The Monkees may not seem like a very subversive band, but in 2011 it was revealed the FBI had a file on the 1960s pop legends that included an informant’s observations about a concert, suggesting the group was delivering left-wing political subliminal messages to the audience.
Rolling Stone reports the band’s last surviving member, Micky Dolenz, has filed a lawsuit against the FBI seeking to gain access to the group’s full file via a request with regard to the Freedom of Information Act.
Rolling Stone has secured a copy of the lawsuit, which states that it’s “designed to obtain any records the FBI created and/or possesses on the Monkees as well as its individual members.”
The suit adds, “Mr. Dolenz has exhausted all necessary required administrative remedies with respect to his [Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act] request.”
The legal action was filed on Micky’s behalf by lawyer Mark S. Zaid, an expert in Freedom of Information Act litigation and a Monkees fan.
When he met Dolenz recently, Zaid suggested to the singer it might be interesting to see if The Monkees had an FBI file, not knowing about the seven-page partially redacted document that was released in 2011.
“That just kind of reinforced for me that there was actually something here,” he tells Rolling Stone. “It’s not just a fishing expedition. I mean, we’re still fishing, but we know there’s fish in the water.”
The original document included an informant’s comments about a 1967 concert. The informant claimed “subliminal messages were depicted on the screen which, in the opinion of [name redacted], constituted ‘left wing intervention of a political nature.'”
Zaid says a judge should be assigned to the case in a few days and the process will then move forward.
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