Hoover’s secret files were real, and Laurence Silberman said reviewing them revealed how the FBI collected damaging personal information and used it for political influence. Some surviving records are now publicly available.

There is one date correction: Silberman became deputy attorney general in 1974, but his own account dates the discovery that prompted his review to January 1975, when he was serving as acting attorney general. His recollection is more precise than later accounts that label the entire episode “1974.” wsj.com

1. What were Hoover’s secret files?

The principal collection was called J. Edgar Hoover’s “Official and Confidential,” or O&C, files. These records were kept in his private office, separately from ordinary FBI files, with tightly controlled access.

According to the National Archives, they included:

Internal memoranda reporting matters of particular interest to Hoover.

Correspondence with prominent politicians, journalists, and businesspeople.

Investigative records concerning prominent individuals.

Sensitive documents removed from larger investigative files and stored separately.

The collection covers 1924–1972, the years Hoover headed the Bureau. The separation of these records made sensitive information available to Hoover while restricting its circulation within the FBI. National Archives

2. How did Silberman learn about them?

Silberman recalled that when he became deputy attorney general, he asked FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley whether Hoover’s rumored secret files existed. Kelley said they did not.

Then, on January 19, 1975, Silberman read a front-page Washington Post report describing files containing embarrassing information about members of Congress. When questioned again, Kelley realized the report referred to inherited files in his outer office that he had never examined. That is Silberman’s account of how their contents came to his attention. wsj.com

The House Judiciary Committee required Silberman to testify about the records. He consequently spent several weekends reading them. In his oral history, he described discovering a system in which FBI field supervisors forwarded scandalous information about public figures privately to Hoover. dcchs.org

3. What disturbed him so much?

Silberman identified two central abuses:

Collecting personal information for leverage. He said Hoover gathered embarrassing material on politicians and other prominent people, then sometimes used it to pressure them into supporting Hoover and the FBI.

Using federal investigators for partisan purposes. Silberman believed the records showed presidents using the Bureau against political opponents. His criticism concerned the conversion of law-enforcement resources into instruments of personal and political power. These are Silberman’s conclusions from his review; individual allegations still require examination of the underlying documents. dcchs.org

Your “sewer that collected dirt” quotation appears in Anthony Summers’s later reporting. It should be described as a retrospective quotation attributed to Silberman, rather than a verified transcript of something he publicly said in 1974. The Guardian

4. What kinds of political misuse did he describe?

In his oral history, Silberman discussed the 1964 Johnson–Goldwater presidential campaign. He said that after the scandal involving Johnson aide Walter Jenkins, the administration sought damaging information about Goldwater’s staff through the FBI.

Silberman considered Lyndon Johnson especially aggressive in exploiting the Bureau. That assessment is his firsthand interpretation of records he read, rather than a neutral ranking of presidents established by a court or congressional finding. dcchs.org

A separately documented example of FBI abuse concerns Martin Luther King Jr. The Bureau monitored King, recorded private activities, attempted to undermine his standing, and sent an anonymous threatening letter with a recording in 1964. King interpreted the package as an effort to induce suicide. This broader campaign helps explain the danger of collecting private information for intimidation, although the entire King investigation should not be confused with the narrower O&C collection. kinginstitute.stanford.edu

5. Were the files destroyed after Hoover died?

Some records survived, while other material was destroyed.

Following Hoover’s death on May 2, 1972, the O&C files were transferred to W. Mark Felt, then deputy associate director. Their survival is confirmed by the National Archives. National Archives

Hoover’s longtime secretary, Helen Gandy, also destroyed material she described as his personal correspondence, following his instructions. Congressional investigators questioned whether official records had been destroyed along with personal papers. Gandy maintained that she separated personal material from Bureau business. Because the destroyed papers cannot now be inspected, their complete contents cannot be established. archives.gov

Thus, claims that all Hoover’s secret files were destroyed are incorrect. Claims that the surviving collection contains everything he accumulated are also unsupported.

6. What happened afterward?

The Church Committee, established in 1975, investigated intelligence abuses involving the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other agencies. Its work placed the Hoover files within a much larger examination of surveillance, political harassment, and failures of government oversight. Silberman’s review and the Church Committee investigation were related parts of this period of scrutiny, but they were separate proceedings. senate.gov

In 2005, the National Archives announced the transfer of Hoover’s surviving O&C collection from the FBI. Redacted versions had already been available through the FBI’s FOIA reading room. The Archives stated that withheld information could be reviewed again in response to researcher requests under FOIA. National Archives

7. Where you can read the records and accounts

FBI Vault: Hoover’s Official and Confidential Files
The starting point for publicly released scans of the actual collection.

National Archives: Description and transfer of the Hoover files
Official explanation of the collection, its contents, custody, and public access.

Laurence Silberman’s oral history—PDF
Read printed transcript pages 91–99, approximately PDF pages 102–110, for his account of discovering and reviewing the files.

Silberman: “Hoover’s Institution,” July 20, 2005
His firsthand retrospective, including the January 19, 1975 date. Access may require a subscription.

U.S. Senate: History of the Church Committee
Official background on the congressional investigation.

Church Committee, Book II: Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans—PDF
The committee’s findings on domestic intelligence and civil liberties.

Stanford King Institute: The FBI’s campaign against King
A documented account with references to historical records.

The key distinction when reading these files: a document can prove that the FBI collected or circulated an allegation without proving the allegation itself was true. The strongest established issue is the government’s collection and political use of private information.