FBI Jackson files reveal 10-year probe into star
'King of Pop' Michael Jackson was monitored by the FBI for more than a decade.
Wednesday December 23 2009
Police concerns about a terrorist attack stemming from the 2003 arrest of Michael Jackson led to a request for federal help, according to FBI files.
The documents also show the FBI helped facilitate interviews in the Philippines by California authorities investigating Jackson for the sexual abuse of boys.
The FBI monitored Jackson for more than a decade, but the files contain no major revelations about his private life and the bureau never developed any solid evidence against him.
In 2004, the Santa Maria Police Department in California asked for FBI "involvement" after Jackson was arrested for child molestation.
Police, according to the FBI, said they believed the court case would be a "soft target" for terrorism because of the "worldwide media coverage" that the trial would attract.
The FBI concluded there were no threats.
The documents, dating from 1992 to 2005, were released yesterday through a Freedom of Information Act request after Jackson's death on June 25, at the age of 50.
The FBI files include death threats that were made against singer Jackson, then-President George HW Bush and mob boss John Gotti and that led to the 1993 sentencing of Frank Paul Jones.
- Hillel Italie in new York
Irish Independent
