Nixon Testimony: Watergate Tape Gap an Accident

He says he 'practically blew my stack' when he heard
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 10, 2011 1:58 PM CST
Richard Nixon Said Gap on Watergate Tape Was Just an Accident
In this Aug. 9, 1974, file photo, Richard Nixon says goodbye to members of his staff outside the White House in Washington.   (AP Photo/File)

The public finally got to hear Richard Nixon’s long-sealed grand jury testimony regarding Watergate today—and what they heard didn’t amount to much. Asked to explain the infamous 18½ missing minutes of tape, Nixon said it was probably just erased by accident. “I practically blew my stack” when I found out how much had been lost, he said. The AP concludes that he “was no help to investigators” in reconstructing the missing conversation.

Nixon gave the testimony 10 months after leaving office. Typically such testimony is kept sealed, but historian Stanley Kutler sued to have it released, arguing that it was too historically significant to keep sealed away, the New York Daily News explains. (More Richard Nixon stories.)

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