At Johnson's behest, Katzenbach had unleashed Hoover to uncover politically compromising information about King.
"Yes or no: Do you have compromising information on our President?" June 5, 2017.
Many feared what the Director might have found – whether he had compromising information on them or not.
For months, lurid theories have circulated about what compromising information Russia's spy agencies may have on Trump.
Boss would use compromising information to pressurise individuals to be less opposed to the apartheid regime, according to Mr Kleinschmidt.
U.S. law-enforcement investigators and congressional staffers have probed claims that Russian government officials possess compromising information about President Trump, which might be used to blackmail him.
When Senator Huey Long was poised to challenge F.D.R. for the White House, federal tax agents appeared in Louisiana, ransacking files for compromising information.
A classified 2008 US diplomatic cable said Inoyatov had "sufficient compromising information on Mirziyoyev to ensure his own interests are protected".
Another proposed authorizing the National Security Agency to hack into the e-mail accounts of Russian officials in order to release embarrassing, possibly compromising, information.
But the recent use of private investigators to search for compromising information turns a tough but acceptable practice into a dangerous trend.
According to Alexander Baranov, head of the information security department at the higher school of economics in Moscow, the hackers were most likely amateurs who published a "semi-finished product" rather than truly compromising information.
