WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice said at least some materials sealed in the court case against seven men involved in the 1972 Watergate burglary should be released.

The agency responded Friday to a request by a Texas history professor who is seeking access to materials he believes could help answer questions about the burglary that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Luke Nichter of Texas A&M University-Central Texas in Killeen, Texas, wrote the chief judge of the federal court in Washington to ask that potentially hundreds of pages of documents be unsealed.

Justice attorney Elizabeth Shapiro wrote in a court document filed Friday that the office would not oppose the release of at least some documents: “No good reason exists to keep sealed many of the judicial records created during the trial of the Watergate burglars.”