That time Nixon released doctored transcripts during Watergate

It was April 29, 1974. President Richard M. Nixon held a news conference, announcing he was about to release more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of his recorded conversations.

Nearly three weeks earlier, the House Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed the tapes. Nixon hoped releasing transcripts would be enough.

“These transcripts will show,” Nixon told the American people, “that what I have stated from the beginning to be the truth has been the truth: that I personally had no knowledge of the [Watergate] break-in before it occurred, that I had no knowledge of the coverup until I was informed of it by John Dean on March 21.”

There was a problem though. The transcripts were different from what was said on the tapes. At times, very different.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration released a rough transcript of a phone call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine that has led to an impeachment push in the House. According to the rough transcript, Trump offered Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky help from the Justice Department to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as well as a White House meeting in exchange for the probe.

Trump said in a tweet Tuesday the rough transcript will prove it was “very friendly and totally appropriate call.”

To students of history, though, this is more fodder for the endless comparisons between Trump and Nixon.