Malcolm X’s daughters are suing the CIA, FBI and NYPD over the civil rights leader’s assassination

NEW YORK – Three daughters of Malcolm the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.

In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the daughters — along with the Malcolm

At a morning news conference, attorney Ben Crump stood with family members as he described the lawsuit, saying he hoped federal and municipal officials would read it “and learn of all the dastardly acts committed by their predecessors and seek to right these historic wrongs.” to make. ”

The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the Justice Department, which was also charged, declined comment. The FBI said in an email that it was its “standard practice” not to comment on legal proceedings.

For decades more questions than answers Debates have arisen over who was responsible for the death of Malcolm Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X later changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Three men were convicted of crimes in death, however two of them were acquitted in 2021 after investigators revisited the case and concluded that some evidence was shaky and that authorities had withheld some information.

In the lawsuit, the family said the prosecution team suppressed the government’s role in the killing.

The lawsuit alleges that there was a “corrupt, unlawful and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement officers and “ruthless murderers who went unchecked for years and were actively hidden, tolerated, protected and facilitated by government agents” leading up to the murder. by Malcolm X.

According to the lawsuit, the NYPD, working with federal law enforcement agencies, arrested the activist’s security detail several days before the assassination and deliberately removed their officers from the ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated. Meanwhile, it adds, federal agencies had personnel, including undercover agents, in the ballroom but failed to protect him.

The lawsuit was not filed earlier because the defendants withheld information from the family, including the identities of undercover “informants, agents and provocateurs” and what they knew about the planning leading up to the attack.

Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, the plaintiffs, “and their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown for decades,” the lawsuit said.

“They did not know who killed Malcolm stopped the cover-up,” it says. . “The damage inflicted on the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense and irreparable.”

The family announced her intention early last year to sue law enforcement agencies.