Kleindienst indicted on perjury charges

Former US Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, who resigned at the height of the Watergate scandal, was indicted on 14 counts of perjury for statements he made to a bar association committee investigating his dealings with a convicted racketeer. Mr. Kleindienst, one of former President Richard Nixon's chief law-enforcement officials, could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison on each of 14 felony counts handed down by a Maricopa County grand jury.

In 1974, Kleindienst became the first US attorney general to plead guilty to criminal charges, for giving false testimony to a Senate committee investigating an International Telephone & Telegraph payoff scandal. He was sentenced to one month's suspended pr obation.