In the mid-1970s the FBI had been battered: the Church Committee had exposed its domestic spying, and Watergate had shown what political use of law enforcement looked like. Under Directors Clarence Kelley and then William Webster, appointed in 1978, the Bureau shifted toward white-collar crime and public corruption, and undercover work was the tool. The Senate committee counted 53 FBI undercover operations in 1977 and 463 in 1981. [1]
Critics say ABSCAM was the showcase. It went after Congress, the institution that had just investigated the FBI, with a script written to reach Congress, and its results were leaked before indictment, convicting members in the press first. [1][2]
Then the timing: the leaks came in February 1980, an election year, and three of the convicted members lost that November.
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