Richard Nixon and Watergate
On June 17, 1972, three Washington, D.C., police officers responded to a break-in at the Watergate Hotel, which happened to then be the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. They found five burglars, dressed in suits and wearing surgical gloves.
Five days later, President Richard Nixon denied any involvement in the burglary.
However, federal investigators, grand juries and journalists spent the next several months gathering evidence that eventually connected the break-in to Nixon. It also led to a bitter battle over “the Watergate tapes,” which were secret audio recordings of Nixon’s conversations in the Oval Office and other White House locations. A former White House assistant, Alexander Butterfield, claimed in court these tapes would corroborate the fact that Nixon not only knew about the break-in, but also that he had helped orchestrate the cover-up.
The committee investigating Nixon’s involvement subpoenaed the tapes, but Nixon fought to keep them secret, citing executive privilege and national security. The Supreme Court ultimately ordered Nixon to surrender the recordings of his confidential conversations. Then, in late July 1974, the House committee drafted Nixon’s impeachment, including one article of failure to comply with House subpoenas.
On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation, which took effect the next day.
Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky
A sexual harassment lawsuit filed against President Bill Clinton in 1994 led to the reveal of an extramarital relationship with a White House intern and then a landmark Supreme Court ruling. In Clinton v. Jones, the court ruled that a sitting president is not immune from civil litigation for conduct that happened before taking office and is unrelated to official duties.
The lawsuit’s plaintiff was Paula Jones, a former state employee in Arkansas who alleged Clinton propositioned her while he was governor. White House intern Monica Lewinsky was eventually identified as a potential witness in the case and placed on the witness list. In a January 17, 1998, deposition related to that lawsuit, Clinton said he did not have a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. News of their alleged affair became public days later.
Investigators later established that Clinton and Lewinsky did engage in a sexual relationship starting in late 1995. On July 17, 1998, Independent Counsel Ken Starr served Clinton with a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury; Starr’s investigation centered on whether Clinton had committed perjury or obstructed justice in his earlier sworn deposition. Clinton testified in Starr’s case on August 17, 1998, and addressed the nation later that day, acknowledging he had an “inappropriate relationship” with Lewinsky.
Soon after, the House Judiciary Committee announced it would consider an impeachment inquiry against Clinton. He was ultimately acquitted of the two articles of impeachment in 1999.
Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol Attack
President Donald Trump was served with a subpoena on October 21, 2022, by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol as part of its investigation into the events of the insurrection.
On that day, a mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol in an attempted self-coup, two months after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
The subpoena included a demand that Trump provide the committee with 19 categories of documents and sworn testimony—including records of calls and text messages made by or on behalf of the president on January 6 through nongovernmental devices.
Trump’s legal counsel informed the Select Committee that a voluntary search “found no documents responsive to the request.” Then, on November 11, 2022, the former president filed suit against the Select Committee and its members in federal district court to block the subpoena.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein was a very wealthy financier who rose to international infamy in 2019 after he was indicted for sex trafficking minors (though he’d already been convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution). He died by suicide that same year while in custody, and attention shifted to his alleged accomplice, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was eventually convicted of sex trafficking underage girls for Epstein. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
On August 5, 2025, the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to both Maxwell and the Department of Justice for documents and testimony, aiming to uncover details on Epstein’s trafficking ring, including records related to Epstein’s contacts.
Subpoenas were also issued to former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller and former Attorneys General Merrick Garland and Bill Barr.
As of early March 2026, many documents relating to Epstein’s alleged crimes have been released to the public.
Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization
Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Trump, was subpoenaed in August 2018 by New York state investigators as part of an investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
The New York Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit in June that accused Trump's foundation of paying off legal bills with charitable funds, promoting Trump hotels and purchasing personal items for more than 10 years. Cohen’s subpoena arrived less than 24 hours after he pleaded guilty to two charges of campaign finance violations connected to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
In 2024, Trump, his adult sons and former executives of the organization were ordered to pay more than $450 million. Trump was also banned from serving as an officer or director of any New York company for three years. However, in August 2025, the appeals court threw out the monetary penalty.
