Jackson Attorney: FBI Files Are 'Almost Vindication'

Lawyer: Jackson family 'shocked' by scope of FBI file on late Michael Jackson.

ByABC News via logo
December 22, 2009, 2:03 PM

Dec. 23, 2009— -- A lawyer for the Michael Jackson family said that the now public but heavily redacted FBI file on the late pop superstar shows that "there's not one scrap of evidence" that Michael Jackson ever harmed a child.

"In all these pages, hundreds of pages, many many hours of investigations ... there's not one scrap of evidence that Michael Jackson ever ... did anything wrong, committed any crime," said Brian Oxman, who represented several members of the Jackson family. "It's almost a vindication, when you look at this. The FBI looked at all of these matters and said, 'There's nothing here.'"

Oxman said the sheer scope of the documents -- 333 pages out of the 673-page file were made public -- came as a shock to the Jackson family.

"I spoke to Joe Jackson last night. He said that this FBI file was something he never heard of," Oxman said. "We're surprised and shocked by what we found."

Click here to read the FBI file from 2004 child molestation case.

Oxman said he knew the file existed but "had no idea" the FBI had investigated Jackson's home computers in search of child pornography as the documents state.

According to one of the FBI agents involved in the Jackson investigation, the bureau was brought in at the request of local police.

"We have the international and interstate capabilities that local law enforcement and local DAs don't have," agent James Clemente told "Good Morning America."

One major revelation in the more than 300 pages of government documents was that the FBI had assisted Santa Barbara, Calif., officials in their attempt to get cooperation from a person who could have been a key witness in the 2005 child molestation case against Michael Jackson: the boy who accused the pop star of molesting him in 1993.

No criminal charges were ever filed in the 1993 case. Instead, the then 12-year-old boy refused to cooperate with officials and accepted a multi-million dollar settlement from Jackson.

The documents released Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI and Santa Barbara officials met in 2004 with Jackson's 1993 accuser but were unsuccessful in getting his cooperation.

Jackson was acquitted of all charges in the 2005 case, which went to trial.