Dan Smoot
FBI agent from 1942 to 1951 who became the voice of H.L. Hunt's Facts Forum and then an independent broadcaster, and whose resignation, described to the public as voluntary, followed censure, probation, and transfer.
Dan Smoot was the broadcasting name of Howard D. Smoot, a special agent of the FBI from March 23, 1942, to June 15, 1951, and afterward the commentator of Facts Forum, the radio and television foundation of H.L. Hunt, and the publisher of The Dan Smoot Report.1
Facts Forum
The masthead of Facts Forum News for June 1955 lists Smoot as commentator and Medford Evans as editor. On July 11, 1955, the former bureau officials Stanley Tracy and D.M. Ladd passed word to headquarters that Hunt "is withdrawing his support of Facts Forum," that he "was despondent over the recent death of his wife and that there was considerable dissension among the office staff," and that "former Special Agent Daniel Smoot is planning to leave the Facts Forum set up as of August 1, 1955." Smoot started his own newsletter and broadcast. A bureau memorandum of February 26, 1964, listed him with Robert E. Lee of the Federal Communications Commission and Milton Eugene Scudder as "former Agents associated with H.L. Hunt's right-wing groups."23
The Bureau's Two Accounts
Through the 1960s members of the public wrote to the FBI about Smoot, most of them after hearing his commentary on the John Birch Society. The form reply stated that he had "voluntarily submitted his resignation" for personal reasons, that he had had no access to bureau files since, and that his views "do not represent this Bureau in any manner." An internal note in the same file reads: "Howard D. Smoot, former SA, resigned following censure, probation and transfer due to several unfounded charges made by him against his SAC."1
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, headquarters file on Howard D. (Dan) Smoot, released under the Freedom of Information Act. https://archive.org/details/foia_Dan_Smoot_Report-HQ-3 ↩
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, headquarters file 62-94811, "Facts Forum," memorandum of July 11, 1955, and enclosed Facts Forum News, vol. IV, no. 6, June 1955. https://archive.org/details/FactsForumHQ6294811 ↩
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, headquarters file on H.L. Hunt, part 2, memorandum to C.D. DeLoach, February 26, 1964. ↩
Local network
Dan Smoot's direct connections (the most-mentioned 250 on the densest entries). Click any node to navigate, drag to pan, scroll (or pinch) to zoom. + 2‑hop expands the neighborhood one level further.
An interactive diagram of Dan Smoot's connections, drawn on a canvas and explored with a pointer. The same connections are listed as links in the Connected and Mentioned-in sections below.
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