when he had been told of White House involvement, stating that he had a lapse of memory. Once the "Smoking Gun" transcript was made public, Nixon's political support practically vanished. The ten Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee who had voted against impeachment in committee announced that they would now vote for impeachment once the matter reached the House floor. He lacked substantial support in the Senate as well; Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott estimated that no more than 15 senators were willing to even consider acquittal. Facing certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction in the Senate, Nixon announced his resignation on the evening of Thursday, August 8, 1974, effective as of noon the next day. Post-presidency After Nixon's resignation, the federal government took control of all of his presidential records, including the tapes, under the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974. From the time that the federal government seized his records until his death, Nixon was locked in frequent legal battles over control of the tapes. He argued that the 1974 act was unconstitutional because it violated the constitutional principles of separation of powers and executive privilege and infringed on his personal privacy rights and the First Amendment right of association. The legal disputes would continue for 25 years, past Nixon's death in 1994. He initially lost several cases, but the courts ruled in 1998 that some 820 hours and 42 million pages of documents were his personal private property that must be returned to his estate. However, as Nixon had been dead for four years at the time of the court ruling, it may have been a moot development after years of legal battles over the tapes. On July 11, 2007, the National Archives was granted official control of the previously privately operated Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. The facility now houses the tapes and periodically releases additional tapes to the public that are available online and in the public domain. References Further reading . External links Richard Nixon Library and Museum nixontapes.org "Easy Nixon" accessible database of the Nixon Tapes Watergate tapes and transcripts – Miller Center of Public Affairs Transcript of the "Smoking Gun" tape – watergate.info Government documents of the United States Presidency of Richard Nixon Sound recording United States documents Watergate scandal