The money quote in the following document:
No organizations of radicals acting through propaganda over the last six months could have created as much revolutionary sentiment in America as has been created by the acts of the Department of Justice itself.
See if any of this sounds familiar. This was the DOJ in J. Edgar's day.
https://archive.org/stream/toamericanpeople00natiuoft/toamericanpeople00natiuoft_djvu.txt
Report upon the illegal practices of the U.S. Department of Justice
TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
REPORT UPON THE ILLEGAL PRACTICES OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MAY. 1920
TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE :
For more than six months we, the undersigned lawyers,
whose sworn duty it is to uphold the Constitution and
Laws of the United States, have seen with growing apprehension the continued violation of that Constitution and
breaking of those Laws by the Department of Justice of
the United States government.
Under the guise of a campaign for the suppression of
radical activities, the office of the Attorney General, acting by its local agents throughout the country, and giving
express instructions from Washington, has committed
continual illegal acts. "Wholesale arrests both of aliens
and citizens have been made without warrant or any
process of law ; men and women have been jailed and held
incommunicado without access of friends or counsel ; homes
have been entered without search-warrant and property
seized and removed; other property has been wantonly
destroyed ; workingmen and working'women suspected of
radical views have been shamefully abused and maltreated. Agents of the Department of Justice have been
introduced into radical organizations for the purpose of
informing upon their members or inciting them to activities ; these agents have even been instructed from Washington to arrange meetings upon certain dates for the
express object of facilitating wholesale raids and arrests.
In support of these illegal acts, and to create sentiment in
its favor, the Department of Justice has also constituted
itself a propaganda bureau, and has sent to newspapers
and magazines of this country quantities of material designed to excite public opinion against radicals, all at the
expense of the government and outside the scope of the
Attorney General's duties.
We make no argument in favor of any radical doctrine
as such, whether Socialist, Communist or Anarchist. No
one of us belongs to any of these schools of thought. Nor
do we now raise any question as to the Constitutional
protection of free speech and a free press. We are con-
cerned solely with bringing to the attention of the
American people the utterly illegal acts which have been
committed by those charged with the highest duty of en-
forcing the laws — acts which have caused widespread
suffering and unrest, have struck at the foundation of
American free institutions, and have brought the name
of our country into disrepute.
