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FBI accused of political spying

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"gotten involved in demonstrations and free love." and of a Republican representative who had been told the bureau possessed evidence indicating he was a homosexual.

"We had him in our pocket after that," the source said of the representative. He added that he could not recall the senator, a liberal Democrat, ever criticizing the FBI in public.

He characterized such pressures exerted by Hoover on other members of Congress as subtle. but effective.

We would advise them as a matter of courtesy. Nobody could ever say we were trying to extract our pound of flesh. We were too sophisticated for that. We'd say. We've come by this information and we want you to know it's safe in our hands.' We never bent a man's arm. We would never be so crass or so crude.

In addition to Rooney, the source said. some of the chief beneficiaries of politically useful material about their opponents were Rooney's colleagues on the subcommittee

that exercised authority over Justice Department finances.

"We always focused on the appropriations committee, because we wanted more and more money," he said. "We had the whole thing rigged every time Hoover went up (to testify in behalf of the bureau's budget request)."

The Rooney subcommittee invariably approved the bureau's proposed budget with no major reductions. On occasions, it gave Hoover more money than he asked for.

When Rooney, a conservative. was challenged for the Democratic nomination in 1972 by Allard K. Lowenstein, the source said. the FBI did everything we could to help Rooney get elected.

Agents in the field were ordered to gather and forward to Washington whatever "background information they could find on Lowenstein, a former president of Americans for Democratic Action who organized a movement to unseat President Johnson in 1968.

"They didn't find anything derogatory on him." he recalled. but it seems he was identified with liberal and radical causes. We gave Rooney everything we knew."