The CIA compiled a 693-page internal report of its own crimes called 'The Family Jewels' and kept it secret for 34 years

When CIA Director James Schlesinger took office in February 1973, he inherited an agency with a serious credibility problem. The Watergate scandal was unraveling, revelations about FBI abuses were mounting, and whispers about CIA misconduct were growing louder in Congress and the press.

Rather than wait for outside investigators to expose wrongdoing, Schlesinger made an unusual decision. He ordered every CIA employee to submit written reports about any activities that might have violated the law or exceeded the agency's legal authority. He wanted the violations documented internally, in one place, so leadership could understand the full scope of the problem.

What Schlesinger got back was a 693-page bombshell that the agency would spend the next three decades trying to bury.

The resulting document, informally titled "The Family Jewels," read like a confession written in bureaucratic language. It laid out domestic wiretapping operations targeting American citizens. It documented surveillance of journalists and news organizations. It detailed assassination plots against foreign leaders. It described illegal mail opening programs. It cataloged human experimentation involving LSD and other drugs, some conducted on unwitting American subjects. Each entry was methodically documented with dates, names, and operational details.

For years, the CIA simply denied the document's existence or claimed it was too sensitive to release. When pressed by Congress in the late 1970s, the agency acknowledged conducting some questionable activities but insisted most had been discontinued and were not worth discussing publicly. Officials suggested that exposing these details would compromise sources, methods, and ongoing intelligence operations.