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President Nixon’s Watergate Grand Jury Testimony Now Available
In May 1975, the Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF) decided that it was necessary to question former President Richard M. Nixon in connection with various investigations being conducted by the WSPF. Mr. Nixon was questioned over the period of two days, June 23 and June 24, 1975, and the testimony was taken as part of various investigations being conducted by the January 7, 1974, Grand Jury for the District of Columbia (the third Watergate Grand Jury). Chief Judge George Hart signed an order authorizing that the sworn deposition of Mr. Nixon be taken at the Coast Guard Station in San Mateo, California with two members of the grand jury present.
- press release, National Archives and Records Administration.
- Nixon Grand Jury Records, National Archives and Records Administration. Files from the National Archives’ WSPF collection including the transcript of President Nixon’s grand jury testimony and associated materials.
- Nixon Grand Jury Records at GPO, FDsys.
- Nixon Grand Jury Records at Scribd.
Transcript of Nixon’s Watergate Grand Jury Testimony To Be Released in November
Richard Nixon texts and tapes will be released soon, by Al Kamen, Washington Post, (October 11, 2011).
On Nov. 10, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Archives will make public for the first time a series of recordings and documents, including the much-anticipated transcript of Nixon’s grand jury testimony in the investigation of the Watergate scandal.
A group of historians sued to make the testimony — which had been redacted under laws that shield grand-jury materials — available to the public.
Open Government and Watergate
Today, when there are active threats to open government and OMB is preparing to shut down several important open government web sites, it is a good day to remember why we have several of our most important open government laws.
The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum has opened a new Watergate exhibit. Jon Wiener, who teaches history at UC Irvine and is a contributing editor to The Nation, tells the story:
- At the new Watergate Gallery, the truth finally wins out, By Jon Wiener, Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, (April 5, 2011).
The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum’s original exhibit about Watergate, designed in 1990 by Nixon loyalists before the National Archives took over operation of the library, explained Watergate as a third-rate burglary exploited by the president’s enemies to reverse the results of the 1972 election. Now, with the long-awaited opening of the library’s new Watergate exhibit, the public finally has a museum that tells the full story…
…Textbooks and journalists almost always conclude with Ford’s pardon of Nixon. But the Nixon Library goes one big step further, closing with the legislation that resulted from Watergate: the broadening of the Freedom of Information Act to give individuals and journalists more tools to uncover government abuse of power; the Presidential Records Act, which forbids presidents from destroying their records; the creation of the Federal Election Commission to monitor campaign finance; and the Ethics in Government Act, which established the office of the special prosecutor. [emphasis added]
Miller Center Offers Nixon/Deep Throat Tapes, Transcripts
Miller Center Offers Nixon/Deep Throat Tapes, Transcripts, Expert, NewsWise, University of Virginia, Press Release: Fri 19-Dec-2008.
The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia has a repository of presidential tapes and transcripts featuring Nixon and Haldeman discussing Mark Felt.
The Presidential Recordings Program (http://millercenter.org/academic/presidentialrecordings) at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs (http://www.millercenter.org) has a spectacular Watergate collection of Nixon tapes and transcripts online:
• http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/transcript/nixon/watergate
In particular, there’s this Oct. 19, 1972 conversation between Nixon and Robert Haldeman, in which Haldeman reports that he’s heard from a confidential source that Mark Felt is leaking information to the news media about the FBI’s investigation into the Watergate break-in:
• http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/clips/1972_1019_felt/Nixon also mentions Felt in the June 23, 1972 “Smoking Gun” conversation with Haldeman:
• http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/transcript/nixon/smoking-gunPRP scholar Ken Hughes puts the Nixon tapes in perspective in an online essay, Why Didn’t Nixon Burn the Tapes? — which also includes tapes and transcripts of Nixon-Haldeman conversations.
• http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibit/why-didnt-nixon-burn-tapes
Also feel free to use these tapes and transcripts in your stories and online exhibits, and to link to the transcripts….
What’s worse than 18 1/2 minutes of deleted audio?
What could be worse for a President than 18 1/2 minutes of missing tape (Listen to Nixon’s Watergate Tapes here)? How about 10 MILLION deleted emails? Yup, that’s right, White House email from March of 2003 to October 2005 (which would include the start of the Iraq War right up through the aftermath of Katrina) have "mysteriously" gone missing. The National Security Archive filed a motion back in October to find out what e-mails are missing from the White House e-mail system or backup tapes. This could be huge because the Presidential Records Act of 1978 mandates that White House communications be preserved.
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