Witnesses testified before the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, commonly known as the Church Committee, on FBI intelligence activities. From November 18, 1975, committee staffers Frederick Schwarz and Curtis Smothers detailed FBI abuses including spying, bugging, and attempted intimidation of Martin Luther King, Jr. From November 19, 1975, James Adams, deputy associate director of the FBI’s Intelligence Division, admitted to some excesses but defended a number of these FBI practices.

Context was provided by interviews with former committee staffers Frederick Schwarz and Elliot Maxwell, as well as an interview with Associate U.S. Senate Historian Katherine Scott.