Judge orders partial release of Watergate 'road map'

[DonViejo]

By JOSH GERSTEIN 10/11/2018 09:45 PM EDT

A federal judge has ordered the partial release of a Watergate report that fueled an impeachment drive against President Richard Nixon and could serve as a precedent for a similar effort aimed at President Donald Trump.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell granted a request Thursday to unseal a large chunk of the so-called road map that a federal grand jury in Washington sent to the House Judiciary Committee in early 1974.

The transmission to Congress more than four decades ago included a bare-bones summary of evidence from various witnesses, as well as supporting documents contained in a bulging olive-colored briefcase that prosecutors gave Judge John Sirica. The information detailed what the grand jury discovered about the Watergate break-in and Nixon’s involvement in subsequent efforts to cover it up.

Howell acted at the request of Geoffrey Shepard, a California lawyer who served as a member of Nixon’s defense team during the legal showdown over Watergate. In 2011, when others moved to unseal Nixon’s grand jury testimony, Shepard asked that other information about the grand jury’s activities be made public.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/11/watergate-report-donald-trump-896046