The files released by the FBI today relating to Michael Jackson don't appear to contain too much new information, but they do reveal the extent to which the feds helped Santa Barbara prosecutors go after him for child molestation.

The FBI released seven separate files totaling more than 300 pages: A 1992 investigation into Frank Paul Jones, a stalker who was convicted of sending threatening letters to Jackson; a 1997 file containing the results of an analysis of a videotape of uncertain origin—and apparently containing child pornography—labeled "Michael Jackson's Neverland Favorites: An All Boy Anthology"; a 1993 file detailing FBI aid to Los Angeles Police Department investigators looking into child molestation charges, and three 2004 files on the bureau's aid to Santa Barbara prosecutors trying Jackson for similar charges. Here are the interesting parts.


The tidbit that seems to be getting the most attention involves a 2004 trip by Los Angeles-based agents to New York to try to convince Jordan Chandler, the man who in 1993, as a 13-year-old, accused Jackson of molesting him, to testify in a federal case against Jackson. Chandler's family settled a $15 million civil case against Jackson in 1994, and told the agents that he wouldn't testify.

The most disturbing item in the files, contained in a 1993 investigation, reports the concerns of a Canadian couple who happened to ride on a train with Jackson 1992. They had a compartment next to his, and reported to the FBI that Jackson was traveling with a 12- or 13-year-old boy he described as his "cousin." "Jackson was very possessive of boy at night," the couple, who worked in child services, told the bureau according to handwritten notes. They "heard questionable noises through [the] wall" and the wife was "concerned enough to tell the conductor of her suspicions."

According to another 1993 memo, a writer working on a book about Jackson's history with little boys was looking into charges that he was investigated by the FBI on similar charges in 1985 or 1986. That the inquiry was allegedly quashed because Jackson was about to receive a White House honor.

When Los Angeles prosecutors suggested to the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1993 that Jackson could be prosecuted for transporting children across state lines for immoral purposes, the feds declined, saying "the United States Attorney was not interested in prosecuting Michael Jackson."

Cryptically, the file also contains a suggestion that Jackson may have been involved in illegal wiretapping—the only other reference to the charge in the file is a copy of a portion of the Telecommunications Act of 1984.

Here are the notes of an agent investigating Jackson in 1993 and writing "male chimp" over and over.

Here's a description of the "Neverland Favorites" videotape. The U.S. Customs Service requested the analysis, which would seem to indicate that it was picked up from someone entering the country, and that agents suspected that it actually was filmed at Neverland. The analysis found that it was a copy, which means there are, or were, others circulating.

According to this forensic analysis of Jackson's computers conducted by the FBI in 2004, he was a Mac.