[4][3] Halperin and his family named ten federal officials as defendants and sought money damages.

[3] Both Halperin and the government officials filed motions for summary judgment, and in December 1976 the trial court dismissed all defendants from the case except for three: former President Richard M. Nixon, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and former Nixon advisor H. R.

Plaintiffs argued that "the District Court erred in not applying Title III, in awarding only nominal damages, and in granting summary judgment in favor of ...

[3] In December 1991, Kissinger issued an apology to Halperin for his role in the wiretap, writing in a letter "It is something if circumstances were repeated I would not do again" and that he accepted moral responsibility for having "acquiesced in the tap.

"[1] In response, Halperin voluntarily dropped the lawsuit, which had been pending for 19 years; Judge John Helm Pratt formally dismissed the suit in 1992.