Civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced a $100 million lawsuit against multiple governments and law enforcement agencies. Alleged conspiracy leading to the murder of civil rights activist and religious leader Malcolm X in 1965.

On Friday morning, Malcolm X and Dr. Crump was accompanied by Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters, as he announced the news on behalf of the family at the Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center. Crump had previously announced his intention to sue.

“It is not lost on us that justice has been delayed in this matter, and we are ready to voice our grievance very firmly in this important case,” Crump said. “The government’s fingerprints are all over the assassination of Malcolm X. And finally, we believe we have the evidence to prove it.”

The lawsuit accuses the U.S. government, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and New York Police Department of involvement in the events that led to Malcolm X’s assassination and decades-long cover-up. These allegations include allegations of excessive use of force against Malcolm X, intentional endangerment, failure to provide protection, denial of access to the courts for Malcolm

Malcolm His wife and children were also in the crowd.

The announcement came after Crump said new evidence had emerged in recent years.

“We’ve been uncovering new evidence every day, every week, every month for the last three years,” Crump said. “It’s proof that people have never talked before about the things they witnessed during the turbulent times of the 1960s.”

Two of the three men initially convicted of the assassination were exonerated in 2021: Mohammed Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, who was imprisoned for more than two decades, both maintained their innocence. An investigation revealed that the FBI and New York Police Department withheld potentially exculpatory evidence from the trial. The city and state of New York later filed suit on behalf of both men for a total of $36 million.

Also that year, relatives of former New York police officer Raymond Wood, who has since died, He revealed the letter he wrote In 2011, it was alleged that the New York Police Department and the FBI concealed details of the assassination. Wood wrote that Malcolm X was forced to persuade members of his security team to commit crimes so they could be arrested days before the assassination.

“It was my duty to draw two men into a serious federal crime so that they could be arrested by the FBI and kept from managing Malcolm X’s door security on February 21, 1965,” Wood wrote. “I didn’t realize at the time that the target was Malcolm X.”

The lawsuit alleges that government agencies had knowledge of credible threats to Malcolm X’s life and failed to take action to prevent the assassination, according to a news release. The lawsuit alleges that the FBI coordinated with confidential informants within the Nation of Islam, from which Malcolm X had left before the assassination.

It accuses the organizations of removing security personnel from the ballroom, encouraging the assassination and failing to intervene, then taking steps after the assassination to conceal their involvement.

“(T)hese entities, under the direction of then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, actively conspired to diminish Malcolm X’s protection beyond their allegedly illegal surveillance, leaving him vulnerable to an attack they knew was imminent. ” he said in the statement.

Credit: N’dea Yancey-Bragg, Marc Ramirez and Grace Hauck, USA TODAY

This article first appeared on USA TODAY: Accused of government conspiracy in Malcolm X assassination case