Police concerns that media-hungry terrorists would attack Michael Jackson's trial as a "soft target" led to a request for federal help, according to FBI files kept on the late pop star.
The documents also show that the FBI helped facilitate interviews in the Philippines by California authorities investigating Jackson over allegations that he had sexually abused boys.
The FBI monitored Jackson for more than a decade, but the files contain no major revelations about his private life and the bureau apparently 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" the trial would attract.
The FBI concluded there were no threats, but did note the presence in an early court appearance of "The Nation of Islam, represented by its security unit Fruits of Islam," and of a New Black Panther Party member whose name was left blank in the files. Jackson used Nation of Islam bodyguards during the legal proceedings.
Back in September 1993, an investigator from the Los Angeles Police Department and another from the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office arrived in Manila to speak to two former employees of Jackson's Neverland ranch who claimed they saw the singer fondle young boys.
Their trip came after the LAPD had asked the FBI if it wanted to work a possible case against Jackson for transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes. The FBI checked with the U.S. Attorney's Office, which declined.
The files say an FBI agent accompanied the California officials to the first interview to make sure there were no problems.
The documents, dating from 1992 to 2005, were made public Tuesday (Dec. 22) through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Associated Press and other media after Jackson's death June 25, at age 50. The FBI initially said it had about 600 pages in its files but released 333 pages, citing privacy rules and the desire to protect investigative techniques.
In March 2004, the Santa Barbara County district attorney's office reached out to the FBI, seeking help in developing a strategy to prosecute Jackson for molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor in the singer's home. Jackson was acquitted of all 14 counts against him in what was one of the most widely followed cases in history.
The FBI reviewed case notes from local authorities and examined 16 computers taken from Jackson's home. Nothing notable was described as being found on the hard drives, though parts of the files are redacted.
Tom Mesereau, who was Jackson's lead defense attorney during his trial, said the FBI documents provide further proof the singer did nothing wrong.
"He was not a criminal and he was not a pedophile," Mesereau said. "The fact that so many agencies investigated him and couldn't find anything proves he was completely innocent."
A message left for Ken Sunshine, spokesman for the Jackson family, was not immediately returned.
The Santa Barbara case was the most recent time the FBI was asked to investigate Jackson but records show the agency had been looking at his alleged involvement with younger boys for more than a decade.
In September 1993, an FBI agent in London told colleagues in Los Angeles that the British press was reporting that a man was making allegations he had held a sexually charged phone call with Jackson in 1979, when the man was 13 and Jackson was 20. Aside from asking the information be passed on to local authorities in Los Angeles, the FBI agent in London noted that no further action was being taken.
In October 1995, the U.S. Customs Service asked the FBI to review a VHS videotape labeled "Michael Jackson's Neverland Favorites An All Boy Anthology" as part of a child pornography investigation. The recording was of such poor quality that investigators appear to have been unable to determine what was on it.
The files include death threats against Jackson, then-President George H.W. Bush and mob boss John Gotti that led to the 1993 sentencing of Frank Paul Jones, who allegedly was obsessed with Janet Jackson, Michael's sister.
The FBI includes an interview with an unidentified "victim," whose name is redacted but presumably Michael Jackson, who states that he was aware of the threats and took them seriously.
According to a 1992 Associated Press story, Jones was arrested June 22 and held on $15,000 bail for investigation of trespassing in the driveway of the Jackson family compound in Encino, Calif. The following year, he was sentenced to two years in prison for "mailing a threatening communication," according to a 1993 press report included in the FBI files.
(c) 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Uglybass on August 25th, 2018 at 17:33 UTC »
Listening to MJs music, you could tell when the accusations and music industry BS started to catch up to him. After the Dangerous album, he started putting out songs like "They dont really care about us" and "This time around". Much darker songs than MJ ever put out in the past.
foreverwasted on August 25th, 2018 at 16:16 UTC »
He was very close and affectionate with children because he didn't have the childhood he wanted. He was under a lot of pressure from his dad. He was obsessed with children, but in the nicest way possible. Bill Burr was right. Pedophilia is so common a topic of discussion in the USA that whenever we ever see an adult around a child that's not theirs, people's minds go straight to pedophilia.
Catch-up on August 25th, 2018 at 15:26 UTC »
Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons. — Michael Jackson.
TL;DR: The FBI conducted several investigations on or involving Michael Jackson from the early 1990's until his passing in 2009, with the last 10 years of his life receiving an ongoing investigation which turned up nothing which would suggest he was guilty of the crimes he was accused of.
More than 70 police officers stripped his Neverland Ranch property, his other places of residence were searched, dozens of computers were seized and examined, and there was nothing to suggest he had a sexual interest in children. The only porn ever found which belonged to Michael Jackson was adult, heterosexual, porn. Nothing illegal was ever found in his home. A fake police report was released by gossip website Radar Online in 2016 which the Sheriff's Department stated was ‘falsified, with images that were never part of the original documents,' claiming those images 'appeared to have been taken from internet sources.' There were contents on the report which didn't even exist in 2005.
...
Corey Feldman also vouches for Michael Jackson’s innocence. ‘He is not that guy,’ Feldman maintains. ‘I know the difference between pedophiles and someone who is not a pedophile because I’ve been molested.’
Close friend Macauley Culkin also stands by Jackson. ‘Nothing happened. I don't think you understand,’ Culkin said, ‘Michael Jacksons bedroom is two stories.’.
1993, when allegations were first put against Michael Jackson, the father who accused him was recorded ON TAPE plotting against Jackson (listen to it here):
On July 2, 1993, in a private telephone conversation, Chandler was tape-recorded as saying,
In the same conversation, when asked how this would affect his son, Chandler replied,
This was said BEFORE Evan Chandler told others that his son had informed him about Michael Jackson. Also bear in mind, Chandler, a dentist, had his son SEDATED with Sodium Amytal, a drug which affects a person's memories and makes them susceptible to suggestion when he got the confession out.
After 2005, Jackson's defence attorney explains it best here where he outlines that the family which accused him of abusing 13 year old Gavin Arviso had targeted other celebrities asking for money, including Jay Leno and Chris Tucker. Defence attorney Thomas Mesereau would also describe the prosecution's tactics as essentially throwing everything at Jackson hoping something would stick.
Take the time. Do the research from verifiable and reputable sources of information. I have literally spent years researching Michael Jackson’s life, art, and allegations and I can honestly say that if you peel back the layers of his accusations you will see that his innocence has always been there.