1974 when the Supreme Court unanimously ordered Nixon to release them.

The thousands of hours of recordings released over time—now managed by the National Archives—offer an unprecedented, often unfavorable glimpse of Nixon, revealing his temper, crude language, prejudiced attitudes, and candid views on domestic and foreign leaders.

“I just thought, ‘When they hear those tapes …’ I mean, I knew what was on these tapes … they’re dynamite,” Butterfield told the Nixon Library. “I guess I didn’t foresee that the president might be put out of office or impeached, but I thought it would be a perilous few years for him. I guess I couldn’t conceive of (Nixon) being forced out of office. It had never happened before.”

Butterfield believed President Gerald Ford dismissed him as FAA administrator in 1975 as part of a deal between Nixon and Ford staff members. He claimed White House contacts informed him he became a target following his Senate testimony.

Following his FAA departure, Butterfield pursued business executive roles in California and completed a master’s degree at UC San Diego in 1994.

Born Alexander Porter Butterfield on April 6, 1926, in Pensacola, Florida, he left UCLA to join the Navy, later earning his bachelor’s from the University of Maryland in 1956 and a master’s from George Washington University in 1967.

He entered the Air Force in 1948, serving as an instructor near Las Vegas during the Korean War and later in Germany. In Washington, he assisted the defense secretary’s special assistant in 1965-1966 and served as senior military representative for Pacific Forces in Australia. He retired as a colonel after two decades of Air Force service.

In his later years, Butterfield harshly criticized his former boss. While acknowledging Nixon’s foreign policy successes, he called Nixon “not an honest man” and “a crook,” believing Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in beforehand and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up.

Butterfield admitted to “cheering … just cheering” when Nixon resigned, telling the Nixon Library that “justice had prevailed.”

“I didn’t think that it would for a while,” he said. “This guy was the ringleader.”