FBI releases more Lennon records in long-running suit

CALIFORNIA–The FBI has released 80 more pages of formerly censored information in files on former Beatle John Lennon and has agreed to pay more than $200,000 in legal fees to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which has been litigating for them since the early 1980s on behalf of University of Southern California-Irvine professor Jon Wiener, author of Come Together: John Lennon in His Time.

The ACLU said in a news release that the new documents include formerly “secret” or “confidential” records showing that information on the agency’s unsuccessful efforts to arrest Lennon on drug charges and deport him was being furnished to H.R. Haldeman, assistant to President Nixon.

Wiener, who had requested the records while compiling the book he published in 1992, issued a statement saying that the new files “contain large quantities of trivial information.” He noted one report concerned a parrot that injected ‘right on’ when conversations got heated. Wiener said that he still intends to challenge the FBI’s claim that ten documents still contain national security information.

“That’s a ridiculous claim to make about 25-year-old reports on the anti-war activities of a dead rock star,” he said. (Wiener v. FBI; Attorney: Mark Rosenbaum, Los Angeles)