Ellsberg allowed some copies of the documents to circulate privately, including among scholars at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
On June 29, 1971, U.S. Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska entered 4,100 pages of the Papers into the record of his Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds-pages which he had received from Ellsberg via Ben Bagdikian-then an editor at the Washington Post.