Nixon’s Watergate grand jury testimony

    After 36 years, the pub­lic will get its first chance to read Richard M. Nix­on’s only sworn state­ments about the Wa­ter­gate scan­dal as the Na­tion­al Archives re­leases hun­dreds of pages of tran­scripts of the former pres­id­ent’s ap­pear­ance be­fore the Wa­ter­gate grand jury. Nix­on’s testi­mony in June 1975 – after he resigned from of­fice and re­ceived a pres­id­en­tial par­don – marked the only time he was ques­tioned un­der oath. The testi­mony has been shiel­ded by grand jury secrecy but is be­ing re­leased by court or­der.

    Testi­mony re­gard­ing the al­leged sale of am­bas­sad­or­ships
    The 18 and a half minute gap in the Wa­ter­gate tapes
    The IRS in­vest­ig­a­tion of Demo­crat­ic strategist Lawrence F. O’Bri­en
    Cam­paign con­tri­bu­tions and the White House “slush fund”
    Il­leg­al wireta­ps
    On May 4, 1977, former Pres­id­ent Nix­on made his first pub­lic com­ment on Wa­ter­gate since resign­ing in dis­grace on Aug. 8, 1974. Be­low is The Times’ story from the fol­low­ing day.
    On Sept. 22, 1975, former Pres­id­ent Nix­on’s law­yer dis­closed to a three-judge fed­er­al court that Nix­on had denied re­spons­ib­il­ity for the 18 1/2-minute gap in a po­ten­tially cru­cial Wa­ter­gate tape dur­ing secret grand jury testi­mony. Be­low is The Times’ story from the fol­low­ing day.
    Former Pres­id­ent Nix­on ap­peared be­fore the grand jury on June 23-24, 1975, at a U.S. Coast Guard sta­tion near his San Clem­ente home. Be­low is The Times’ June 28 story.
    Nov. 10, 2011
    Richard M. Nix­on an­nounced his resig­na­tion as pres­id­ent of the United States on Aug. 8, 1974. Be­low is The Times’ front page story from the fol­low­ing day. Listen to Nix­on’s resig­na­tion speech.
    The mys­tery deepened over the eras­ure of a Wa­ter­gate tape as Pres­id­ent Nix­on’s sec­ret­ary moved away from the White House’s po­s­i­tion that she was solely re­spons­ible for the eras­ure. At a Nov. 11, 1973, U.S. dis­trict court hear­ing, Rose Mary Woods stressed that she could not have been re­spons­ible for eras­ing more than 5 1/2 minutes of the tape. Be­low is The Times’ story from the fol­low­ing day.
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