Last of the Nixon Tapes Go Online

Forty years after President Richard M. Nixon turned off his secret tape recorder, the federal government on Wednesday finally released the last of the historic recordings that have provided an unparalleled insight into the workings of one of the nation’s most dramatic presidencies...

The 94 tapes released on Wednesday cover conversations from April 9 to July 12, 1973, after which the secret taping system was dismantled when a Nixon aide, Alexander Butterfield, disclosed its existence to Congress. (more)

Get yer hot Tricky Dicky tapes. 
Get yer hot tapes here.

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Today in Eavesdropping History

On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. (more)
 

He submitted his official resignation the following day...

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Watergate Redux

The Dallas, Texas offices of law firm Schulman & Mathias were broken into two weeks ago by two burglars caught on surveillance camera. The two stole three computers. Damon Mathias, a partner at the firm, said

Attorneys said the burglars may have been hired to steal documents related to State Department whistleblower Aurelia Fedenisn, who is represented by the firm...

In early June, Fedenisn gave CBS News a draft State Department Inspector General report which offered the details of allegations that alleged sex crimes involving diplomats — including one U.S. ambassador who allegedly visited prostitutes — were ignored by State Department top officials. (more)

Time to sweep the office.

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Watergate's Next Watergate

A history professor hopes that a federal court's recent order to release long-sealed Watergate documents will shed light on the motivations behind the infamous 1972 scandal and help set an example for how to unseal court records.

Federal District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., on Friday ordered the National Archives and Records Administration to review and release some of the documents within a month. The order came in response to Texas A&M history professor Luke Nichter's 2009 informal request to Lamberth to unseal a trove of documents relating to the 1973 trials of Watergate conspirators G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord.

Nichter's letter said that some of the sealed materials "purportedly will demonstrate that exposing a prostitution ring was the real motivation for the break-in." Liddy had alleged a similar theory in the mid-1990s, although he claimed that motive was unknown to him when he orchestrated the break-in. (more) (previous report)

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