Three former top officials are indicted for illegal acts
In the early 1970s, U.S. campuses were boiling with protest against the Viet Nam War. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched on Washington. The Weatherman organization and other extremist groups set off bombs in Madison, Wis., San Rafael, Calif., and New York City, causing the deaths of at least four people. It was a time of sad and sorry crisis for the country, and the FBI was under intense pressure from both the Nixon White House and the public to stop the violence. As is now known, the bureau used illegal wiretaps, burglaries and mail thefts in searching for evidence against the radicals. The overzealous effort netted few suspects and resulted in widespread fears that the FBI was out of control, that it had lost sight of its role in a free society.
Last week Attorney General Griffin Bell sought to end the debate over the FBI and close this tarnishing chapter in the bureau's history. In the process, he shook the pillars of the FBI as never before in its 70-year history by announcing the indictment of three former top officials for "conspiracy against rights of citizens." The three:
>L. Patrick Gray III, 61, a career naval officer who served as acting FBI director from May 1972 to April 1973, when he returned to his law practice in Groton, Conn., after withdrawing his name from nomination as J. Edgar Hoover's successor because of growing opposition in the Senate. The chief reason: Gray had destroyed evidence in the Watergate scandal.
>W. Mark Felt, 64, a 31-year FBI veteran and for more than a year the agency's No. 2 man. For a time, Felt was also a possible successor to Hoover. He retired in 1973.
>Edward S. Miller, 49, an agent for 24 years and the FBI's assistant director in charge of intelligence from 1971 until he retired in 1974.
The indictment, based partly on evidence that FBI officials had hidden for years, charges that the trio conspired to "oppress citizens of the United States who were relatives and acquaintances of Weatherman fugitives" by violating their constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. According to the indictment, Gray, Felt and Miller explicitly assigned the illegal actions on their own. Two years ago, Felt publicly acknowledged authorizing two break-ins. But last week he called the indictment a "tragic mistake." All three defendants denied that they had done anything illegal or improper, but did not elaborate further. Indeed, only days before the indictment was announced, they turned down Justice Department offers to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges.
Bell has been uncomfortably mulling over the FBI cases ever since he took office and found out about the bureau's misdeeds. They were being investigated by Assistant Attorney General J. Stanley Pottinger, but he was making little progress because of a stubborn cover-up within the FBI. Pottinger had begun his probe in 1976 by recruiting a team of twelve FBI agents, which was later expanded to 24, all of whom were chosen on the basis of their known integrity and loyalty to the U.S. Government rather than to the FBI establishment.