Nixon's Watergate Testimony Released to Public

The ex-president's account of the Watergate scandal will finally see the light of day today.

The Nixon Presidential Library has released the records of former president Richard Nixon's testimony given to a grand jury about his role in the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon gave the testimony in 1975, a year after he resigned amid allegations that he helped cover up the break-in of Democratic campaign offices at the Watergate hotel during the 1972 election. But his version of events has never been made public until now, as the U.S. government has been forced to comply with a lawsuit filed by historians. The Obama administration had argued that releasing the files could unfairly impugn men involved in the scandal who are still living today. Grand jury testimony is rarely if ever released to the public, but the historians had argued that there was considerable public interest in having the former president's thoughts on his undoing added to the official record. Nixon's testimony ran for 11 hours over two days. He had earlier been pardoned for any crimes committed during his presidency by Gerald Ford, leading some historians to think that the testimony might be a candid reflection from a man known to be among the best stonewallers in history.