Judicial Watch Obtains Never-Before-Released FBI Records Regarding Late Senator Ted Kennedy

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained 23 new pages of documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file of late Senator Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy, who died in August 2009. Judicial Watch obtained the records pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on June 9, 2010.

Among the new documents is a memo dated March 28, 1963, that details the FBI’s concern over an effort by Edward and Robert Kennedy to pressure the State Department to allow Katalin Karady, a Hungarian émigré living in Brazil — described as “consistently refused an immigrant visa because of the voluminous subversive and derogatory data on file concerning her” — to enter the United States:

Legat, Rio de Janeiro, has furnished data from State Department files, Sao Paulo, Brazil indicating that in August, 1961, Edward and Robert Kennedy, now U.S. Senator and Attorney General, respectively, were interested in [Katalin Karady’s] obtaining an immigrant visa to U.S. Subject is former Hungarian actress of unsavory reputation who has now obtained the immigrant visa…

…Subject, Hungarian-born, aged 48, is former well-known actress in Hungary. Numerous allegations have been received in the past indicating subject to have been a communist collaborator, lesbian, and prostitute. She has reportedly admitted being the fiancée of the head of Hungarian intelligence (Nazi) during World War II.

(FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover seems to have handwritten the note “I am speechless!” at the bottom of this memo.)

Another document, dated December 28, 1961, details Senator Kennedy’s attempts to meet with “Leftists” in Central and South America:

In July, 1961, Edward Kennedy made a familiarization and orientation tour of Central and South American countries. During this tour, the Mexico City Legal Attaché reported that Kennedy had expressed an interest in meeting with “Leftists” to talk with them and determine why they think as they do. Kennedy met with a number of individuals known to have communist sympathies. …Subsequently, a State Department official in Lima, Peru, confidentially advised that Kennedy had made a similar request in Peru, and this official described Kennedy as ‘pompous and a spoiled brat.’

In August, 1961, a confidential source advised that Edward Kennedy had recently dined with Dr. Lauchlin Bernard Currie, former White House Aide to President Roosevelt. Currie’s name had been mentioned in Washington investigations of Soviet spy rings.

Judicial Watch continues to fight for the release of an additional 48 pages of documents being withheld by the FBI. United States District Judge Richard Roberts will hold a scheduling conference October 6, 2010.

“These documents help complete the public record of one of the most controversial politicians in U.S. history,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is a shame the ‘transparent’ Obama administration continues to slow-walk the release of these documents.”