U.S. to Pay $18 Million for Nixon Tapes, Papers
BY ROBERT L. JACKSON
JUNE 13, 2000 12 AM PT
WASHINGTON — The federal government has agreed to pay $18 million to the estate of Richard Nixon to settle claims that the Watergate tapes and other presidential materials were improperly seized by the government in 1974 without compensation.
The out-of-court agreement, climaxing a five-month civil trial that ended last year, would result in $6 million in improvements and expansion for the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif., and paves the way for copies of his White House tape recordings and papers eventually to be made available at the Orange County facility, officials said.
Justice Department lawyers argued in federal court last year that placing any value on Nixon’s materials was “speculative” and that in no case should payment exceed $2.2 million. Lawyers for Nixon’s heirs sought compensation of $213 million for 3,700 hours of tapes and more than 4 million pages of historic White House documents.
David W. Ogden, the Justice Department official in charge of the case, called it “a fair resolution” that brings to a close 20 years of litigation surrounding Nixon’s materials.
John H. Taylor, executive director of the Nixon Foundation, said in an interview Monday that the agreement was “a fair, equitable and good compromise negotiated in virgin legal territory.”
Shortly after Nixon’s resignation in 1974, Congress decreed that the General Services Administration, the parent agency of the National Archives, should seize all his White House recordings and papers to guarantee that Nixon would not destroy them.
Until that time, presidents traditionally were free to take all their papers and other historic materials with them into retirement. But Congress made an exception in Nixon’s case because he was the first president to resign in a criminal scandal. His successor, Gerald R. Ford, granted him a full pardon from any possible future prosecution.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html 
Philly Boondoggle
