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Steve Jobs Files Released By The FBI

Hannah Madans |
February 9, 2012 | 8:10 p.m. PST

Executive Producer

courtesy Creative Commons
courtesy Creative Commons
Files released by the FBI show that some of Steve Jobs’ close confidants and associates did not have a favorable opinion of him.

The FBI has made a 191-page document about Jobs public. The file was created when Jobs was under consideration for a White House appointment under George H.W. Bush, reports the Washington Post.

Jobs was being considered for the President’s Export Council. He later was appointed and served May 1990 until the end of Bush’s term.

In the FBI documents, some witnesses told the FBI of Jobs’ drug use. One man said that Jobs used marijuana and LSD during college.

Some people also told the FBI that Jobs would “twist the truth and distort reality” to achieve goals. Others called him a “deceptive individual who is not completely forthright and honest.”

While there were some criticisms of Jobs as lacking a personal life due to shallowness, of former drug use and of not always being forthright about his methods of getting jobs done, most people said Jobs had clear visions and would be able to help any company or the government achieve its goals.

The documents also contained some humorous anecdotes such as that Jobs has no close relatives in communist countries, he had a high school GPA of 2.65 and understood Japanese culture as well as having a “great deal of contact in dealing with companies in the Orient.”

The FBI report also found that Jobs was the victim of an extortion attempt, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. In 1985 there was a bomb threat against Jobs. An unidentified man made multiple calls and alleged that he placed devices in homes of certain people and one million dollars needed to be paid.

The extortionist left a number for the victims to call that was traced back to the man behind the threat.

At the end of the document, Jobs was granted Top Secret security clearance by the Defense Investigative Service.

FBI records can be made public after a person’s death. Jobs’ files were released following a Freedom of Information Act request by multiple parties.

To read the document, click here.

 

Reach executive producer Hannah Madans here.



 

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