Historian Wins More Access to Liddy Records

WASHINGTON (CN) - A Watergate investigator can access records associated with the prosecution of G. Gordon Liddy, including reports on still-living people, a federal judge ruled.

Chief U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the release of reports on Virgilio Gonzalez, Engenio Martinez, Bernard Barker and Frank Sturgis, despite the fact that Barker and Sturgis are still alive.

"The public's interest in clarifying the historical record and furthering identifying the facts that led to the resignation of President Nixon outweigh their individual privacy interests," Lamberth wrote.

Luke Nichter, a history professor at Texas A&M University, has been seeking Liddy-connected documents since 2008. In November 2012, Lamberth agreed to release all documents relating to the Watergate case that the government did not object unsealing.

Nichter then moved to unseal those reserved documents, which included presentence investigative reports reflecting the content of illegally obtained wiretaps and grand jury information.

Though Lamberth agreed to unseal the presentence reports, he still refuses to release grand jury records, and will release only the names of individuals overheard on the illegal wiretaps.

"Prof. Nichter's quest to discover the ultimate truth behind Watergate is laudable," Lamberth wrote. "Unfortunately, the law does not allow the court to release all the requested information. The court will unseal the [presentence investigative reports] and some personal documents but will allow [the National Archive and Records Administration] to make appropriate redactions."

Liddy served eight years in federal prison for conspiring and breaking and entering the Democratic Campaign Committee headquarters during the 1972 presidential campaign. The scandal led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

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