FBI Documents Reveal Nixon, Reagan Intimidated Rehnquist Witnesses, and Detail the Late Chief Justice’s Addiction to Painkillers

Newly-released FBI documents reveal dramatic details about former Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s two confirmation battles and his 1981 hospitalization and dependence on a painkiller. The documents show that both the Nixon and Reagan administrations ordered the monitoring of witnesses set to provide testimony critical of Rehnquist during his 1971 and 1986 confirmation process.

The documents also reveal that during Rehnquist’s 1981 hospital stay, doctors reported that he exhibited severe withdrawal after he stopped receiving the highly toxic drug Placidyl. Rehnquist was said to have had hallucinations and once tried to escape from the hospital in his pajamas after convincing himself of a CIA plot against his life. The FBI released 1,561 pages of documents on Rehnquist in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act following Rehnquist’s death in September 2005. They’ve withheld an additional two hundred pages in the file and say one entire section cannot be retrieved.

Tony Mauro is with us now from Washington D.C. -- He is the Supreme Court correspondent for the Legal Times. Tony was the reporter who filed the Freedom of Information Act requests on Rehnquist.

* Tony Mauro. Supreme Court correspondent for the Legal Times.

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