International Former chief of F.B.I charged

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 9

International Former chief of F.B.I charged

NZPA-Reuter Washington 1 he American Federal Bureau of Investigation is embroiled in the worst scandal in its history after three former top officials were charged on Monday with approving burglaries.

One of the men charged, Patrick Gray, who resigned in disgrace as acting direct* or of the F. 8.1. five years ago, is the first person to have occupied the director’s office to be charged with a crime. He and two former subordinates charged with him, Mark Felt and Edward Miller, could face 10 years in prison and $lO,OOO fines if they are convictedFelt was acting associate director and Miller was assistant director with responsibility for domestic security operations. They were charged with authorising a large secret team of agents in the New York area known as Squad 47, which carried out burglaries and wiretaps against the radical Weather Underground group and suspected sympathisers in the early 19705. The three were charged by a Federal grand jury with conspiring to deprive

relatives and friends of the Weathermen of their civil rights by approving secret searches of their homes and offices and the illicit open-

ing of their mail. Gray, who is 61, was appointed to the top F.B.L job by President Richard Nixon in 1972 after the death of the legendary J. Edgar Hoover. He resigned in disgrace a little more than a year later when it was disclosed that, at the urging of White House aides, he burned documents that could have been used as evidence in investigations into the Watergate scandal. The Attorney-General (Mr Griffin Bell), announcing the indictments, said that disciplinary proceedings would be taken against 68 F. 8.1. agents, most of them attached to the New York field office, one former agent, and one Justice Department lawyer. Among the agents to be disciplined is Wallace La Prade, an assistant F.B.L ! director, who now heads the 'bureau’s New York field office.