Historians take legal action to make public Nixon’s 1975 testimony to Watergate grand jury

Historians want Nixon grand jury testimony opened

WASHINGTON — Thirty-five years after Richard Nixon testified secretly to a grand jury investigating Watergate, a group of historians is making a legal bid to make public what the president said under oath about the break-in that drove him from office.

Nixon was interviewed near his home in San Clemente, Calif., for 11 hours on June 23-24, 1975, 10 months after he resigned. It was the first time a former U.S. president testified before a grand jury, but the 297-page transcript remains sealed from the public.

The historians have filed a petition before Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of U.S. District Court in Washington arguing the historical significance outweighs arguments for secrecy with the investigations long over and Nixon dead for 16 years.