APPENDIX 7.-DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NEWS RELEASE OF APRIL 1, 1976, ANNOUNCING ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM TO NOTIFY VICTIMS OF FBI'S COINTELPRO OPERATIONS

Department of Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1976

AG

Attorney General Edward H. Levi today announced that

he has established a special review committee to notify
individuals who may have been personally harmed by improper
COINTELPRO activities that they were the subjects of such
activities, and to advise them that they may seek further
information from the Department if they wish.

Notification will be made in those instances where the
specific COINTELPRO activity was improper, actual harm may
have occurred, and the subjects are not already aware that they
were the targets of COINTELPRO activities.

The Attorney General stated that although he realized there might be difficulties in carrying out the program, his instructions to the committee set forth a mandatory general rule, and that any exceptions recommended by the committee would

have to be taken up with an advisory committee and then

presented to him personally.
preserve rights of privacy.

Special care would be taken to

Notification would be given as

the Committee's review of COINTELPRO files progressed.

The special review committee has been set up within the

Office of Professional Responsibility, which is headed by
Michael E. Shaheen, Jr. Members of the committee are Richard M.
Rogers, of the Department's Freedom of Information Unit; Susan N.
Wachtel, of the Civil Division, and Paul V. Daly, of the Office

of Congressional Affairs of the FBI.

The advisory group with which the committee will consult will be chaired by Peter R. Taft, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Land and Natural Resources Division, and will include Michael M. Uhlmann, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legislative Affairs and John Mintz, Legal Counsel for the FBI.