The program officially began in August 1956 to break up the Communist Party USA. Tactics used included anonymous phone calls, IRS audits, and the creation of documents that would divide the group internally.
For each organization targeted, the FBI aimed to break them down internally by creating conflict, create a negative public image for them by releasing collected data, and restrict their ability to protest by infiltrating their group and sabotaging plans. Many of these actions were illegal and violated people’s First Amendment Rights.
COINTELPRO operations were exposed in 1971 when the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI group broke into an FBI office in Pennsylvania, stole over 1,000 classified documents, and released them to the press. More information about the program was released through the Freedom of Information Act, signed by President Johnson in 1966, which granted American citizens the right to see the contents of files maintained by federal executive branch agencies, such as the FBI. Lawsuits regarding the program also uncovered more information, which included agent testimonies.
In 1975, a major investigation on COINTELPRO was launched by the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. It was nicknamed the “Church Committee” for its chairman, Senator Frank Church. While few files were actually released, its final report sharply criticized COINTELPRO, stating that it violated First Amendment rights and that “many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that.''
Sources:
https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro
https://www.britannica.com/topic/COINTELPRO
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Freedom-of-Information-Act
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