In February 1972, Republican Senator Strom Thurmond—or, as Lennon once called him, “Senator Thurmbold, or somebody…”—wrote to Attorney General John N. Mitchell, falsely alleging that Lennon was planning to disrupt the Republican National Convention scheduled for August that year. Thurmond’s allegations made it into an IEC report, available in the CIA archives. Mitchell’s office passed the letter to Commissioner Raymond Farrell of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Shortly thereafter, Lennon’s visa was revoked and the INS initiated deportation proceedings.
