You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. The French Revolution set Europe ablaze. It was an

age of enlightenment and progress, but also of tyranny and depression. It was an age of glory and

an age of tragedy. One man stood above it all. This was the Age of Napoleon. I'm Everett Rummage, host of The Age of Napoleon podcast.

Join me as I examine the life and times of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic characters

in modern history. Look for the age of Napoleon wherever you find your podcasts.

It's March 8, 1971. Someone is broken into the FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania.

They called themselves the Citizens Commission to investigate the FBI, an eight-person activist group

whose goal was to infiltrate and blow the whistle on J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.

If everything went as planned, they would go down in history

as the group that exposed Hoover for the monster he was. And what they found was damning. The group

stole over 1,000 documents exposing Hoover's illegal counterintelligence program, Cointel Pro, founded in 1956.

This theft resulted in the exposing of some of the FBI's most incriminating documents,

which included evidence that they spied on black college students and nonviolent activist groups,

including groups who protested the Vietnam War.

They spied on and blackmailed and conspired to topple the Black Rights Movement, even going as far as to have their leaders murdered and their supporters silenced.

Illegal surveillance of groups deemed a threat to the nation was the name of the game

for Jay Edgar Hoover.

And he did this because no one could stop him.

He was too powerful.

In America, we're taught that power can't stay in one hand for too long.

Presidents will only stay in office for four to eight years.

Representatives, senators,

...