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. Landau and an associate are accused of taking 60 documents, including some signed by Abraham Lincoln, inaugural ball invitations and a Washington Monument commemoration. At the same time, it’s beginning to look like many of Landau’s accounts of his exploits may have been wildly exaggerated. 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. Perhaps nothing symbolized his supposed access to the powerful as much as one of his prize collectibles: an original key to the White House. 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. 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. As the self-styled “America’s Presidential Historian,” Barry H.
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