Richard Kleindienst perjury files moved from FBI to Special Prosecutor

By Marcus Boone · August 17, 2026

FBI agents tracked campaign finance crimes and perjury by a prospective Attorney General, holding the evidence in a task force before it reached the Special Prosecution Force.

Political operatives broke into the Democratic National Committee and spent years scrubbing the trail of their crimes. Ordinary citizens and elected officials were watched, harassed, and lied to by a White House that treated the law as a suggestion.

For a long time, the internal movements of the evidence used to dismantle that machine remained hidden in the administrative shorthand of the National Archives. The file's catalogue entry for a series titled "Documentary Evidence Provided to the Special Prosecutor" outlines the hand-off of these secrets—the moment the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia surrendered their findings to the Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF).

Public record establishes that a special counsel is appointed when a conflict of interest exists for the usual prosecuting authority. In the case of Watergate, the conflict was the presidency itself. The archival description notes that the records in this series were maintained by the Watergate Task Force and its predecessor, serving as the raw material for the original trials.

Richard Kleindienst's Senate testimony

Among the most pointed targets of this evidence was Richard Kleindienst. The catalogue entry specifically notes that the records include documents pertaining to "possible perjury at the Senate confirmation hearings" for Kleindienst's nomination as Attorney General.

It is a particular kind of government betrayal when the man tapped to lead the Department of Justice is himself under investigation for lying to the Senate. The records provided to the special prosecutor included not just the FBI reports on these lies, but chronologies and summaries designed for use in court. The government was not merely investigating a crime; it was building a timeline of deceit to be used against one of its own high-ranking officials.

Witness files and subpoenas

The scope of the surveillance extends beyond the high-profile targets. Related archival series descriptions provide a glimpse into the dragnet used by the WSPF and the FBI. The "Witness Files" series consists of name files for potential trial witnesses who were questioned during the investigation of the cover-up. These files contain memorandums of interview and FBI reports, mapping out who knew what and when they were forced to admit it.

This process of coercion and documentation was supported by a rigid paper trail. The archival records include "Grand Jury Subpoenas Returned," each bearing the signature of the U.S. marshal who served the paper and the exact date of service. It is the ledger of a government turning its investigative powers inward, summons by summons.

There is also the matter of the "Jencks and Brady Materials." The catalogue records inventories and receipts for these materials, which were made available to the counsel for the defendants. In the legal world, these are the documents the prosecution is required to hand over—evidence that might exonerate the accused or impeach the credibility of the government's witnesses. The fact that these receipts are archived separately speaks to the meticulous way the WSPF managed the flow of information to the defendants, ensuring that every scrap of evidence was accounted for while the broader investigation remained shielded.

A fight over executive privilege

As the investigation tightened, the Nixon administration attempted to build a wall between the prosecutors and the evidence using the claim of executive privilege. The archival descriptions show that the WSPF did not take this claim at face value.

One related series consists entirely of reports, articles, and news clippings gathered by the Special Prosecution Force concerning the constitutional history of executive privilege. These were not merely stored; they were maintained by the Office of the Deputy Special Prosecutor. The government was conducting its own research into the limits of its own power, searching for the legal cracks that would allow them to pry the truth from the Oval Office.

While other related files are held at the NSArchive and the US National Archives—including prosecution memorandums and records of FOIA litigation—the catalogue entry for the documentary evidence provided to the special prosecutor remains a stark map of the transition from a managed FBI task force to an independent prosecution.

The record leaves one final, quiet detail: the collection of news clippings on executive privilege remained under the specific care of the Deputy Special Prosecutor, a record of the legal battle to decide if the President was above the law.