[CIA station chief Richard] Welch's assassination was huge news and struck a painful political nerve in Washington, coming at the end of a year of stunning disclosures about the CIA and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community by the Senate's Church Committee ... throughout 1975. The Church Committee's unprecedented investigation marked the first effort by Congress to unearth decades of abusive and illegal acts secretly committed by the CIA. [The Church Committee] is responsible for bringing the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the rest of the government's intelligence apparatus under the rule of law. The White House and CIA quickly realized that the Welch killing, which occurred just as the Church Committee was finishing its investigations and preparing its final report ... could be used as a political weapon. President Gerald Ford's White House and the agency falsely sought to blame the Church Committee for Welch's murder, claiming, without any evidence, that its investigations had somehow exposed Welch's identity and left him vulnerable to assassination. There was absolutely no truth to the claims. Welch had been murdered by Greek terrorists. The false narrative that Welch had been murdered because of reckless disclosures in Washington remained powerful for years afterward, ultimately leading to legislation that made it illegal to publish the names of covert CIA officers, a law that has since often been abused by the government to crack down on whistleblowers and dissent.