Watergate was the one time Nikon’s goons got caught and it was the coverup that did him in. He had been using his dirty tricks squad to harass and spy on his political enemies for years - and he had a long list of them. Gordon Liddy’s crews simply bugged people illegally, following a long tradition established by Nikon’s sometimes friend, sometimes foe J. Edgar Hoover.

Nixon ordered the IRS to audit anyone who crossed him. Likewise with any other Federal agency that could be weaponized. All this shit came out in the pages and pages of depositions and testimony, and in the Oval Office tapes. The only thing that prevented Nixon from not only being impeached but also easily convicted was his beating Congress to the punch by resigning.

To use an organized crime mixed metaphor, Trump is Bugsy Seigal. W was Fredo. Nixon was Meyer Lansky.