Tape secret. And then once the public knew the tapes existed, they fought to keep them private and never release them. Ultimately, the Nixon White House came up with a ridiculous offer that would make it look like they were releasing the tapes without them ever actually having to do so. Weve talked about this on the show before. It was called the stennis compromise. To avoid releasing the tapes, nixon offered the special prosecutor in watergate a deal. The white house would not hand over the tapes but they would listen to the tapes themselves, type up written summaries of what they said was on the tapes and then they would cross your heart, pinky swear that those tapes were absolutely accurate and there was nothing else damning on the tapes at all. And in case you were a coldhearted scenical jerk and wouldnt take president nixons word for it, well, for you cynics there would be a a verification process, a pronixon dixiecrat senator named john stennis would personally individually liste