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Commutation of G. Gordon Liddy's Prison Sentence Announcement of the Commutation, With the Text of the Order.

April 12, 1977

The President has today commuted the sentence of G. Gordon Liddy from the 20-year sentence which he received to a sentence of 8 years. This will make Mr. Liddy eligible for parole July 9 of this year. This will also make his mandatory release date, with credit for good time, September 30, 1980.

The President took this action in the interest of equity and fairness based on a comparison of Mr. Liddy's sentence with those of all others convicted in Watergate related prosecutions.

ORDER OF COMMUTATION

To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

WHEREAS George Gordon Liddy was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on an indictment (Doc. No. CC 1827-72) charging violation of Sections 371 and 2511, Title 18, United States Code, and Section 1801(b), Title 22, District of Columbia Code, and on March twenty-third, 1973, was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of forty thousand dollars ($40,000); and

WHEREAS the fine has not been paid and the said George Gordon Liddy began service of his sentence on January thirtieth, 1973, is presently confined in the Federal Prison Camp, Allenwood, Pennsylvania, will be eligible for release therefrom with credit for statutory good time on April twelfth, 1988, and will be eligible for parole consideration on July ninth, 1981; and

WHEREAS it has been made to appear that the ends of justice do not require that the aforesaid sentence be served in its entirety:

Now, THEREFORE, BE IT KNOWN, that I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby commute the aforesaid prison sentence of said George Gordon Liddy to a term of the eight years' imprisonment, the forty thousand dollars ($40,000) fine to remain in effect.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed.

[SEAL]

--DONE at the City of Washington this Twelfth Day of April, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy-seven and of the Independence of the United States the Two-Hundred and First.

By the President: JIMMY CARTER

Attorney General: GRIFFIN B. BELL

Note: Deputy Press Secretary Rex Granum announced the order of commutation at his April 12 news conference at the White House.

Jimmy Carter, Commutation of G. Gordon Liddy's Prison Sentence Announcement of the Commutation, With the Text of the Order. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/243288

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