COINTELPRO Declassified Documents: Where to Read the FBI Files and What They Show

COINTELPRO declassified documents are in the FBI Vault and Church Committee reports. Where to find them, what they prove about the 1956-1971 program, what is disputed.

Short answer: COINTELPRO declassified documents are public and searchable. The best starting points are the FBI Vault's COINTELPRO section and the Senate Church Committee's 1976 Book III. Together they document an FBI program, run from 1956 to 1971, to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" domestic political groups. Here is where to read them and what they prove.

How the files came out

On the night of March 8, 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI's field office in Media, Pennsylvania, took files and mailed copies to newspapers. The Washington Post published stories based on them. One routing slip carried the word "COINTELPRO," which reporters then pursued through Freedom of Information Act litigation. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ended the formal programs in April 1971. The burglars were never charged; several identified themselves in 2014, when journalist Betty Medsger published The Burglary.

In 1975 and 1976, the Senate Select Committee chaired by Frank Church investigated. Its final report concluded that many COINTELPRO techniques "would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity."

Where to read the COINTELPRO declassified documents

1. The FBI Vault

The FBI's online reading room, vault.fbi.gov, has a COINTELPRO section with scanned files organized by program, including the Communist Party USA, Socialist Workers Party, "White Hate Groups," "Black Nationalist-Hate Groups" (the FBI's term) and "New Left." Expect heavy redactions and poor scans; download the PDFs and search them locally.

2. Church Committee Book III

Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans (1976) is the most readable account, with case studies on the program, on Martin Luther King Jr. and on the Black Panther Party. It quotes FBI memos directly.

3. FOIA for anything else

If a file is not in the Vault, you can request it through the FBI's eFOIPA portal. Files about other living people generally need their consent.

What the documents prove

The program's scope. Five main programs targeted groups across the political spectrum, from 1956 (Communist Party) to 1971.
The methods. Anonymous letters, planted press stories, informants, efforts to provoke conflict between and within groups, and attempts to get targets fired.
Martin Luther King Jr. The Church Committee documented FBI wiretaps and bugging of King and an anonymous 1964 letter mailed to him. Historian Beverly Gage published a less-redacted copy in The New York Times Magazine in 2014. It is widely read as urging him to kill himself.
Fred Hampton. Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed in a December 4, 1969 police raid. FBI informant William O'Neal had supplied information including a floor plan of the apartment. In 1982, the city of Chicago, Cook County and the federal government settled a civil suit by survivors and Hampton's family for $1.85 million.

Documented, inferred, or disputed?

Documented: the program, its targets, its methods, and its exposure through the Media burglary and congressional investigation.

Disputed: how far FBI officials intended the Hampton raid's outcome. The settlement involved no admission of wrongdoing, and courts and historians have drawn different conclusions. We report the documented facts and leave that judgment to the reader.

Unproven: claims that COINTELPRO continued under the same name after 1971. The Church Committee found some similar activities continued; whether a formal program persisted is not shown in the released record.

Our view (opinion)

COINTELPRO is the case study for why oversight of domestic intelligence matters. It came to light because private citizens broke the law and journalists published, not because internal controls worked. That is relevant to modern debates over Section 702 and what the record does and does not show about CIA media ties.

Sources

FBI Vault, COINTELPRO: vault.fbi.gov
U.S. Senate, Church Committee, Book III: Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Report 94-755 (1976).
Betty Medsger, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI (Knopf, 2014).
Beverly Gage, "What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals," The New York Times Magazine, Nov. 11, 2014.
Hampton v. Hanrahan, 600 F.2d 600 (7th Cir. 1979), and reporting on the 1982 settlement.
FBI eFOIPA portal: efoia.fbi.gov

Frequently asked questions

Where can I read COINTELPRO declassified documents?

The FBI's online Vault has a COINTELPRO section with files on the program's targets, and the Senate Church Committee's 1976 Book III contains detailed staff reports on it.

What was COINTELPRO?

A set of FBI counterintelligence programs from 1956 to 1971 that aimed to disrupt and discredit domestic political groups, from the Communist Party USA to civil rights, Black nationalist, New Left and white hate groups.

How was COINTELPRO exposed?

On March 8, 1971, activists calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burgled the FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, and sent files to newspapers. One file bore the label COINTELPRO.

Did COINTELPRO target Martin Luther King Jr.?

Yes, FBI surveillance and harassment of King is documented by the Church Committee, including an anonymous 1964 letter sent to him. Historian Beverly Gage published a less-redacted copy in 2014.

What is the link between COINTELPRO and Fred Hampton?

FBI informant William O'Neal supplied information, including a floor plan, before the December 4, 1969 Chicago police raid in which Hampton was killed. In 1982 the city, county and federal government settled the survivors' lawsuit for $1.85 million.