Gerhard Gesell

In 1973, Judge Gesell ruled illegal the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox by Acting Attorney General Robert Bork under the orders of President Richard Nixon in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre.[2]

In 1974, Gesell presided over trials of the so-called Watergate Seven that arose from dozens of felony charges in the Watergate scandal. All of the defendants had held cabinet rank or senior staff positions in the White House of President Nixon. Those convicted or pleading guilty in these trials were John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, and Robert Mardian. Kenneth W. Parkinson was acquitted. Gesell later ruled that the office tape recordings of President Nixon were in the public domain because they had been played during a Watergate trial; his finding would be upheld by the Supreme Court.[3]

In 1989, Gesell was the presiding judge in the government's case against National Security Adviser Oliver North, who was convicted of aiding and abetting obstruction of a congressional inquiry into the Iran-Contra arms sale, of ordering the destruction of documents, and of accepting an illegal gratuity. On July 5, 1989, Gesell probated North's three-year prison sentence but fined him $150,000, sentenced him to 1,200 hours community service, and placed him on two years' probation. Those convictions, however, were later vacated by an appeals court because North had been granted immunity for his testimony to Congress. After further hearings on the immunity issue, Gesell dismissed all charges against North on September 16, 1991.[4]