Irving Alpert, writing for Vice News, writes that they FOIAd the recently-deceased publisher's "absolutely wild" FBI file.
To the FBI, he was a person of interest. His 322-page FBI file, obtained by VICE News through a Freedom of Information Act request, contains a wild litany of events involving the Hustler honcho—from John DeLorean's cocaine bust and an alleged plot to hire a mercenary to kill Hugh Hefner and Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, to an alleged effort by Flynt to blow himself up in the Supreme Court, as well as threats to Sandra Day O'Connor and President Ronald Reagan. His FBI file focuses mainly on his activities in the 1980s, when his behavior was at its most erratic, but also when many of his important First Amendment battles came to a head.
Flynt once described himself as a "smut peddler who cares," but he also said it was his goal to "offend every single person in this world at some point." Despite it all, he knew the law was on his side because, "If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, then it will protect all of you, because I'm the worst."
