[1] In 1973, Judge Gesell ruled illegal the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox by Acting Attorney General Robert Bork under the orders of President Richard Nixon in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre.

All of the defendants had held cabinet rank or senior staff positions in the White House of President Nixon.

Gesell later ruled that the office tape recordings of President Nixon were in the public domain because they had been played during a Watergate trial; his finding would be upheld by the Supreme Court.

[3] In 1989, Gesell was the presiding judge in the government's case against National Security Adviser Oliver North, who was convicted of aiding and abetting obstruction of a congressional inquiry into the Iran-Contra arms sale, of ordering the destruction of documents, and of accepting an illegal gratuity.

Those convictions, however, were later vacated by an appeals court because North had been granted immunity for his testimony to Congress.