U.S. Moves to Block Testimony in Trial

WASHINGTON —  The Justice Department moved Wednesday to block Julie Nixon Eisenhower from testifying in a court battle over whether the government must pay her father’s estate millions of dollars in compensation for papers and tapes seized when he resigned as president.

The government also fought the Nixon estate’s plan to have its lead attorney, R. Stan Mortenson, take the stand--a rare courtroom maneuver--in the trial that is in its 69th day.

The Nixon estate wants to call new witnesses under the “guise” of rebuttal testimony, Justice Department attorney Neil Koslowe argued. That move would force the government to take new depositions, possibly recall witnesses and collect other information needed for cross-examinations.

“We cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” Koslowe told U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn.

If Eisenhower is permitted to take the stand, she is expected to testify that her father planned to put his papers in a traditional presidential library--so long as the government funded it and allowed him to restrict access to certain materials, Mortenson said.

That never happened. In 1974, Congress seized the materials, including 42 million papers, 3,700 hours of secretly recorded tapes and thousands of photographs.

If Nixon had known the government was not going to set up a presidential library, his plans would have changed, Mortenson said after the hearing. Eisenhower might have sold some items to ensure proper funding for a private library, Mortenson said.

The government contends that, if anything must be paid to compensate the Nixon estate, a fair market value for the materials would be no more than $2.2 million. The Nixon estate places the value at $30 million or more. With interest, compensation could total $210 million.

The Nixon estate, primarily the Richard Nixon Library & Foundation in Yorba Linda, also wants Mortenson to take the stand.

It is rare that a lawyer taking part in a case also testifies in that case, said G. Allen Dale, a Washington defense attorney.

“We’re supposed to be advocates, not witnesses,” he said. “I don’t think you would see it once a year in Washington.”

As a witness, Mortenson would dispute testimony of the government’s chief appraiser, Charles Sachs, who testified that the presidential materials are worth about $1.5 million. During a meeting in 1992, Sachs told the Nixon estate they were worth $35 million, said Martin Minsker, a colleague of Mortenson.

But the government said that Sachs testified he did not remember the appraisal figure he gave the Nixon estate in 1992.

“Mr. Mortenson is not in a position to impeach a witness for saying ‘I don’t remember,”’ Koslowe said.