By Steve Neavling
The daughter of Malcolm X plans to sue the FBI, CIA and NYPD, alleging they conspired to assassinate the civil rights leader.
Ilyasah Shabazz is seeking $100 million in damages, Reuters reports.
At a news conference at the site of her father’s 1965 assassination in New York, Shabazz claimed law enforcement fraudulently concealed evidence that they “conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate Malcolm X.”
“For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder,” Shabazz said at the Audubon Ballroom.
When Shabazz was 2 years old, three gunmen shot her father onstage while she and her mother and sisters were present.
In 2021, the family of Malcolm X uncovered a letter that they say proves the FBI and NYPD conspired to assassinate the civil rights leader. In the 2011 letter, Raymond A. Wood, a now-dead NYPD officer who was on duty when Malcolm X was killed, wrote that his supervisors compelled him to coax two members of Malcolm X’s security team into committing crimes that led to their arrests just days before the shooting. As a result, the members of the security team were unable to provide security on the day Malcolm X was killed. He says the arrest was part of a coordinated attempt between NYPD and the FBI to have Malcolm X killed, according to the letter.
“Under the direction of my handlers, I was told to encourage leaders and members of the civil rights groups to commit felonious acts,” Wood’s letter stated.
Woods said the NYPD hired him to infiltrate civil rights groups “to find evidence of criminal activity so the F.B.I. could discredit and arrest its leader.”
In November 2021, a federal prosecutor said FBI informants witnessed Malcolm X’s assassination and were told not to reveal their work with the bureau when talking with police and prosecutors.
As a result, a judge dismissed the convictions of two men who were imprisoned for Malcolm X’s murder.
At the news conference, Shabazz’s attorney, Ben Crump, said he plans to depose government officials.
“It’s not just about the trigger men, it’s about those who conspired with the trigger men to do this dastardly deed,” Crump said.
