A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday that the FBI must release the last 10 pages of its 300-page file on former Beatle John Lennon, ending a legal battle that stretched across two decades.
Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, began pursuing the documents under the Freedom of Information Act around 1982, roughly two years after Lennon was killed outside his New York apartment in December 1980. US District Judge Robert Takasugi's order was the culmination of a string of partial victories Wiener had won along the way.
Records already made public showed the Nixon administration had viewed Lennon, a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, as a political threat. A 1972 memo revealed that FBI officials, conceding their case against the musician was thin, wanted him arrested on drug charges at that year's Republican Convention in Miami if an opportunity arose.
The government also moved to deport the British-born musician that year, citing an earlier drug arrest in the United Kingdom. Lennon successfully appealed and remained in the United States for the rest of his life.
Wiener said the file demonstrates "the administration's abuse of power" and shows how much the Nixon White House feared Lennon's political reach.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.