The following day, Gallagher called a press conference at his Washington office to denounce the charges:

This is a political indictment aimed specifically at discrediting me at a time congressional redistricting is the major issue in New Jersey. It is also directly related to the terrible smears published in Life magazine, which have been totally disproved. I have retained Edward Bennett Williams as my counsel, and I believe that I will be vindicated....

What makes this case different is that this is a political matter.. .

I intend to speak out on the floor of the House in the very near future and disclose the operations of a monolith which operates totally free of any constitutional or congressional restraint. What was done to me was done by the total corruption at the highest levels of the American secret police. I was selected as a "target" because I opposed those illegal and corrupt methods. A target is a man who opposes unrestricted power, and the monolith then sets out to invent a crime to smear the target and to punish him for his opposition.

I am informed that over $11 million in taxpayer dollars have been spent to destroy me. I have undergone the most relentless investigation in modem political history for nearly four years, ever since leaked federal raw investigative files were handed to Life. Any citizen-officeholder, local policeman, anyone-who disagrees with our new caesars will be the victim of this terrible repression. I have spoken out against it for nine years, and for four years my family and friends have been subjected to a terror equal only to the oppression in Nazi Germany. In the days to come, I shall speak out on this-I will name names.

I expect to be reelected, but, perhaps more important, I will lay out for the first time on the public record the full story of the new surveillance subculture and those who would pervert democracy in the lust for uncontrolled power.

Gallagher's district disappeared in the congressional redistricting, and he lost the Democratic primary to his Jersey City colleague, Dominick Daniels. On December 21, with only ten days left in his congressional career, he walked into Trenton's federal courthouse and pleaded guilty to evading $74,000 in 1966 income taxes.

The other counts were not dropped, though Stern indicated they would be at the time of sentence.

"Furthermore," Stern told Judge Barlow, "the defendant Gallagher, through his attorney, has asked, and we have acceded to his request, that he be given a period of approximately five months between now and the time of sentencing to come into the offices of the United States attorney and make known such information as he has which can be of assistance to the agents of law enforcement. We have represented to him that if he does that, we will make known to the sentencing court whatever help he is to the United States, if during that period he chooses to be.. ."

"Is that so, Mr. McNelis?" Judge Barlow asked Gallagher's attorney.

"That is so, Your Honor," Charles McNelis replied. "I would adopt the statements made by Mr. Stern. They are precisely the arrangements we have discussed. They are my understanding."

"Is that so, Mr. Gallagher?" "Yes, sir," the congressman said.

But, back in Washington the next day, Gallagher had a different tale to tell. He issued a statement:

Contrary to the latest public-relations releases out of Newark, I have made no arrangement whatsoever to give Mr. Stem or the FBI or any other group or agency any information, real or fictional, on any person at any time or in any place.

I have checked with my attorneys, and they have advised me they have made no such arrangements.

Mr. Stern advises them he would be interested if I wished to cooperate and assist them in the quest for information and that he would make such cooperation known at the time of sentencing.

I neither agreed to this nor have I discussed it with my attorneys. To say anything else is a lie. To portray me as a cringing animal about to bargain my future at someone else's expense or happiness is a lie. To insinuate that I will add to the growth of a secret police is a lie. To give the idea that I shall participate in spreading the reign of terror or investigative insanity and inflicting it on innocent people or anyone else is a lie.

The indictments timed prior to the redistricting decision, which wiped out my district, ruined me politically. The various harassments, investigations and intimidations with the late and unlamented J. Edgar Hoover and Life magazine over the years have ruined me financially.

I do not, however, feel that "big brother" and the public-relations apparatus in Newark should be entitled to my soul. My whole life has been lived as a man in war and peace, and I will continue to live in that manner for the rest of my life.

I am neither a Judas nor an informer, nor shall I become one to save my own skin at someone else's expense....

True to his vow, Gallagher never showed up to provide any evidence against others.