Tuesday, August 18, 2009

FBI's Michael Jackson File = 591 Pages

When I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for any records they may have in their archive on Michael Jackson, I expected the agency would reply saying they didn't locate any such records, or that there were only a handful on pages on the late entertainer. I was wrong. And there were no merchant service fee's attached to making my request!

A letter from the FBI yesterday informs me they've located close to 600 pages on him. As I've learned from years of filing these sort of FOIAs, it's going to be a while before anything is released, and, when pages are eventually provided to me, they could be quite mundane.

Here's the FBI letter on my Michael Jackson FOIA:

19 comments:

Bob said...

So, who cares?

Linda in California said...

Are you going to order copies? How much do you think was redacted on those pages anyway? I hope you get the fee waived. Gee, I had to pay seventy five cents a page at the Santa Maria courthouse so ten cents a page seems like a deal.

I wonder how many pages they have in other Jackson family member's files, especially Germaine's?

Good luck!!

Anonymous said...

Maybe you can get them to use both sides of the paper. That way it will only cost half as much. Might be special request though.

Anonymous said...

Michael Jackson was a genius, the greatest entertainer of all times and there are hundreds of millions of people all over the world who would be curious to read those files.

I wonder if it is possible to request the files on Rudolf Nureyev - one of the greatest gay celebrities of all time.

Anonymous said...

Michael Jackson is a very common name. It's hard to know how many of the 600 pages actually reference the famous one.

Unknown said...

Hello Michael,

I for one am extremely curious from a political standpoint to see what the FBI file has on MJ. If you do succeed in getting your hands on that file, do let us know what you find!

Bill Peschel said...

Gee, Bob, I don't know. Why do you think the FBI would need to keep track of Michael Jackson?

It's called watching the watchmen, Bob. All the cool democracies are doing it.

cookie said...

Wow, I would love to see this! Do please post it!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure most of it is from Pedophile/Child Porn investigations. Those are under Federal jurisdication. The man made great music, but we all know he was a perverted pedophile. Blame it on Liberace.

Anonymous said...

Our FBI at work! 600 pages..WTF! What was being investigated!? Micheal Jackson a "security risk" or a terrorist sympathizer? Give us a break!

Anonymous said...

It cleary says that they have 591 pages which are responsive to your request, that doesn't mean that they have only 591 pages on Mr. Jackson or that they are releasing all of them.

Most of the information gathered by the police or federal agencies are not for the public eye and will never be released under any circumstance.

By the way, Mr. Jackson is a potential target, well was, on the 'War on Terror'. Same as his brother Jarmaine Jackson, Mr. Cat Stevens (aka Yusuk Islam) and Mr. Muhammad Ali.

snobographer said...

I'm really curious how many of those pages are pre-1993 and what's in them.

Anonymous said...

Hoover and his blackmail files live... how else would the rightwing get away with raping America if they weren't blackmailing lefties? Did those agency moles Sibel Edmonds reported on ever get caught? Of course not. They were ALLOWED to leave the country just like the hijackers were ALLOWED to attack us on 9/11. WHO'S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?

Anonymous said...

This is interesting. Thanks for taking the time and care to do this and followup.

John Lennon's FBI file is said to be more voluminous than all the files on Nazi fugitives in the U.S. That is ridiculous.

I am not surprised that MJ has a big file. He might have had issues with taxes or stuff with kids. They were doing their job.

babie said...

A good point above: how do you know the files are of THAT MJ? What was in your request? Was it just the name or did you include birth date and place too? On the FBI website MJ's name is not on the list...

Anonymous said...

No request to the DEA?

Anonymous said...

Wow, please keep us updated!

May I ask how much this document cost you?

Deborah Ffrench said...

The question I hear no-one asking in the press or blogland in general is - 'why' was Michael Jackson taking drugs? What made a relatively fit man known for abstention from the early part of his career until the late 1990's - end his days in a made-to-measure trauma room?

To truly understand why, I believe we must look not only at Michael's death, but also at the peculiar and tremendous pressures he lived under from the beginning of his life to its end.

British journalist Charles Thomson’s clear analysis of the recently released FBI files which can be viewed at:

http://charlesthomsonjournalist.blogspot.com/2010/01/fbi-files-support-jacksons-innocence.html#comments

- finally and absolutely debunks the myth of Mr Jackson as a molester of children. His point by point breakdown of the files reveals not only the inability of both the FBI and the LAPD to provide any evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Mr Jackson in an investigation that spanned over fifteen years, but also the continuing inference by the media of exactly the opposite of this.

It is important to note there is a profound difference between the FBI stating that X and Y were alleged, and the FBI saying we investigated X and Y - and found X and Y to be proven.

Thomson's review of the files is thus required reading for any who wish to seperate the facts from the soundbites which have largely dominated the media reporting on them.

Because the truth is, after the most thorough investigation the American taxpayer's money could buy, one of the foremost intelligence gathering agencies in the world and the LAPD came up with precisely - nothing. Instead we were served a collage of cut-out articles from a UK tabloid, the whitterings of an unverifiable woman on a train, and two ex-employees who only came forward after the 1993 allegations broke and who - coincidentally, were also hawking a tell-all book to anyone who would listen.

Long before Dr Murray ever wrote his first feel-good prescription, a lie of epic proportions set in motion a cataclysmic series of events that would bring Michael to the state of profound depletion we saw in 2005. Evan Chandler - a known brutalist, and Janet Arviso, a proven welfare cheat and compensation-chaser manipulated the American Criminal system and a willing media to bury Michael under the worst label society has determined exists. No proof was required, the suggestion was enough. And the world watched on the edge of their seats, as the obvious perjury and coaching of the witnesses was overlooked in the stampede to crucify a man previously so celebrated.

And right now, Michael's mother who must be drawing on every bit of strength she has just to keep going, does so knowing that in just a few months she will have to endure the 'build-up' to Dr Murray’s impending trial which will replay her son’s dying moments in the media for months - whilst those same people who stood by and let this travesty happen, continue to deny her son’s value as a human being in print and TV 'specials' all over the States.

Where were the voices now wailing about 'wasted resources' and the 'rights' of taxpayers when Tom Sneddon authorized the use of millions of dollars of Federal money to pursue Mr Jackson in his deeply personal and blinkered 'takedown' of the, then -'biggest pop star on the planet?'

Michael Jackson didn’t bankrupt the City of Angels; they fell all by themselves. For a country that can shine so bright when it wants to:- what America did to Michael Jackson stands as one of the most shameful examples of engineered cruelty and unmitigated persecution to be witnessed in modern times.

Randy Hobbs said...

For a long time now I've been putting together what I should write about concerning Michael Jacksons death. From the get go it just didn't sound right. Deborah Ffrench said what needed to be said. I couldn't have explained it better. Thanks Deborah. RIP Michael there will never be another like you, we love you and miss you.