Montpelier, Vt. ? Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Sunday he would let a judge determine which of the sealed records from Dean’s years as Vermont’s governor should be made public.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Dean said he has decided to use a lawsuit by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, suing to open the records, as a mechanism to determine which records should be released and which should be kept sealed.

“What we think the best thing to do is to let the judge go through every single document and decide for himself what ought to be revealed and what not to be revealed,” Dean said.

At issue are 145 boxes of documents that Dean gave to the state archives when he left office in January with the provision that they not be opened for 10 years. Dean, who served 11 years as governor, gave the state 190 boxes without restrictions on use.

Dean has come under increasing pressure from other Democratic presidential hopefuls and Republican officials to open the sealed documents. Washington-based Judicial Watch sued last week.