Case 1:11-mc-00044-BAH Document 23 Filed 10/04/18 Page 1 of 4

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

IN RE PETITION OF GEOFFREY SHEPARD

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Misc. No. 11-0044 (BAH)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION’S
STATUS REPORT
I. On June 22, 2017, the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”)
delivered to Judge Lamberth’s chambers an ex parte, in camera submission, in accordance
with the court’s Memorandum and Order of May 23, 2017. That submission consisted of (a)
the declaration of Martha Murphy, NARA’s Chief of the Special Access and FOIA Branch,
addressing the first Watergate grand jury’s report and recommendation (the “Roadmap”); (b)
an index of the Roadmap, plus an illustration of how the Roadmap appeared, both attached
to the Murphy declaration, and (c) a box containing a copy of the entire Roadmap, as it was
transmitted to the House of Representatives.
The Murphy declaration explained that a majority of the Roadmap had already been
made public by the House Judiciary Committee, and thus no longer constituted secret grand
jury information. With respect to the non-public portions of the Roadmap, which contain
secret grand jury information, NARA was awaiting Judge Lamberth’s ex parte review and
decision before it proceeded to conduct an archival review to determine which portions
could now be opened to the public. That remains the status to date. Similarly, given the
pendency of the ex parte review, the government has not conferred with any individuals who
may be affected by a potential disclosure.

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II. Since the issuance of the Court’s September 20, 2018, minute order, undersigned
counsel has conferred with petitioner Geoff Shepard regarding what specifically he is
seeking through his current petition. Mr. Shepard clarified that, while he would like to see
the Roadmap unsealed, his true interest is not in the Roadmap itself. Rather, as Mr. Shepard
stated in his Motion to Amend the Court’s Memorandum and Order of May 22, 2017,
“[a] great deal of additional Watergate material has become available since this petition
was originally filed in 2011, particularly Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski’s confidential
Watergate files (now at the National Archives) and Associate Special Prosecutor James
Vorenberg’s staff meeting notes (now at the Harvard Law Library). These materials, and a good
deal of additional research, enables petitioner to narrow his request for disclosure to a single
very specific question: Do grand jury transcripts show WSPF prosecutors said they could
prove President Nixon had directed the final “hush money” payment to Howard Hunt?”

See Motion to Amend, dated May 26, 2017, ecf # 19 at 2 (emphasis in original).
NARA, of course, is unable to answer questions in this form, i.e., a query as to what
grand jury transcripts may or may not show. Undersigned counsel, however, has
encouraged petitioner to formulate a narrowing of his request to specific, identifiable
records. To the extent petitioner can do that, NARA will be better able to evaluate the
request on a more granular level.

Dated: October 4, 2017

Respectfully submitted,
JODY H. HUNT
Assistant Attorney General
/s/ Elizabeth J. Shapiro
ELIZABETH J. SHAPIRO
United States Department of Justice
1100 L Street, NW, Room 12100
Washington, D.C. 20530
Tel: (202) 514-5302
Fax: (202) 616-8460
elizabeth.shapiro@usdoj.gov
Attorneys for the United States
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on this date, I caused a copy of the foregoing Status Report
to be sent through electronic mail, to the following:
GEOFFREY C. SHEPARD
Three Old Mill Lane
Media, PA 19063
Email: geoff@geoffshepard.com

Dated: October 4, 2018
/s/__Elizabeth J. Shapiro_____
Elizabeth J. Shapiro

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