The John Lennon FBI files

The same day that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote to H. R. Haldeman, assistant to Nixon in the White House, he also wrote to the Acting Attorney General conveying the same information. This correspondence indicates the high priority the Lennon case had in the Nixon administration. This release of information contains one sentence previously withheld: "Lennon has taken an interest in 'extreme left-wing activites' in Britain' and is known to be a sympathizer of Trotyskist communists in England." This is a reference to Lennon's ties to London New Left activists and writers Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn, who published a well-known interview with Lennon in the "Red Mole" in 1970. The FBI has claimed since 1981 that release of this sentence could endanger the National Security of the US.