Barry Landau: As document-theft probe of historian grows, so do questions on who he is

As the self-styled “America’s Presidential Historian,” Barry H. Landau was a regular network guest, wrote a book on dining at the White House and claimed Bill Clinton once came with him to the vet when his dog got sick.

Landau spoke authoritatively on White House ceremony and glamour, expertise he said he gleaned from “serving” nine presidents and amassing one of the largest collections of presidential inaugural memorabilia. Perhaps nothing symbolized his supposed access to the powerful as much as one of his prize collectibles: an original key to the White House.

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That carefully crafted public image came crashing down this month when Landau, 63, of New York, was charged with stealing historic documents from the Maryland Historical Society that prosecutors value at $6 million. At the same time, it’s beginning to look like many of Landau’s accounts of his exploits may have been wildly exaggerated.

Landau and an associate are accused of taking 60 documents, including some signed by Abraham Lincoln, inaugural ball invitations and a Washington Monument commemoration.

On Tuesday, Baltimore prosecutor Tracy Varda said in a detention hearing that authorities suspect the pair has been swiping such bits of history for about a year. She said that police found documents from the National Archives, Connecticut Historical Society and Vassar College in a locker linked to the two and that there is evidence Landau sold stolen documents for $35,000 to a dealer. And she said Landau’s associate may have ripped up historic papers and flushed them down a toilet before his arrest.

Landau’s alleged actions “show he has zero respect for the history and for this country,” Varda said.

Landau’s attorney called the charges “tenuous and circumstantial.”

“There were no documents recovered on Mr. Landau’s person. He was not seen removing documents. There was nothing found in his car,” Steven D. Silverman said. “If the case were tried today based on that evidence, it would be a slam dunk not guilty.”

Silverman declined to address the accusations of exaggeration or anything else beyond the criminal case. He said Landau would not comment.

As the criminal investigation grows, so do questions about whether Landau really is who he said he was.

Landau, who started his career as a New York publicist and published “The President’s Table” in 2007, has been profiled in The Washington Post and became a go-to commentator for CNN and NBC’s “Today Show” by sprinkling history with anecdotes of Washington elites. Landau’s Web site displays photos of him with five presidents, but the depth of those connections is unclear.

Landau told interviewers that he was a protocol officer under President Gerald R. Ford and that he once traveled to Moscow with President Richard M. Nixon. Libraries for the presidents said they could not find records of Landau in those roles.

Landau, who sports a beard and used to appear at events with his poodle, cuts a colorful figure: Actor William Baldwin has called him a “diva” of presidential history. Landau said Jacqueline Kennedy once suggested in a letter that he be the “Minister of Inaugurations” for the White House.