A federal judge on Thursday granted a request to unseal part of a Watergate report known as the Road Map which gives details about President Richard Nixon’s involvement in covering up the Watergate break-in and was used to inform articles of impeachment against him.
The Road Map, which was sent to the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, could be used as precedent for how Special Counsel Robert Mueller will end his investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia.
Politico first reported the Road Map’s release on Thursday.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell released part of the Road Map at the request of George Shepard, who served in Nixon’s defense team during Watergate.
In the order obtained by Politico, Howell said the National Archives told her the report consists of a “two-page summary statement, followed by 53 individually numbered statements” and 97 documents supporting those statements.
The National Archive also said 81 of the documents had already been made public, whether in a House Judiciary Committee report or “elsewhere in the public domain.”
In addition to the Road Map’s partial release, Howell ordered the Justice Department to contact the individuals named in the remaining 16 documents to see whether they object to the report’s release.
In September, three legal scholars had also filed a petition to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking for the Road Map to be unsealed.
The September request was filed by Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes; Jack Goldsmith, former senior official for the Justice Department under President George W. Bush who is now a law professor at Harvard; and Stephen Bates, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the former federal prosecutor working for Kenn Starr, whose investigation resulted in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
“We did so because the document is of significant historical interest and significant contemporary interest,” Wittes, Goldsmith and Bates explained in the legal blog Lawfare, where Wittes is editor-in-chief.
“The Road Map is one of the few significant pieces of Watergate history that remains unavailable to the public,” they continued. “The document is also keenly relevant to current discussions of how Mueller should proceed.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated Nixon was impeached. While the House Judiciary Committee drew up articles of impeachment, Nixon resigned before he was formally impeached by the full House.
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In this file photo provided by Warner Bros., actors Robert Redford, right, and Dustin Hoffman appear in their roles as reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, respectively, in the 1976 film "All the President's Men." Personal details about the film and Watergate enliven a Discovery network documentary, "All the President's Men Revisited" which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. (AP Photo/Warner Bros., file)
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Mark Felt
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30th Anniversary of Watergate
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A historical marker on August 19, 2011 n
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A reporter smokes a cigarette beside Col
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US-WATERGATE
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Photo taken in the 1970's of Los Angeles attorney
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Nixon Watergate
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Nixon Watergate
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Nixon Watergate
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Nixon's Last Days
WASHINGTON - JANUARY 1974: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) U.S. President Richard Nixon waits in the hallway outside the East Room of the White House to give a press conference in January 1974 Washington, DC. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)
Nixon Watergate
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Demonstration Against Nixon At Washington In Usa On January 30Th 1974
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Nixon Makes Headlines
30th April 1973: White House reporters watch President Richard Nixon on TV as he told the nation of White House involvement in the Watergate scandal, Washington D.C. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Dean Testifies
25th June 1973: John Dean III, former counsel to President Nixon, testifying before the Senate Committee investigating the Watergate scandal at Washington DC. (Photo by Bernard Schopper/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)
John Mitchell
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Watergate Panel
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Rolando Martinez
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Frank Sturgis
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40th Anniversary Of Watergate
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 11: Watergate reporters Carl Bernstein, center, and Bob Woodward, right, listen in on a discussion during a 40th anniversary Watergate event at The Watergate office complex on June 11, 2012 in Washington, D.C. To mark the 40th anniversary of Watergate, The Washington Post via Getty Images hosted a live event and discussion including major players from the event and also reporters Woodward and Bernstein who broke the story. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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