Start with the result. Six of the seven members of Congress convicted were Democrats: Williams, Myers, Lederer, Thompson, Murphy and Jenrette. The only Republican was Kelly. Many of the other officials caught were Democrats too, in Camden and Philadelphia. [1]
Add the process. The Senate committee found the FBI had no factual basis for targeting most of the people it met, that it relied on middlemen, and that headquarters approvals were rushed. If the selection was not driven by evidence, the critics ask, what was it driven by? [2]
And the timing. The leaks came in an election year, in February 1980, and three of the convicted Democrats lost their seats that November. [1]
That is the honest case. The rest of this file asks whether the record supports the conclusion it points toward.
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