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Brian Hochman

@brianhochman.bsky.social
378 followers 214 following 87 posts

Professor @Georgetown // Author, The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States. Cleeeeeeeeeeeevelaaaaaaaaaaaand. This is for you.

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Reposted by Brian Hochman
Luca Trenta @lucatrenta.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
At a time of assassinations, leaked communications, and abuses of executive power, it might be good to reflect on the legacy of the Church Committee investigations. Last week, I recorded a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode with @mguariglia.bsky.social and @brianhochman.bsky.social.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
The great @mguariglia.bsky.social and I talked with @lawfaremedia.org about the Church Committee Report and its legacy. A terrific conversation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgi3...
youtube.com
Lawfare Daily: Unearthing and Reckoning with the Intelligence Excesses of the Cold War
YouTube video by Lawfare
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Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 04/02/2026
On Lawfare Daily, @michael-feinberg.bsky.social sat down with @brianhochman.bsky.social and @mguariglia.bsky.social to discuss their new book, “The Church Committee Report,” on law enforcement and intelligence community’s Cold War excesses and what we can learn from that era. youtu.be/Fgi3SaHA-Xw
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
🔫🔫
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
FRIDAY!
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Campaigns to disrupt progressive social movements. Government agencies violating the constitution. Unaccountable actions in Latin America. The Church Committee warned us fifty years ago. Our publication day is today. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
bookshop.org
The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
The Washington Post has decreed: The Church Committee Report is a book you must read this month!!
washingtonpost.com
13 new paperbacks to read this month
Mysteries and thrillers by Chris Bohjalian, Amity Gaige and William Boyle are among new releases
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Happy Publication day to the Church Committee Report! Published for the first time in an abridged format and by a major press for it's depressingly relevant 50th anniversary.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Campaigns to disrupt progressive social movements. Government agencies violating the constitution. Unaccountable actions in Latin America. The Church Committee warned us fifty years ago. Our publication day is today. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
bookshop.org
The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
PUBLICATION DAY IS TOMORROW! Get a copy and read about how the CIA and the Mafia were basically entwined to in order to infiltrate Cuba and assassinate Castro with an exploding cigar. How the FBI tried to bully MLK into committing suicide. How the IRS was deputized to spy on Black Panthers.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
2013: After NSA revelations, I ran a Twitter account posting quotes from the Church Commitee Report that were still relevant. 2022: I meet @brianhochman.bsky.social after he published his history of wire tapping The Listeners. 2026: Our abridged version hits stands for it’s 50th anniversary.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
If you've ever been curious about how the Mafia helped the CIA in Cuba, how the US government planned to smuggled sea urchin toxin in a dart gun to kill elected African leaders, the real playbook by which the US government tried to tear apart the Civil Rights and anti-war movements--this is for you.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
One month until the release of the Church Committee Report! For it's 50th anniversary, published by a major press for the first time and abridged to its most jaw-dropping findings and recommendations the report chronicles the abuses of the FBI, CIA, and Military from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The Church Committee Report book cover with a photo of Frank Church holding a CIA dark gone done in 1970s style orange. Edited and introduced by Matthew Guariglia and Brian Hochman with a foreward by Beverly Gage.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
DC area: For the upcoming release of The Church Committee Report from @wwnorton.com, @brianhochman.bsky.social and I are hosting an event on the past/future of civil liberties & unaccountable government with a panel of heavy hitters, Pulitzer prize winners, and a staffer of the Church Committee.
a poster for an event "executive power and the fate of democracy: lessons from the Church Committee at 50" to be held at Georgetown on January 23, 2026 at 4pm.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
People of DC and beyond: we have a Dream Team lined up for the launch of the Church Committee Report at Georgetown on 1/23. Mark your calendars! @mguariglia.bsky.social @wwnorton.com
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Just when you thought the academic job market couldn't get more dystopian: an ad for an opening at . . . ICE.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
“Defend the District” protest and Go-Go concert against Trump’s takeover at 14th and U St:
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
The Church Committee Report is, to date, the most detailed articulation of the government's playbook for disrupting, surveilling, and crushing political movements. It was written in 1975 but could not be more relevant or useful in 2025.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Our edition of The Church Committee Report has a cover. Coming Jan '26. @mguariglia.bsky.social and I both hope its relevance diminishes between now and then.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
I don't know, I'm no expert. But now is probably the time for universities in so-called Red States (and also maybe, um, Catholic and Jesuit schools too) to start standing the fuck up.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Once again, I hope this whets your appetite, because @brianhochman.bsky.social and I’s 50th anniversary edition of the Church Committee Report on unlawful and political activity of the CIA/FBI/NSA will published by Norton early next year.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
This is gutting news. Sterne was a once-in-a-generation mind. How many careers did his *footnotes* launch, much less books like Audible Past and MP3?
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profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
they’ve detained a postdoc here at georgetown www.politico.com/news/2025/03/19/tr…
politico.com
Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says - POLITICO
Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at Georgetown, says he is being punished because of the suspected views of his wife, a U.S. citizen with Palestinian heritage.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Jesse Helms was the last politician to push for the release of the King recordings, which tells you all you need to know about what this is about. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/u...
nytimes.com
Justice Department Moves to Unseal MLK Jr.’s FBI Surveillance Records
The request, which comes on the heels of an executive order by President Trump, represents a sharp reversal for the F.B.I. and the department.
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Kathleen J. Frydl @kfrydl.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
The CR's effect on DC is a five alarm fire. By treating the DC as a federal agency & compelling the city to return to 2024 spending, Congress is mandating that DC cut its budget--*its own tax dollars*--by almost 20%. None of this $ will be refunded to the fed gov; it was never theirs.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Seems impt to note, aside from the obvious, that the "NO MASKS!" bit openly confirms what activists and scholars have been saying for years: facial recognition technology is widespread and is being used to curtail constitutionally protected rights. (cc: @kashhill.bsky.social)
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
RIP to the one true king
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Harvard Kennedy School is ***salivating*** for a Bannon or Miller. I'd put money on it.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Just FYI *thousands* of federal workers were required to complete a workplace harassment training module this past week. The irony isn't lost on any of them.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Trolling and governance are not the same thing.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
An alternative headline could read DOGE SENDS SPAM EMAIL TO FEDERAL WORKERS, MUSK MAKES ILLEGAL THREAT
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
The first four weeks of this administration have merely consisted of the richest man in the world firing tens of thousands of ordinary workers and hectoring the ones who remain at their jobs.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
When this happens (not if) this city is going to explode. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Says Federal Government Should ‘Take Over’ Washington D.C
President Trump said the federal government should control the nation’s capital. Democrats and most local residents have long argued that Washington, D.C., should be a state.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Hilarious that there is a pundit class advocating for the annexation of Canada because Canadians will help liberals in the electoral college. Bro Canadians aren't going to be allowed to vote under US occupation. That is not how empire works.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
This. And the DC residents in this equation don't have representation in the government that has chosen to initiate the collapse.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Thousands of people protesting in front of congress right now, event planned well in advance. Not one dem leader here to speak or support.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Dispatch from the nation's capitol: close friend worked for a fed agency for *20 YEARS*, recruited last year to a different agency due to expertise--now fired because they are "probationary." Good plan!
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Other agencies are also claiming that existing union agreements are "illegal" and saying that there is no recourse for affected employees. (Ask me how I know...) The crisis of democracy is, among many things, a crisis of labor.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
People "on here" love citing statutes when the Supreme Court ruled *SIX MONTHS AGO* that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts. The law ain't saving us bro.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
At least one federal building to which workers were ordered to return has not had potable running water for the last two years. (Ask me how I know.)
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Also, I should add: many of the 2 million people whose jobs are at risk live and work in DC, a city where tax-paying residents aren't given the privilege of democratic representation. There is a word we sometimes use to describe this relationship. . .
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Send love and support to anyone you know who is a federal worker. They really, really need it. (Ask me how I know...)
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Did I mention that it’s a really really good time for @brianhochman.bsky.social and I to be releasing a 50th anniversary edition of the Church Committee Report.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 12/10/2024
I cannot over emphasize how much fun it was work on this, but also how harrowing it was in our current context. In a time when so many politically-engaged college students feel surveilled, we hope this book can be a bit of catharsis. It’s not in your head and you’re not alone.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 12/10/2024
EVERYBODY RAISE YOUR DART GUNS: our edition of the Church Committee Report is on the way. Forthcoming Fall 2025. @mguariglia.bsky.social
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 30/08/2024
🚨 JOB 🚨 Assistant Prof. of Black Indigenous Studies -Georgetown BLST/AMST. 10/4 application deadline. Spread the word!
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
Psyched to announce that THE LISTENERS was awarded the Surveillance Studies Network 2023 Book Prize. Thank you @SurvStudiesNet @SurvSoc_Journal @Harvard_Press--all of whom should get on bsky! www.amazon.com/Listeners-Hi...
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 20/01/2024
Some news: the indefatigable @mguariglia.bsky.social and I are working on a new edition of the Church Committee Report for modern readers, with an afterword by Beverly Gage. Coming your way in October 2025!
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 20/01/2024
We're putting out a 50th anniversary single-volume version of the Church Committee Report on government surveillance, assassinations, and sabotage in the 20th century--and hopefully provide a much-needed (but unfulfilled) blueprint for a new era of transparency and accountability in the IC.
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Brian Hochman @brianhochman.bsky.social · 20/01/2024
Some news: the indefatigable @mguariglia.bsky.social and I are working on a new edition of the Church Committee Report for modern readers, with an afterword by Beverly Gage. Coming your way in October 2025!
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