Joshua Roberts/Reuters
The Gerald Ford White House significantly altered portions of the nominally “independent” 1975 Rockefeller Commission investigative report, removing an entire section on CIA assassination plots and altering the language elsewhere to soften the impact. This, according to the National Security Archive at the George Washington University, who released internal White House and commission documents Monday.
“Ford administration officials suppressed the Rockefeller Commission’s actual report on CIA assassination plots,” the NSArchive said of the altered documents. “Richard [Dick] Cheney, then the deputy assistant to the president, edited the report of the Rockefeller Commission from inside the Ford White House, stripping the report of its independent character. The Rockefeller Commission remained silent on this manipulation,” the report added. The 1975 commission was set up by President Ford as a response New York Times report from the year prior showing the CIA conducted illegal domestic activities.