(CNN) - Pardoned but hardly chastened, ex-President Richard Nixon defended his administration's secrecy and wiretaps in combative testimony before a Watergate grand jury following his resignation, newly released documents reveal.
Archivists released nearly 50,000 pages of records and about 45 minutes of audio recordings Thursday, including hundreds of pages of transcripts of Nixon's June 1975 testimony. Special prosecutors were still trying to document the breadth of the scandal that had driven him from power nearly a year earlier, while Nixon did his best to defend his presidency.