Lincoln Letters Defaced, Trial Is Told

A scholar abused research privileges at the Library of Congress and National Archives to steal and try to sell letters signed by Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and other historic figures, a prosecutor charged Tuesday.

Charles Merrill Mount also defaced some letters between Lincoln and Civil War generals to remove government markings that would have alerted a dealer in rare documents to the fact that they were stolen, Assistant U.S. Atty. Martin Murphy said in his opening statement at Mount’s trial.

But Mount’s attorney, Charles McGinty, argued that Mount had legally collected the documents and that shoddy record-keeping led the Library of Congress and National Archives to believe that the letters were part of their collections.

Mount, 59, a Washington-based author of several artists’ biographies, tearfully denied the allegations. He is charged with two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted. His trial is expected to last three weeks.