Word: sirica
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Like millions of other Americans, Richard Nixon had hoped to get at least a brief taste of vacationing during the waning days of August-a little golf, a little swimming-but there was no sign of respite for the embattled President. First, Federal Judge John J. Sirica ordered that Nixon must surrender to him the secret White House tapes of private meetings about the Watergate scandal. The historic decision-the first in which a judge has ever ordered a President to give up documentary evidence that he was unwilling to produce-brought presidential lawyers rushing to the Western White House...
...only fitting that John J. Sirica should decide the controversy over the Watergate tapes. It was Sirica who had presided over the original trial of the Watergate burglars. It was Sirica who had protested that the whole truth had not been told in his courtroom. It was Sirica who broke open the case last spring by threatening maximum sentences but offering to review the penalties if the defendants talked-as James McCord eventually did. Now, after studying the lengthy briefs and arguments presented by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and White House Attorney Charles Alan Wright, Sirica knew that...
...painstakingly revised his opinion several times, and not until noon of the day the opinion was to be delivered did he finally finish. Three hours later, his secretary handed out mimeographed copies to reporters in his wood-paneled chambers. Wearing a dark coat and gray slacks, Sirica stood by, shaking hands, extending polite greetings, but resolutely refusing to comment...
...ruled, in principle, in favor of most of Cox's arguments -the most important being that no man, not even a President, is immune from a grand jury's demand for evidence. But it was not a clear-cut victory for Cox-not yet-because Sirica confessed that he could not rule on the President's claim of Executive confidentiality unless he heard the tapes himself. He therefore asked that the tapes be turned over to him so that he could hear them in his chambers. Sirica promised to keep "privileged portions" secret and excise the tapes...
...Recordings. Just how Sirica would go about censoring the tapes-if he gets them-was left unclear. Court officials said that he would consult with "technical experts" before deciding on a course of action. Sirica probably would first listen to them alone, since he could hardly invite anyone, even a secretary, to share his in camera inspection. Then he could request typed transcripts, perhaps prepared by White House staffers, and snip out the non-Watergate portions. That, however, would leave out the sound of the voices and the inflections that might also constitute valuable evidence that the jurors should hear...