They then mailed these documents anonymously to several US newspapers to expose numerous illegal FBI operations which were infringing on the First Amendment rights of American citizens.

However, The Washington Post, after affirming the veracity of the files which the Commission sent them, ran a front-page story on March 24, 1971, at which point other media organizations followed suit.

The members' identities remained a secret until early 2014, when all seven of the eight who could be found agreed to be interviewed by journalist Betty Medsger, who was writing a nonfiction book on the event: The Burglary.

When she discovered that the other burglars were breaking their silence, she contacted Robert Williamson and eventually was interviewed by Medsger as well, which was included in the epilogue to the paperback edition of The Burglary.

[5] The last anonymous member, Sara Shumer of Berkeley, California – in 1971 a political science professor at Haverford College (where Davidon taught physics) – disclosed her participation in 2024 for inclusion in coverage of the incident on the Ed Helms podcast, SNAFU.

[9] The picture of the office shown in The New York Times' video corresponds to 1 Veterans Sq, Media, PA.[3] In a 2014 interview, John Raines said that while returning from the burglary early in the morning, the group had stopped at a pay phone, called a Reuters journalist, and delivered the following statement:[10] On the night of March 8, 1971, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI removed files from the Media, Pennsylvania, office of the FBI.

These files will now be studied to determine: one, the nature and extent of surveillance and intimidation carried on by this office of the FBI, particularly against groups and individuals working for a more just, humane and peaceful society.

Rather, this destruction is the result of certain undemocratic social, economic and political institutions.The FBI had up to 200 agents working on this case, but it was never solved, and the investigation was closed when the five-year statute of limitations ran out.

[11] The burglars who were considered suspects and who were interviewed by the FBI (including John Raines, Bob Williamson, and Sara Shumer) did not cooperate or confess.