What’s in Steve Jobs’ FBI Dossier?
While the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was considered a product and marketing genius, he was hardly perfect — and the recent release of his FBI file sheds light on some of the skeletons in his closet.
The files, released last Thursday under a Freedom of Information Act request, were compiled when Jobs was under consideration for a potential presidential appointment by George H.W. Bush, and during the investigation of a bomb threat against Apple.
Questioned by the FBI, people who knew Jobs questioned his honesty, with one saying, “Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.” Another claimed Jobs’ “reality distortion field” enabled him to convince people of the truth as he saw it.
An unidentified FBI interviewee also stated, “Mr. Jobs used illegal drugs, including marijuana and LSD, while … attending college.” His file also noted he was a big fan of Bob Dylan’s, and went on say both Jobs and Dylan dated folk musician Joan Baez at different points.
The FBI files were in part a moral character background check, and some of the people interviewed also talked about Jobs’ initial lack of support for his first daughter, Lisa, who’d been born in 1978 to a previous girlfriend out of wedlock. After denying paternity for years, he later acknowledged Lisa as his child — and even reportedly named the Apple Lisa computer (the predecessor of the Macintosh) after her.