Appeals Court Upholds Sirica On Giving Evidence to House

The United States Court of Appeals yesterday upheld Federal District Judge John J. Sirica's transmittal of a secret grand jury report to the House impeachment inquiry.

Sirica ordered on Monday that the report, which contains evidence of President Nixon's role in Watergate, be turned over to the House Judiciary Committee.

The court set a 5 p.m. EDT Monday deadline on submitting the material to the committee to permit petitioners to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Lacovera said yesterday that there were no grounds for keeping the document and a satchel full of supporting evidence from the Judiciary Committee.

Assistant Special Prosecutor Philip Lacevara said in court Wednesday that the material includes "an index which lists events involving the President which the grand jury found may be important or pertinent to the inquiry." The court's decision came just hours after Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski announced that he had subpoenaed additional documents from the White House.

The special prosecutor's subpoena gives the White House until Monday to comply.

Jaworski would not reveal what was requested, but indicated that the subpoena covered material relating to other investigations by the three grand juries--political contributions, the ITT matter, the milk fund case or the 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the White House Watergate tapes.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Gerald L. Warren said yesterday the subpoena was under consideration and told reporters, "I don't have any guidance to give you" on the likely White House response.

Attorneys for H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, two of the Watergate cover-up defendants, had opposed giving the House the grand jury's report on the grounds that if the information leaked out, their clients might not be able to get a fair trial.

John J. Wilson, Haldeman's attorney, argued that the grand jury had no right to issue the report and that the judge lacked the authority to turn it over to the House.