Editing Weather Underground (section)

===Withdrawal of charges===
In 1973, the government requested dropping charges against most of the WUO members. The requests cited a recent decision by the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] that barred electronic surveillance without a court order. This Supreme Court decision would hamper any prosecution of the WUO cases. In addition, the government did not want to reveal foreign intelligence secrets that a trial would require.<ref>{{cite book |title = The Weather Underground. |year= 1975|publisher= US Government Printing Office |location= Washington DC |pages= 40, 47, 65, 111–112 |url= https://archive.org/details/statedepartmentb00unit |access-date=December 20, 2009}}</ref> Bernardine Dohrn was removed from the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List on 7 December 1973.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dohrn |first1=Bernardine |title=FBI "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" Program Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/ten-most-wanted-fugitives-faq/ |website=Wayback Machine |access-date=21 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013164420/https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/ten-most-wanted-fugitives-faq/ |archive-date=October 13, 2015 }}</ref> As with the earlier federal grand juries that subpoenaed Leslie Bacon and [[Stew Albert]] in the U.S. Capitol bombing case, these investigations were known as "fishing expeditions", with the evidence gathered through [[Black bag operation|"black bag"]] jobs including illegal mail openings that involved the FBI and [[United States Postal Service]], burglaries by FBI field offices, and electronic surveillance by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] against the support network, friends, and family members of the Weather Underground as part of Nixon's [[COINTELPRO]] apparatus.<ref>{{cite book |title=U.S. Select Committee on Intelligence, Report on Illegal Domestic Intelligence Gathering Activities (1974) ["Church Committee"]}}</ref>

These grand juries caused Sylvia Jane Brown, Robert Gelbhard, and future members of the [[Seattle Weather Collective]] to be subpoenaed in Seattle and Portland for the investigation of one of the first (and last) captured WUO members. Four months afterwards the cases were dismissed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=In the Matter of Sylvia Jane Brown, a Witness Before The United States Grand Jury, Appellant, v. United States of America, Appellee, 465 F.2d 371 (9th Cir. 1972)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/465/371/290087/|website=Justia Law}}</ref><ref>Gelbard vs. United States, 408 U.S. 41, 92 S.Ct. 2357 (1972), reversing [https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/108596/gelbard-v-united-states/ United States vs. Gelbard, 443 F.2d 837 (1971)]</ref><ref>"New York Times.com/archives/1972/"Barnard Coed Subpoenaed to Seattle"</ref> The decisions in these cases led directly to the subsequent resignation of FBI Director, [[L. Patrick Gray]], and the federal indictments of W. [[Mark Felt]] or "Deep Throat" and Edwin Miller and which, earlier, was the factor leading to the removal of federal "most-wanted" status against members of the Weather Underground leadership in 1973.