Rice/Poindexter Case - COINTELPRO

COINTELPRO

After COINTELPRO became public (in 1977) and the Freedom of Information Act was passed (in 1978), Rice and Poindexter were able to access their FBI files. Each file was over a thousand pages long, though they only received small portions upon request. In 1978, Amnesty International published a report finding that irregular conduct by the FBI during its COINTELPRO operations had undermined the fairness of trials of a number of political activists during the 1970s. This led to the 1980 conviction (and 1981 pardon by President Ronald W. Reagan) of FBI Director L. Patrick Gray and Agent Edward S. Miller. However, beyond the general campaign to discredit and smear BPP members, the particular links between COINTELPRO and this case were uncertain until Senator Chuck Hagel facilitated release on over a thousand pages of relevant documents in 2001.