Fact-based journalism is worth fighting for.
Donate
Newly released FBI records reveal that activist Richard Masato Aoki, celebrated as a radical hero in the San Francisco Bay Area, covertly filed more than 500 reports with the bureau between 1961 and 1971 on a variety of activists and political groups.
A Freedom of Information Act request spurred the release of the prominent radical activist’s FBI informant file.
Released under court order, a 221-page file shows Richard Aoki’s long career as a radical activist and an FBI source of “extreme value.”
For a decade, Richard Aoki filed covert reports on a range of political groups, according to the FBI agent who recruited him. At the same time, he was providing the Panthers with weapons.