Aretha Franklin’s FBI file has been unsealed
Four years ago, after Aretha Franklin passed away at 76, reporter Jen Dize submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to unseal the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s file on the late soul queen. The contents of the 270-page file were finally published late morning in a report by Dize on her investigative journalism substack, Courage News. (Dize had posted what she felt were the most relevant documents hours earlier in a Twitter thread.) They detail a complicated relationship between the Bureau and the legendary singer that found them acting as her harasser, protector, and legal advocate at different points in her life.