He Blackmailed Politicians
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The biography Official and Confidential shows that Hoover, in turn, liked to blackmail people to get them to do what he wanted. He had a number of files labeled “official and confidential” in his office. They included 883 files on senators and 722 on congressmen. Most were destroyed following his death.
Some survived. One read: “Dear Mr. Hoover, You may be interested in the following information… (NAME WITHHELD) [said] she had spent the afternoon of 3 June 1959, with Senator (NAME WITHHELD) in his private office. She also said she had sexual intercourse with the senator during the afternoon “on the couch in the senator’s office…”
